AS Leuven

Local Board:

• President: Pieterjan Mertens
• Vice President: Louis Maes
• Secretary: Tijmen Spreij
• Treasurer: Jan Van Baelen

University: KU Leuven

Website: http://www.euroavialeuven.com

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About the city:

Leuven is situated in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, about 20km east of Brussels. In Brussels you can hear almost every language, but the native population speaks French or Dutch. Belgium was during history suppressed by almost every big nation (France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Spain,…) and today’s diversity and living together with different cultures is still a daily challenge.

In 1190 Leuven became “capital of the Duchy of Brabant”, the middle part of Belgium. The 14th century became the turning point of Leuven’s destiny. The clothe trade in Leuven lost its importance and the Dukes of Brabant moved their permanent residence from Leuven to Brussels.

Leuven is renowned all over the world for its university. It is one of the oldest still existing Catholic universities in the world (KUL, 30.000 students), founded in 1425. The liberal university of Brussels (VUB, 9000 students) was founded in 1834, three years after the Belgian independence. In the Brussels university academic freedom is an important keyword. Nowadays, both universities have almost all kinds of faculties (human, biomedical and exact sciences).

The early history of Leuven and Brussels is quite similar, so the city centers look quite the same. The impressive gothic town halls, the medieval cathedral/church,… Leuven became a real student city of about 90.000 inhabitants that is also known as city of beer. Brussels (1 million inhabitants) became the capital of Belgium and later also of Europe and has a strong international dimension.

In the highly industrial Belgium you have a lot of small but important aerospace companies that work for the big companies as Airbus and ESA. A lot of them are world leaders in their specific specializations.

Visit the KU Leuven Department of Mechanical Engineering website.
Visit the city of Leuven portal.