Studying Criminology at the K.U.Leuven

Leuven is an exciting environment in which to study criminology, an environment that has both deep historical roots and meets the highest contemporary scientific requirements.

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) is one of the oldest existing universities in the world, as it was founded in 1425. K.U.Leuven was also the first university in Europe to provide an independent study programme in criminology. With a research expenditure of € 248 million in 2006, the K.U. Leuven is a leading research university in Europe. The university is a founding member of the League of European Research-Intensive Universities, which was established in 2002 and includes twelve European top-universities. It is also very internationally oriented: one-third of its yearly defended Ph.D. theses are written by foreign students.

The Faculty of Law has more than 3.500 students and a broad-based curriculum, the Faculty of Law is the oldest of the Low Countries and the largest in Belgium, having a long tradition of public service. Many of its alumni hold prominent positions in the Belgian central and regional public administration and in the European and international community in Brussels and elsewhere.

Along with the rest of the university, the Faculty of Law emphasizes an international and comparative approach to education in law and criminology. Since 1987, the Faculty has become strongly involved in the ERASMUS programme of the European Union. It also has agreements (to host and send students) with other universities in the United States, Australia, South Africa and Japan.

Launched in January 2007, the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC) is composed of about fifty professors and fellows involved in criminological research and education within the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the K.U.Leuven Faculty of Law. LINC is the most recent institutional incarnation of the criminological tradition in Leuven that began with the establishment of the "School for Criminology" in 1929. LINC intends to continue the Leuven tradition of combining solid research with a deep commitment to society. This goal is achieved through fundamental, as well as policy-oriented, research that is organized around 10 research lines.

Leuven students profit from both their studies and private life of Leuven’s very central position in Belgium and Europe. The city is only 25 kilometres away from Brussels, Belgium’s capital and home to the European Union central institutions and NATO headquarters. Therefore, a 20 minutes train ride will get students to the “capital” of the EU, which is also the site of many European and multinational companies and organisations. Moreover, Brussels is at the core of Western Europe: a dense network of roads and railroads provides easy access to cities like Amsterdam, Paris, London, Cologne, etc.

Leuven is a modern, bustling city of nearly 90.000 inhabitants, that has managed to maintain its traditional style. The city is home to a wonderful collection of historic buildings, from the early Romanesque period to the twentieth century. With 30.000 students comprising over one-third of the local population, Leuven is also a real "student city" with one of the liveliest bar scenes in Belgium.