Vrije Universiteit Brussel

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a Dutch-speaking public university in Brussels, Belgium. It was established in 1970 when the bilingual Free University of Brussels, founded in 1834 on a secular principle of free inquiry, split into the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking VUB. It remains a non-denominational university organized around that Enlightenment motto rather than a state or church affiliation.

VUB has eight faculties, including sciences, engineering, medicine and pharmacy, law and criminology, social sciences and Solvay Business School, arts and philosophy, psychology and educational sciences, and physical education and physiotherapy. The medical faculty is tied to UZ Brussel on the Jette campus; the main teaching campus is Etterbeek. Graduate research is strong in physics, engineering, computer science, molecular life sciences, and political science, with affiliated research parks in the Brussels region.

The university enrolls about 20,000 students, with a substantial international share from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Academic staff number in the low thousands when hospital clinicians are included. Alumni include astronaut Frank De Winne, scientists trained in the Brussels labs, and officials in Belgian and European institutions.

Graduate offerings include master's degrees often taught in English, advanced master's, and doctorates under a promoter-and-jury model typical of Flemish universities. Some programs are organized jointly with other Brussels institutions. The academic year follows the Belgian semester calendar. Students work in a bilingual capital that hosts EU institutions and NATO, with campus life split between Etterbeek and the medical site at Jette.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Vrije Universiteit Brussel lists 1 master's program, in communication, media & journalism. Vrije Universiteit Brussel holds rank 323 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.