KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Founded on 9 December 1425 by Pope Martin V's papal bull 'Sapientie immarcessibilis', KU Leuven is the OLDEST extant Catholic university in the world and the OLDEST university in the Low Countries. The university celebrated its 600th anniversary in 2025. Belgium's largest and consistently #1-ranked university (QS World University Rankings #60 globally for 2026; THE rankings place it among the world's most research-active institutions). Approximately 60,000-64,000 students across faculties spanning theology, humanities, sciences, medicine, engineering, law, and social sciences, with 20-24% international students from 150+ countries. Distinguished alumni and faculty include: Pope Adrian VI (the last non-Italian pope before John Paul II), Desiderius Erasmus (Renaissance humanist, taught here), Andreas Vesalius (founder of modern anatomy, 1514-1564), Gerardus Mercator (cartographer of the Mercator projection), Justus Lipsius (Renaissance philosopher), and most notably Father Georges Lemaître (1894-1966) — the Catholic priest and physicist who proposed the BIG BANG THEORY in 1927 and the expanding universe (years before Hubble published his observations). Closed under French rule in 1797, refounded by Belgian bishops in 1834. In 1968, the Catholic University of Leuven (then bilingual) split along linguistic lines — the Dutch-speaking institution remained in Leuven as KU Leuven, while the French-speaking branch (UCLouvain) moved to a newly built campus in Louvain-la-Neuve. ⚠️ NOTE: KU Leuven was MISSING from the AlmiStudy collector file for Belgium — added by curator as a critical correction given its #1 status in the country.

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