The transnationale Universiteit Limburg (abbreviation tUL and translation in English is: 'transnational University Limburg') is based in Belgium and the Netherlands. The tUL was founded together by both the

Universiteit Maastricht Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities. In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...

and the Limburgs Universitair Centrum, now

Hasselt University Hasselt University (Dutch: ''Universiteit Hasselt or UHasselt'') is a public research university with campuses in Hasselt and Diepenbeek, Belgium. It has more than 6,700 students and 1,660 academic, administrative and technical staff (2022). The ...

as a way to co-operate better.

Organisational structure

The tUL has a quite complicated organisational structure. Even though it has been created out of two already existing universities, it legally is not dependent on any of them. Both in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

the tUL is a single university, separate from both founding universities. The tUL, even though being totally separate from the LUC and the UM, is not housed on its own campus. The campus is split up along two locations,

Diepenbeek Diepenbeek (; li, Diepenbik) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. On January 1, 2012, Diepenbeek had a total population of 18,337. Its total area is 41.19 km² (15.9 sq mi) which gives a population dens ...

in Belgium and

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

in the Netherlands. It currently consists out of two schools, th
School of Life Sciences
and th
School of Information Technology

History

The tUL, even though only officially founded in 2000, has a longer history. Starting as early as 1988 the two parent universities have been opening discussions to co-operate better. In 1992 both universities offered the study ''Computer Science/Knowledge Engineering''. The course was given in both universities and students had to attend classes on both campuses. In 1998 a mixed Dutch/Belgian committee proposed the idea of an official transnational university, which got accepted by the Flemish government in 1999. In 2001 the treaty was signed by the Dutch and Belgian minister of education officially instating the tUL as the first Belgian-Dutch transnational university. The studies ''Computer Science/Knowledge Engineering'' and ''Biomedical Sciences'' were the first offered by the university. In 2002 the university started offering ''Molecular Life Sciences'' as a third option. The official number of students starting college in 2001 was at 526, 220 for Biomedical Sciences and 306 for Computer Science/Knowledge Engineering.

Current developments

Even though the number of students studying ''Computer Science/Knowledge Engineering'' before the official instantiation of the tUL had been rising every year, the launch of this new university brought along some problems, decreasing the student count. The tUL was not allowed to advertise itself in Dutch study guides because it was not an official Dutch University. Also, there were issues concerning national differences (amongst others on the legal/financial division of responsibilities), and also on the Dutch side the tUL was considered a prestige/vanity project of former Maastricht University board chairman

Karl Dittrich Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

External links

*
More information about higher education in Flanders/Belgium (in English)

Find an officially recognised programme of this institution in the Higher Education Register

Website of the Universiteit Maastricht

Website of the Universiteit Hasselt
{{authority control Universities in the Netherlands Universities in Belgium Educational institutions established in 2000 Organisations based in Limburg (Belgium) 2000 establishments in Belgium 2000 establishments in the Netherlands Education in Maastricht Hasselt