About University:
KU Leuven is one of Europe’s oldest universities. It was founded in 1425 and within a century it accommodated around 2000 students. KU Leuven is dedicated to education and research in nearly all fields. Its fifteen faculties offer education, while research activities are organized by the departments and research groups. These faculties and departments, in turn, are clustered into three groups: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), and Biomedical Sciences. Each of these groups has a doctoral school for its doctoral training program. KU Leuven boasts fourteen campuses, spread across 10 cities in Flanders.
KU Leuven Homepage: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/
About Program:
The Master of Architecture is organised by the Faculty of Architecture. At Sint-Luca, the design process and particularly its social and cultural role is the core of the faculty’s education. The master’s programme combines an artistic with an academic approach. It is characterized by a fully integrated design methodology, providing students with solid skills in the contemporary discipline of architectural design and research.
The Master of Architecture program explores the subject from a research-by-design and design-by-research perspective. The program combines an academic approach with a creative experimental approach, and you will be fully prepared for the multicultural and international context of your chosen career.
Structure:
Based on a highly interdisciplinary learning process of integrated research and ‘Research by design’, students are expected to determine a critical stance on current issues with an emphasis on facilitating, making and imagining, leading to relevant spatial interventions.
The program consists out of theoretical courses in the field of History and Theory, Building Technology and Professional Practice. The design studio is the heart of the programme, this learning environment is constructed out of four multi-campus ENGAGEMENTS: Urban Cultures, Craftsmanship, Mediating Tactics and Legacies. A fifth engagement “The Brussels Way” is only related to the Brussels campus. Within these engagement lectures, workshops and exhibitions complement the studio environment. As a student, you give direction to your study career by choosing from a wide range of studios and electives.
Strengths:
This program opens the doors to a network of cooperative associations with professionals and universities worldwide and strives to leverage this international network for students’ benefit. Other benefits are:
- The faculty’s activities are extensive and diversified: students and staff exchange knowledge on a European and intercontinental level. The faculty continues to build on its tradition of academic integration of teaching and research to maintain its high standard of quality.
- The faculty takes its international dimension as the basis for its own quality assessment.
- The teaching staff is a mix of academics and architects with an exemplary practice, including many leading international architects and researchers.
Program Details: https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/opleidingen/e/CQ_51522857.htm#activetab=diploma_omschrijving
Course Details: https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/opleidingen/e/SC_51523040.htm
Student help centre: https://www.luca-arts.be/en/stuvo-luca-brussel
Tuition Fee:
6,600 Euros per year as of 2021 (Total 2 years)
Tuition Fee Calculator: https://icts.kuleuven.be/apps/tuitionfees/
Scholarship:
- KU Leuven has a page dedicated to scholarships and international funding:
https://www.kuleuven.be/english/international/funding
https://www.kuleuven.be/mecenaat/goede-doelen/beurzen/dillemans/dillemansE.html
https://www.kuleuven.be/english/international/mobility-for-all/masterminds/mastermind
- Sint-Luca, KU Leuven also offers a partial tuition waiver that is not mentioned on any of the websites. Once you get the confirmation from the admission committee, you can contact the administrative coordinator (contact details on the website) for the further process to obtain the partial tuition waiver.
System for Admission Process:
No specific organization or system. You can directly apply by following the instructions given on university website.
Need for a Foreign Language:
In Belgium, mainly two languages are spoken; French and Dutch. Though the master’s program is taught in English, it is recommended to learn one of the languages for ease of daily communication with local people, at supermarkets, to understand information boards and announcements in public transport.
Approximate expenses for a single level: vary between 40 euros to 150 euros.
KU Leuven Language Institute: https://ilt.kuleuven.be/english/
CLT: https://www.clt.be/CLTSite2016/index.php
House of Nederlands: https://www.huisnederlandsbrussel.be/en
CVO Lethas: https://cvolethas.be/
For the details about living in Belgium, please visit: