KU Leuven: 61,049 students enrolled at KU Leuven
Until Wednesday 12 October, students could register at KU Leuven. Now that registrations for this academic year have been closed, the university is taking stock. A total of 61,049 students registered, about 500 more than last year. It is striking that new students increasingly opt for one of the campuses outside Leuven, spread across Flanders and Brussels. Engineering courses are particularly popular.
61,049 students will be staying at KU Leuven this year, 9,436 of which are new bachelor students, an increase of 4.4% compared to last year. The increase in generation students (students who enroll for the first time for a higher degree) on campuses outside Leuven such as Brussels (+9.1%), Geel (+38%), Kortrijk (+6.6%) and Bruges (+38.8%).
KU Leuven may be inextricably linked to the city of Leuven, but our campuses all over Flanders prove their added value for our students. On our campuses, we consciously opt for a unique offer that differs from that of neighboring educational institutions and combines the excellence of KU Leuven with the advantages of proximity and a powerful educational concept. Each campus writes its own story that clearly appeals to many new students.
Rector Luc Sels
International character
For the Brussels campus, the English-taught bachelor’s programs are doing very well. “KU Leuven now has approximately 11,700 international students. The strong reputation of the university, combined with the charisma of Brussels, is convincing more and more young international students to opt for courses such as Business Administration or the Business Engineering course that we offer together with Université Saint-Louis. We know from educational economics research that a large proportion of international students who choose a bachelor’s degree at KU Leuven at a young age also start working on our labor market afterwards. That is a much-needed impulse now that the shortage is so palpable everywhere,” says Sels.
The new Bachelor of European Studies program is also very popular on the Leuven campus . This program is the first bachelor program within Una Europa, the European university alliance of which KU Leuven is a part. The training is organized in collaboration with Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the universities of Bologna, Helsinki and Edinburgh, Freie Universität Berlin, Jagiellonian in Kraków and Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. No fewer than 269 students have registered for this new programme.
“Young people want to broaden their horizons, join the debate on political and sociological issues about the world. As a university, it is our task to respond to this question and to encourage students to gain experience abroad. This naturally also includes welcoming international students at our own university.With 11,675 internationals (+6.6%) from all corners of the world – almost 60% from outside the EU – we clearly succeed in presenting ourselves as a first-choice university . influx of talent is crucial for the socio-economic development of our region,” says the rector.
More starters in engineering courses
The bachelor’s programs in Industrial Engineering (+7.1%), Commercial Engineering (+9.8%) and History (+13%) are popular with new students. This academic year, they are opting less often for Bachelor’s programs in Speech-Language and Audiological Sciences (-19%), Pharmaceutical Sciences (-22.4%) and Medicine (-5.4%) compared to last year.