Privileged partner institutions

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Gand

Due to the regionalization phenomenon in Belgium, the Flemish Region is considered to be an international partner despite its geographical proximity.

Ghent University has had a long association with the University of Liege, and the two institutions have much in common: both are renowned public universities, their main campuses are located outside the city centre, they maintain close contacts with local economic and social networks and each has a declared international ambition.

Numerous synergies exist in the field of research and the training of young researchers. Both institutions have equipped themselves with highly efficient Company-University Interfaces that dialogue across the linguistic border.

With regard to training, the universities are in the process of setting up joint master's programs in law and one joint master in management has been recently concluded.

They are both members of Santander, a network particularly active in Latin America and one they collaborate with to strengthen mutual activities in the area.

Sherbrooke

As institutions of a similar size, which are involved in a similar way in the regional environment and which share the concepts of showcasing research and experience, the University of Sherbrooke (Canada) and the University of Liège have a number of things in common, which have led them to work closely together.

Encouraged by Governmental agreements between Quebec and the French community in Belgium, and attracted by financial incentives and simplified administrative procedures, this collaboration has become a reality through joint courses and research programmes, the exchange of teaching staff, joint teaching programmes and plans for joint degrees.

In practical terms, two shared courses are offered to students, to increase mobility: a Masters in Environmental Science and Management and a Masters in Geomatics at the Faculty of Science. The field of civil engineering and applied sciences has many shared research programmes and there are several possibilities for joint degrees in these subjects. Teaching collaborations are established every year in psychomotricity in the form of an exchange of good practice, notably in the Faculty of Psychology and the Science of Education.

Two tools contribute to the close relationship between the ULg and the University of Sherbrooke: the Quebec Study Centre in the Faculty of Philosophy and the Arts at Liège, and the ULg's participation in the Latinus Network, run by the University of Sherbrooke with its strategic partners.

Concepcion

The University of Concepción (Chile) is a longstanding partner of the University of Liège. It is in particular around the shared expertise in engineering, mining and geology that several ULg professors have carried out research work and taught courses at the University of Concepción. This close relationship, nourished by an exchange of professors and doctoral students, has taken shape over long years with the support of the Belgian Development Cooperation and the CUD (University Commission for Development).

Today the relationship between the two institutions has diversified and gone beyond the framework of cooperation to look for areas in which large scale projects deserve to be undertaken in a balanced partnership.

Four areas have been identified by Liège and Concepción for the development of coordinated action:

• The field of engineering, and in particular aerospace engineering: professor and student exchanges have been initiated, and the construction of a satellite by Chilean students has been scheduled
• Still in engineering, for which the tradition of collaborative work is a deeply established one, the domain of civil engineering: the joint organization of a course also anticipates professor and student exchanges
• In the domain of biotechnology, development synergies are being studied along with the Liège GIGA
• In the domain of language learning: complementarities with great potential are being analyzed concerning the teaching of French as a foreign language and Spanish

In the two universities' collaboration projects the domain of the environment has in the long term the potential of discovering a fruitful area for cooperation; expertise in distance teaching is providing support for these teaching processes.

Institutional funds have been programmed to enable ULg engineering students to carry out a training programmed in the context of their dissertation at Concepción, as well as the possibilities of research grants for Concepción doctoral students to study at Liège.

These funds have been in particular identified to benefit Concepción's professors and researchers, whose context is a difficult one following the earthquake of February 2010.

Specific support measures to aid the University of Concepción have already been offered to Rector Lavanchy and his university, in particular so that the students identified by our Chilean partner can be permitted to find favourable conditions at the ULg for the immediate continuation of their work.

Emeritus Professor Pierre Beckers has agreed to coordinate these specific endeavours: pierre.beckers@ulg.ac.be.

For more information: Anne-Laure.Villeminot@ulg.ac.be