The University of Namur or Université de Namur (UNamur) is a Jesuit university in Namur, in the French Community of Belgium. Both teaching and research in the university are carried out by six faculties.
Contents
Location
The University of Namur is located in Namur, Belgium. The main campus is located at the heart of the city of Namur, capital of Wallonia. The main university campus includes the university building, the six main faculties and the university libraries.
History
Foundation 1831–1846
In the spring of 1831, the Society of Jesus reopened a high school in what was earlier the Our-Lady of Peace Benedictine abbey, in Namur. The school immediately developed into a college with the support of prominent Namurian families. They put some conditions in order to finance the new project, the most important is teaching other sciences such as philosophy with the liberty of education as proclaimed by the new Belgian Constitution.
First expansions (1846–1928)
Many expansions took place in this period, the number of students increased gradually, new sciences and study programmes were introduced.
Sensible progress (1929–1947)
A New Belgian law excluded the institution from getting financial support from the government. This pushed the ambitious university to rely on its own sources and funds. Despite this, in 1934, many projects were launched: new building specific to physical and chemical studies, the expansion of Belles-Lettres library, modernization of some laboratories, many new titles were added to the seminars library.
Resuming the expansion (1948–1970)
On 18 February 1948 the institution, formerly a college, changed its status to that of a university. This new status resulted in having some (limited and irregular) financial aid from the government.
Starting in 1960, after the introduction of new national financing laws, government aid increased and became regular. Many new projects and programmes came into being, improving the university's national and European visibility.
The big expansion (1971–1991)
The university launched many important projects:
1971: Institute of Computer Science (now Faculty of Computer Science): the first of its kind in Belgium and one of the leading institutions in Europe.
1972: Faculty of Law.
1974: Faculty of Sciences, Faculty of Medicine.
1979: New university library Moretus Plantin (more than 800,000 title at the time).
1990: Construction of Pedro Arrupe new amphitheater.
2015 : New amphitheater Vauban
2014-2017 : New Faculty of Sciences
Prospects
On 29 June 2003 the University of Namur joined with three other French-speaking Catholic universities to form the Académie Louvain. These are the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), located in Louvain-La-Neuve; Saint-Louis University, Brussels (now UCLouvain Saint-Louis - Bruxelles), located in Brussels and Ixelles; and the Facultés universitaires catholiques de Mons, (FUCaM, now UCLouvain FUCaM Mons) located in Mons and Charleroi (now UCLouvain Charleroi).
Explorations developed in 2007 for combining all four institutions into a single university, and an agreement was reached to create a new university to be called Université catholique de Louvain (Académie Louvain Project). Campuses might be identified as UCL/Brussels (today UCLouvain Bruxelles), UCL/Namur (today UCLouvain Namur), UCL/Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL/Mons (today UCLouvain FUCaM Mons) and UCL/Charleroi (today UCLouvain Charleroi). However, in December 2010 negotiations for a full merger were aborted by an insufficient vote by the general assembly of Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP).
The "Academie Louvain" ceased to exist in 2014 due to the entry in force of the new law organising the universities.
Education
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
Philosophy
History
Art History and Archeology
French and Romance Languages and Literatures
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Philosophy
History, Art History and Archaeology
Languages and Literatures (Romance, Germanic and Greek classics)
Faculty of Law
Law
Legal Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
Medicine
Biomedical Sciences
Pharmacy
Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Economics, Social Sciences and Management
Economics and Management
Business Engineering
Political Science
Information and Communication
Economics
Management
Business Engineering
Business Engineering, with focus on "Information systems management"
Business Engineering, with focus on "Data Science"
Economics
Finance & Markets
Accounting and Control
Marketing
Business Law and Tax Management
Management (Business Administration & Entrepreneurship-Intrapreneurship / Strategic Management & Corporate Governance / Human Resource Management)
Management Science (Operation Research / Supply Chain Management)
Information Systems Management (Business IT)
Political Science & International Relations
Social Sciences
Information and Communication
Faculty of Computer Science
Computer Science
Computer Science, with a specialization in Software Engineering
Computer Science, with a specialization in Data science
Computer Science
Informatics and innovation (business analysis and IT governance)
Computer Science
Faculty of Sciences
Mathematics
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Geology
Geography
Veterinary Medicine
Mathematics
Mathematics, with focus on "Data Science"
Physics
Chemistry
Biochemistry and molecular and cell biology
Biology of organisms and ecology
Aquaculture (organized with the Université de Liège)
Transportation Management (organized mainly with the Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Science
Veterinary Sciences
Rankings
The university is included in some major world university rankings: the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking of 2021 lists University of Namur as 1436th in the world, and the Center for World University Rankings of 2020-2021 lists the university as 1201st in the world.
Notable alumni
André Antoine, Belgian politician and French Community of Belgium Minister for finance
Mathias Cormann, politician and Australia's Minister for finance
Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister
Catherine Fonck, Belgian politician and former French Community of Belgium Health Minister
Georges Jacobs, businessman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of UCB Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Delhaize Group, Honorary Chairman of UNICE
Oly Ilunga Kalenga, Minister of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Koen Lenaerts, Professor of Law and Judge at the European Court of Justice
Philippe Maystadt, former Belgian minister and 2000-2011 President of the European Investment Bank
Petra Rudolf, solid-state physicist and Past-President of the European Physical Society
Jean-François van Boxmeer, CEO of Heineken International
Andries Van den Abeele, historian, historical preservationist, politician and entrepreneur
Pascal Van Hentenryck, constraint programming and optimization theorist, director of the United States' National Science Foundation AI Institute for Advances in Optimization
Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou, literature, private secretary of the King of Belgium