From next academic year, international students at Leuven can apply for a scholarship to enroll in a Master’s programme at the Faculty of Science.
The scholarships are financed by the recently established Science@Leuven Fund, the general alumni association for Leuven’s science students. “The five associations that cover the various scientific disciplines, the faculty, the various science departments and the general student association Scientica all joined forces to support the fund and have raised the starting capital in co-operation with the Leuven University Fund and Leuven Research and Development,” said Peter Lievens, Dean of the Faculty of Science
The fund will make one, or possibly two, scholarships available next academic year. This number will gradually be increased as the fund gains momentum. “The scholarships are intended for talented and motivated international students who enroll for one of our English-language Master’s programmes,” Lievens says. “For the past few years, each scientific discipline has been offering an English-language equivalent to almost all the Dutch programmes. Over the coming years, we will endeavour to attain an equal division of students with scholarships across the various Master’s programmes.”
The architects of this fund are Jan Beirlant, former Dean of the Faculty of Science and currently Vice Rector for the Kortrijk Campus, Pol Bamelis, former Alumni Chair of Science@Leuven, and Joris Winderickx, Head of Internationalisation at the Faculty of Science. “They found that international students do in fact take the possibility of receiving a scholarship into account during their first screening of prospective universities,” Lievens says. “A scholarship system contributes to attracting the best students.”
“By attracting the best new international students we can continue to raise the bar of our Master’s programmes,” Lievens continues. “Our group of doctoral students is very international already, which increases the quality of our research.”
The Science@Leuven Fund is appealing to both businesses and private citizens for donations. Financing one of its scholarships for one year costs €8,000. For more information, visit: http://wet.kuleuven.be/english/scienceatleuvenscholarship
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