The University of Liège may not have a long past, but it does have a long history and profound roots.  This may be its best possible guarantee of success as it resolutely turns to the future. The University of Liège has all the assets necessary to become a leading European and even world university : a pluralistic vocation; an openness to today's political, social, technological and industrial realities and those of tomorrow; active involvement in international and European research programmes as well as those facilitating the mobility of  students and researchers; and a commitment to the development of student-centred learning.

International university

Located in the heart of Europe, where the Euregio-Meuse-rhine axes converge, one of the University of Liège's main priorities is to open itself to the world.  This determination is manifest in a series of concrete initiatives which have brought together more than six hundred partners in Europe and throughout the World.

History

The reputation of the medieval schools of Liège was such that the city became known as the New Athens. The list is impressive indeed : the College of the Brethern of the Common Life, the College of Jesuits, the Schools of Higher Learning founded by Prince-Bishop Velbruck, the English Academy, and the Imperial Academy (under Napoleon).  The founding of the University of Liège in 1817 by Wilhem the First of Orange was the culmination of a long intellectual tradition going back to the inception of the Principality of Liège. Read more on the history

The University of Liege is the only public, pluralist and complete university institution of the French Walloon-Brussels community. It is a part of the Wallonia-Europe University Academy. It aims at maintaining a fair balance between teaching, research and community service activities, in the broad lines recognised by its complete university status.

Teaching

Fully integrated in the Bologna process aiming at establishing a large harmonised zone of higher education in Europe, Ulg welcomes 20000 students spread out over nine Faculties, one Institute and one Management School. The University offers a very large range of courses: 38 degree courses, 200 masters courses (of which 33% are unique in French-speaking Belgium) and 68 complementary masters courses. Located at the crossroads of the German and Latin cultures, with a global outlook on international aspects, the University of Liege devotes a considerable part of its teaching to foreign language classes in order to ensure that its students are citizens who are truly active on a European level. As a public university, it considers itself to be vested with a social type of educative assignment. It encourages the integration of new types of teaching (problem-solving, supervised training sessions, role-plays, ...) and the acquisition of combined skills.

Research

As in all of the universities in Europe and throughout the world, the teaching at ULg is kept alive through research. This teaching-research complementarity is at the heart of the university project.  The ULg pays special attention to essential research, the basis of new knowledge. Although the Institution backs certain subjects and research orientations in particular, that it deems as priorities, it does not wish to be deprived of those that exist and that are inseparable from its status as a complete university.

• 530 research units in all subject areas
• 20 large-scale inter-disciplinary research centres
• 1,500 contractual researchers
• more than 1,200 regular research contracts, of which 65 FP6 projects (6th European Outline-Programme) in all thematic priorities. 

The ULg works actively in research projects with countries in all continents and continues a scientific and technical partnership in around sixty developing countries.

Global outlook on society

In parallel to these two orientations, the ULg also stands out through its very wide and very varied range of scientific and valuation society-oriented activities. Its public status naturally drives it towards this type of activity which, depending on the case, generates income, establishes its reputation, creates jobs, or is used as an application school for teaching or research.

These activities include the active policy of ULg as regards highlighting the importance of research, resulting in the creation of more than 80 spin-off companies and the implementation of tools and services accompanying the various valuation stages (intellectual property, management training, financing, partner research, ...).

Contact :

Université de Liège

Place du 20-Août, 7

4000 Liège

Belgium

Tél. central : +32 4 366 21 11