Académie Louvain () was a network of French-speaking catholic universities in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

active between 2004 and 2015. It was formed following the

Bologna process file:Bologna-Prozess-Logo.svg, 96px, alt=Logo with stylized stars, Logo file:Bologna zone.svg, alt=Map of Europe, encompassing the entire Bologna zone, 256px, Bologna zone The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and agreements b ...

to reform higher-level education, creating a larger university structure.

Universities in the network

The network included: *

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

(UCLouvain;

Louvain-la-Neuve Louvain-la-Neuve (; French for "New Leuven"; ) is a planned town in the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia, Belgium, situated 30 km southeast of Brussels, in the province of Walloon Brabant. The town was built to house th ...

Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...

, Saint-Gilles,

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Woluwe-Saint-Lambert ( French, ) or Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe ( Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). In French, ...

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

) * Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL), today Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles (

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

) * Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP), today University of Namur (UNamur,

Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...

) * Facultés universitaires catholiques de Mons (FUCaM), now part of the University of Louvain as

UCLouvain FUCaM Mons UCLouvain FUCaM Mons is a satellite campus of the Université catholique de Louvain, University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Mons, Belgium, Mons, Wallonia, Belgium founded in 1896. Until 2011, it was an independent institution known as the Catholi ...

(

and

)

The merger process

The first implementation of the Académie Louvain network was the creation of the Louvain School of Management, which could unite the faculties and departments of

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

and

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

of all four universities, in 5 different cities. This specific choice was made because all four member universities offered degrees in this field. It also included the

ICHEC Brussels Management School ICHEC Brussels Management School, officially Institut catholique des Hautes Études commerciales, is a Brussels, Brussels-based management school, constituting the economic category of the "Haute École ICHEC - ECAM - ISFSC". It also has severa ...

, a college based in

. After almost three years of active collaboration within the network, the rectors of the four catholic universities decided on 12 March 2007 to open negotiations with the aim of merging the four establishments into one single university. Each site was to become a site of "UC Louvain". The merger among the four was aborted on 17 December 2010 after the ultimate vote on the board of UNamur failed to attain the required 80% (30 in favour and 14 against). FUCaM merges with the

separately on 15 September 2011 becoming the UCL Mons. In 2013, the merger process being cancelled, the FUNDP in

and FUSL in

decide to change their names and respectively become the University of Namur and

Saint-Louis University, Brussels UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels is an autonomous university campus specialized in social and human sciences part of UCLouvain and based in Brussels, Belgium. Established in 1857, Saint-Louis University, Brussels (officially, in French Universi ...

. In 2017,

and the

(UCL, which has two campuses in

) decide to merge and form a new university called UCLouvain. This last merger is yet to be formally endorsed by the

French Community of Belgium In Belgium, the French Community (, , CFB) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (, , FWB), which is controversial because ...

that organizes all state funded education, but will '' de facto'' take effect in September 2018.

Dissolution

The Académie Louvain was formally dissolved on 26 February 2016 as a consequence of the new legislation for the higher education in French-speaking Belgium, the Décret Paysage (also known as the Décret Marcourt). The merger plan partially succeeded as the original UCL, FUSL and FUCaM still merged in a single institution called UCLouvain. Practical collaborations of the Académie Louvain are still in place, as for example all 20 libraries work in a single network called BORéAL (Bibliothèque On-Line du Réseau de l'Académie Louvain).

References

External links

UNamurUniversity Saint-Louis BrusselsUniversité catholique de Louvain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Academie Louvain Université catholique de Louvain College and university associations and consortia in Europe 2004 establishments in Belgium Educational institutions established in 2004 2015 disestablishments in Belgium Educational institutions disestablished in 2015