Leuven, Belgium… a city in a country known to many for chocolate and the famous beers… but there is definitely much more to it than just that! In this blog, we are going to discover together the main advantages of living and studying in this marvellous Western-European city. Shall we get started then, fair ladies and respectable gents?
International environment
To give you a brief impression on how international Leuven is, I’m just going to list couple of key facts and figured related to the region: it hosts 170 nationalities that speak more than 100 different languages and the cherry on top of the cake – more than a half of its residents were not born Belgian! Now you get the picture? You will be surrounded by like-minded people from all over the Globe – great chance for you to learn about other cultures and who knows, maybe another language? 😛
The gastronomic treats!
Ok, I mentioned chocolate and beers already (there are around 200 breweries in a country with a bit more than 10 million people), but did anyone say Belgian waffles? Let’s also not forget about the fact that Belgium gave the world ‘French’ (the irony!) fries, one of the wonders of the international cuisine! So you’ll definitely have fun enjoying the local food products!
Oh and before I forget, according to Wikipedia, ´UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity’ 🙂
Everything is super accessible!
It is! Brussels is the midpoint of Western Europe, so it’s tremendously easy to reach any corner of Europe from the 2 international airports: Brussels Airport and Brussels South Charleroi Airport. Let’s not forget about coach companies facilitating terrestrial passenger access throughout Europe such as Eurolines or the European integrated train system Interrail – perfect solutions for cheap travel for students !
Big fraternity/sorority culture
Belgians are crazy about their fraternity/sorority cast system while at university. I would say even crazier than the Americans. If you are a thrill-seeker looking for savage student parties, especially UCLL is for sure the place to be. Always keep this in mind – it’s all about SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!
The ‘Capital of Europe’
Leuven is close to Brussels which hosts a lot of European Union political (and not only!) institutions, such as The European Parliament, The Council of the European Union, The European Commission, The European Economic and Social Committee, The European Defence Agency, The Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency, The Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, The European Research Council Computer Science Agency and The Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency. In other words, Brussels is justly the administrative ‘Capital of Europe’, which for a student it means a great opportunity to meet some truly inspirational people!
Online Open Days
You still seem unconvinced, right? Well, we may have just the right thing for you to completely make up your mind – take a peek at our upcoming online open days for UCLL:
- Study business-management at UCLL
- Study Computer-science in leuven : top-40-best-student-city-for-international-students!
