The ULB: an outward looking University

Clarisse Faria-Fortecoëf

Located at the heart of Europe, the Université libre in Brussels is also an international university, both in terms of recruiting its professors and scientists (14% of professors, 37% of scientists, 45% of PhD students), and its involvement in international research networks.

With its 13 faculties, schools and specialized institutes that cover all disciplines, the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) has more than one third of students and researchers from abroad. For example, among a total about 1,800 PhD students, more than 40% are foreigners.

Member of the Council for Doctoral Education - European University Association (EUA-CDE), the ULB
is also an active member of the European Research Area and is also involved in almost 130 projects financed by the 7th European Framework Programme.
Multicultural  and multilingual, the ULB has many years of experience on the international stage : launching of UNICA - a network of more than 40 leading European universities -, cross-border cooperation with the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (Lille) region of France, development of a policy of preferred partners. These partnerships aims to build joint, long-term, activities with renowned institutions such as universities of Oxford in UK, Pierre et Marie Curie in France, or Berkeley in California (USA) with which a new "privileged partnership" has been recently set up.
Founded in 1868 and with more than 33,000 students, 1,800 teachers and twenty Nobel Prize, UC Berkeley, decided in 2012 to allocate a budget of 10,000 dollars a year for research stays for ULB's students and doctorates. This funding is part of the "Visiting Scholar and Posdoc Affairs" and is divided into four scholarships of $2,500 dollars each.

So, given the above perspectives maybe would you  be interested in a research experience or a mobility in Belgium?

A range of ways of financing your research are available to go to ULB as a student or a researcher. For example, you can apply for doctoral – joint supervision PhDs are strongly fostered – or post-doctoral grants.

A student exchange program is also available. For this purpose, you can download the "mobility@ulb.ac.be" which contains useful information about ULB itself, admission procedures for exchange students, practical aspects of your stay, very general academic information, as well as about life in Brussels.

If you wish to be kept informed about University's activities, you can subscribe to its newsletters as "The letter from the ULB," a bimonthly zoom on education, international and research at the ULB. The latest issue (20 June 2013) is available (only in French) online.