The University and Luxembourg
Multilingual, international, strongly focused on excellence in relevant research
"The University of Luxembourg aspires to be one of Europe’s most highly regarded universities with a distinctly international, multilingual and interdisciplinary character. It fosters the cross-fertilisation of research and teaching, is relevant to its country, known worldwide for its research and teaching in targeted areas, and becomes an innovative model for contemporary European Higher Education (…)”.
This is the beginning of the University of Luxembourg’s vision statement - and at the same time part of Luxembourg’s strategy as a country investing in knowledge, research and innovation.
The motor of the national system of innovation
Since its foundation in 2003, the University of Luxembourg has become an internationally relevant European research university. Its particular dynamism comes from its highly motivated academics and their pioneering spirit.
The University brings together fundamental research and possible applications. This supports both economic and social innovation in Luxembourg, where the conditions are just right for creating the way to a knowledge-based society: a highly qualified workforce; access to capital; and access to a network of public and private research institutions. These interactions contribute to a permanent transfer of knowledge to the economy and society of the Grand-Duchy.
The University of Luxembourg is the motor of the national system of knowledge and innovation: it gathers 6,366 students, a total of 1,823 staff including 242 academics coming from all over the globe. 354 partner universities worldwide also help to make internationality the qualifier which characterises the University best:
- all bachelor students study at least one semester abroad;
- cross-border, bi- or tri-national bachelor and master degrees are part of the offer;
- a huge number of PhD candidates work towards a joint or double PhD degree.
The three languages spoken, the background of personnel and country make the University highly European.
Interdisciplinarity and private sector partnerships
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In 2017, the University of Luxembourg raised about 54.9 million euros of external research funds derived from funds of the European Union, the Luxembourg National Research Fund, endowed chairs and other partners. In the same year, researchers published a total of 689 peer reviewed scientific works.
A dominant feature of the research activity is definitely interdisciplinarity: three research centers (SnT, LCSB, C²DH), two Pearl chairs from the National Research Fund, a Chair in Capital Markets and Post-Trade co-funded by seven partner companies as well as cross-disciplinary teaching modules are telling examples thereof.
Partnership with the business world has played a key role the University’s development:
- The University currently has ten endowed chairs.
- Banks (Deutsche Bank, UBS, Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’État) as well as local and international companies finance research at the University of Luxembourg.
- Many master students and PhD candidates undertake their thesis in close collaboration with an industrial or business partner, and are often co-financed by the company.
Society as a reference, ongoing dialogue as a value
Society is another of the University’s references. Examples are two Jean Monnet Chairs in Contemporary European History and a UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, a large number of conferences, lectures and debates open to the public, as well as a summer university for secondary school pupils.
We carry out contract work for different ministries and several research projects are supported by a variety of organisations.
The ongoing move of most University departments to the new Belval Campus in Esch-sur-Alzette will further promote dialogue between the disciplines as well as cooperation with other research institutes.
