- Transnational University Limburg
The transnationale Universiteit Limburg (abbreviation tUL and translation in English is: 'transnational University Limburg') is based in the Netherlands (and Belgium). tUL stands for "transnationale Universiteit Limburg". The tUL was founded together by both the
Universiteit Maastricht and the Limburgs Universitair Centrum, nowHasselt University as a way to co-operate better.Organisational structure
The tUL has a quite complicated organisational structure. Even though is has been created out of two already existing universities, it legally is not dependent on any of them. Both in
Belgium andThe Netherlands 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 inBelgium andMaastricht inThe Netherlands . It currently consists out of two schools, the [http://www.tul.edu/levenswetenschappen School of Life Sciences] and the [http://www.tul.edu/informatietechnologie School of Information Technology] .History
The tUL, even though only officially founded in
2000 , has a longer history. Starting as early as1988 the two parent universities have been opening discussions to co-operate better. In1992 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. In1998 a mixed Dutch/Belgian committee proposed the idea of an official transnational university, which got accepted by the Flemish government in1999 . In2001 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. In2002 the university started offering "Molecular Life Sciences" as a third option. The official number of students starting college in2001 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 issues), and on the Dutch side the tUL was considered nothing more than a prestige project of former board chairman
Karl Dittrich .External links
* [http://www.tul.edu Website of the transnationale Universiteit Limburg]
* [http://www.highereducation.be More information about higher education in Flanders/Belgium (in English)]
* [http://www.highereducation.be/content.php?section=zoekmachine&subsection=eenvoudig&action=zoeken Find an officially recognised programme of this institution in the Higher Education Register]
* [http://www.unimaas.nl/ Website of the Universiteit Maastricht]
* [http://www.uhasselt.be/ Website of the Universiteit Hasselt]
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