Prof. Dr. André Oosterlinck, president of the KULeuven Association ...

Prof. Dr. André Oosterlinck, president of the K.U.Leuven Association
Excellencies, Mr. Ambassador, Mijnheer de voorzitter van de senaat en goede vriend, Johan (De
Graeve) en goede vriend, Mijnheer de Gouverneur, Damens en Heren,
I’m here now today as president of the Association of the K.U.Leuven and I will explain a little bit
what is an association. It is a network of the University of Leuven and twelve University Colleges. All
together 45% of all higher education students in Flanders are studying in the Association K.U.Leuven.
It’s twelve, but here in the town of the University we have a very good special engineering college,
the Group T here as a university college. They are very famous, because they were the very first one
who started with a very special profile for the engineering education. And this is the work by only
one person who started this work: Johan De Graeve. Well Johan, I want to thank you for talking this
initiative a long time ago and you have proved that the concept is a very good concept and it’s also
attracting a lot of students.
But let’s now come back to the university here and the educational system. If we look to the
educational system in Flanders, and Mr. Ambassador you know we are a federal country. 60% of all
the people, more or less, are speaking Dutch, 40% are speaking French (they live in Brussels and the
Walloon part) and the educational and research part is done by the state of Flanders. That’s the
reason why the educational system in Flanders is different from the system in the French speaking
part. And that sometimes makes a complicated system for us, certainly for foreigners who are
coming to a country of 11 million people. Only one third of the city of Shanghai, or even less, it’s
much smaller than Beijing, that makes it complicated. But I try to explain you the system of Flanders
here.
In Flanders the higher education, after 18 years, is given in what we call University or University
Colleges and it’s twofold. It’s the academic education, and in the academic education you have the
bachelor and the master, and you have a higher professional education and that’s only a bachelor.
The total of the students of the association is 85.000 to 90.000 students, as I told you before, it’s 45%
of all the Flemish students in Flanders. Looking now to the population of the Chinese students, it’s
the number one population of foreign students. It’s 800 and 750 on the University and roughly 200 in
the University College here. In total, if you take the PhD-students, it’s 1.000 students here in the city
of Leuven. If you know that the total of Chinese students in Belgium is 2.400, roughly 40% of the
Chinese students are here. If you like to meet Chinese students Mr. Ambassador, you have to be here
and we will assist you, because there are a lot of students here and they are studying a lot of
different things.
I’m coming back again to this college. 200 students is a big exception. It’s the only University College
who has this enormous amount of Chinese students. And that’s the reason why they teach the
courses here in both languages. In Dutch, because the Flemish Government asks us that to do that,
or even a little bit more than asking, and they also teach the same courses in English. And it’s a very
good thing that you have done that, Johan, because you are an attraction for foreigners and you are
attraction also very good students. And if you look at the list now of the Universities here present, it’s
an impressive list. Well, you’ve done a very good job.
I like to conclude now by congratulating you again by this organization, Johan, also congratulate this
College here, and looking for the future and also for the ABC, I’m will not be a member because I

studied in the United States and in Belgium. But I’m already old, I’m pretty sure that I have… I told
my daughter and my son you: need an extra education in China, because China is the future. They
promised me at least to learn a little bit Chinese: that’s a good start. And as you know we have a very
good department of Sinology here and I was the Rector those days that set up the first exchange
programs for our Flemish students who are studying China and this is still working very well.
Thus we thank you again for the support, Mr. Ambassador, we need that continuous support to have
enough openings on the Chinese Universities for our students that they can study there.
Again Johan, I like to congratulate you, and this will be a very interesting day.
Thank you.