Vrije Universiteit Brussel grows for the eighth year in a row
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is growing for the eighth academy in a row and that is unprecedented. This year, 2345 generation of students followed, which is about two more than last year. a total of 20085 registrations are expected, in 2013 there were 16,352. Notable growers this year are the Engineering Sciences and Language & Literature Bachelors, each of which is growing by more than 30 percent.
Vice Rector Education and Student Policy Jan Danckaert is pleased with this. “It shows that young people are confident in coming to study in metropolitan and multilingual Brussels, and especially at the VUB. We remain committed to the personal guidance of our students and focus on physical education on campus and at locations in Brussels, through digital teaching material: blended learning. We want our students to experience a real student life, full of individual growth, both in terms of knowledge and personal development.”
Social Sciences and Solvay Business School remains the largest faculty with nearly 6,000 enrollments, followed by Law and Criminology, and Psychology and Educational Sciences with more than 3,000 and 2,400 enrollments. The Bachelor of Social Sciences in the former faculty and in collaboration with Ghent University continues to perform remarkably well.
The surprises can be found in the percentage risers. The VUB is delighted with the renewed interest in the Bachelor of Engineering Science with a growth of almost 40 percent. Just like last year, the Computer Science bachelor’s program continues to do well with a growth of more than 30 percent. Good news, because the need for engineers and IT experts in society is very great. The VUB scientifically does that. Starting next academic year, together with the ULB, we will also be building a postgraduate course “Women in IT” in which non-IT professionals can take additional training. Finally, there is the Bachelor of Language and Literature, which also scores remarkably well with a growth of 35 percent.
The Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, which includes Linguistics and Literature, has invested heavily in retraining in recent years and the degree programs in the Faculty are doing very well, including the trendy Educational Masters in the Multidisciplinary Institute for Teacher Training (with campuses in Etterbeek, Jette, Anderlecht, Diest and Leuven) increase by more than 10 percent, which is good news for the teacher shortage.