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Strasbourg: Université Louis Pasteur
- Edited by Bart Funnekotter
- Douwe Breimer, David Bremmer, Frank Provoost, Hester van Santen, Christiaan Weijts
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- Book:
- Eureka!
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 23 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 07 June 2005, pp 150-160
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Summary
University of Strasbourg in facts and figures:
Founded in 1971
18,055 students
3,165 staff
Budget € 137.4 million
In the morning light, white laboratory coats flit back and forth in the Rue Blaise Pascal, moving between the Le Bel Institute and the chemistry faculty. Sometimes two coats stop to kiss a greeting. The tall faculty building may look rather like a giant gas lighter, but it has been a long time since any experiments took place inside. Security issues are partly to blame, although some people also claim that the building sways slightly in high winds, interfering with precision measurements. That an institute of technology could allow such a shortcoming to occur is a subject that students at Strasbourg's Université Louis Pasteur (ULP) never tire of discussing with each other. Whether there is any truth in the story is unimportant: it has already taken its place in the canon of urban legends connected with the sole French university in the League of European Research Universities.
In the Alsace region, it is not unusual for a building's name or function to change with the years. Strasbourg, the region's capital, is located on the German border; over the centuries it has found itself governed alternately by France and Germany. By 1621 a university had grown out of a local Protestant school, but it wasn't until a later period of German dominance (1870 to 1918) that its status was finally raised when Emperor Wilhelm decided to make it a showpiece institution. However, even when the commotion caused by the war was over, the university had not yet seen its final transformation.
An interesting glimpse of the ULP's further development can be found in the Rue Blaise Pascal, where a number of its lecture halls and administration buildings are located. Just a few hundred metres along from them are the buildings of the Université Robert Schuman. Although architecture confirms a common history, the two universities could hardly be more diverse. In 1971 the spirit of the late 1960's inspired a call for more democracy and direct involvement;the ensuing schism split the old university into Strasbourg's present three institutions: Louis Pasteur (where Pasteur himself worked), Robert Schuman and Marc Bloch. Each is an independently operating university and their fields of research generally do not overlap.
Louvain: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- Edited by Bart Funnekotter
- Douwe Breimer, David Bremmer, Frank Provoost, Hester van Santen, Christiaan Weijts
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- Book:
- Eureka!
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 23 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 07 June 2005, pp 89-101
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Summary
Catholic University of Louvain in facts and figures:
Founded in 1425
29,254 students
7,725 staff
Budget € 512 million
Rumour has it that the municipality has anchored the paving stones in Louvain's Ladeuze Square in a bed of cement, hoping to deprive demonstrating students of an easy source of weapons. The stones played a major role in the 1960's when students agitated publicly for a more democratic university system and an exclusively Dutch-language university. ‘Leuven Vlaams’ – Louvain Flemish – reached its apex of success in 1968, when the Catholic University of Louvain split into two separate institutions:The Dutch-language branch, Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (KULeuven), located in Louvain and Kortrijk, and the Francophone Université Catholique de Louvain in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve. As one of the founding members of LERU, KULeuven is the home of the League's administrative offices.
In the centre of the square a giant beetle seems pinned to the clouds at the top of a 23metre pin. KULeuven donated the sculpture, created by Belgian artist Jan Fabre, to the city of Louvain in the academic year 2000-2001 to celebrate its 575-year history. The Totem, as it is named, represents an ode to science and beauty.
The sculpture is appropriately located in front of the impressive university library. The library's walls are inscribed with the names of other universities, mainly American ones, who provided the necessary funds for the reconstruction of the library after the violence of two World Wars. The library had been damaged deep into its paper heart; it was this grievous vandalism that earned the Germans the nickname ‘Huns’ in 1914. They had attacked one of the oldest Catholic universities, founded in 1425 and home to Erasmus's Institute of Humanism a century later. It was this Catholic identity that led to years of closure that began during the French occupation of 1797. Today, this identity is mainly visible in the courses that are a mandatory part of every curriculum here: philosophy in the first year and interpretations of world religion in the fourth.
Louvain eventually grew to be Flanders’ largest university, serving nearly 30,000 students.