Situated in Brussels and home to a thriving international community, Vesalius College offers students a truly unique educational experience. As Europe’s capital, Brussels has an important international vocation: the city is home to European institutions, NATO, and numerous international organisations and multinational companies. Our students can benefit from this international setting in many ways, and our academic programmes draws on this setting to deliver a strong European focus.

Vesalius College has been bringing Brussels further into the classroom by holding a range of guest lectures and workshops with prominent Brussels-based experts. These lectures and workshops are held by Vesalius College’s International Affairs, Communications and Business departments, as well as the European Peace and Security Studies (EPSS) programme.

The workshops and lectures allow students to benefit from direct contact with experts, such as policymakers, international scholars, business leaders, think tank researchers and journalists. This way, students benefit not only from our guest lecturers’ expertise, but are also able to interact with them and build up their own personal and professional networks.

Recent guest lectures and workshops have included:

• “The End of the Cold War and the Great Challenges of the 1990s” Willy Claes, Former NATO Secretary General and Belgian Minister of State

• “For the Greater Good? Personal Reflections on Political Advocacy, Diplomacy and Peacekeeping”
  Tom Pravda, British Diplomat and Peacekeeping Expert, Co-founder of the global civic action platform AVAAZ.org

• "Preventing Mass Atrocities: The Case for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS)"
  Fergus Watt, Executive Director, World Federalist Movement, Canada

• "Emerging Global Security Threats & Future Challenges - The NATO Perspective"
  Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Emerging Security Threats, NATO

• “European Communication Policies and Their Impact on Journalism” Aidan White, Director General, International Federation of Journalists/European Federation of Journalists

• “Today’s Global Leadership and Diversity” Regina Eckert, Senior Research Associate at Center for Creative Leadership

• “European Communication Policies: The Role of the European Commission” Dr. Wolfgang Streitenberger, Counsellor to the Director General, Information Society and Media Directorate General, European Commission

• “Legal Aspects of Setting Up an International Business” Mohamed El Bakkali, Finance & Administration Director of EastNets Europe & USA and Professor at the Louvain School of Management – ICHEC & ESSF

• “European Communication Policies and the European Broadcasting Union” Nicola Frank, Head of European Affairs, European Broadcasting Union.

Vesalius College offers bachelor’s degrees in Business, Communications and International Affairs, and an MSc in European Union Policy. The College’s teaching methods are characterised by small, interactive classes, flexibility in course selection and continuous assessment. As a small college with a student body of approximately 300 and a low student-to-professor ratio, the faculty is accessible and able to take a personal interest in the success of students to help them achieve their potential. Close working relationships between the faculty and students are the cornerstone of the Vesalius education philosophy.

 Liberal Arts – Global Minds

The Vesalius curriculum places strong emphasis on providing students with a broad education, reaching beyond artificial boundaries between disciplines. Students are encouraged to complement their major studies with elective courses in philosophy, music, script writing, natural sciences and other fields. In addition, to prepare our students for an ever-more globalised world, language training (including French, Dutch and Mandarin Chinese) is part of the curriculum. At Vesalius, we pride ourselves in offering a liberal and global education that enables our students to think critically, creatively and broadly about core processes and major issues in an ever-changing global environment.

For more information, please visit our website www.vesalius.edu or contact Ms. Willemijn Nieuwenhuys, Director External Relations at Vesalius College: wniewen@vub.ac.be. To view our latest newsletter, click here.