The University was based in Leuven (French name "Louvain"), 30 km from Brussels, until 1968, when a linguistic dispute was resolved by the following settlement:
The Dutch-speaking part, now named Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, would stay in Leuven (which is in the part of Belgium where Dutch is the recognised language), while the French-speaking part would move to a newly created town, Louvain-la-Neuve, 20 km south-east of Brussels.
Louvain (acronym UCL) educates nearly 25,000 students in all areas of studies, from theology to biology and from nuclear physics to law. It has educated a large part of Belgium's elite and is still considered, with its Dutch-speaking sister, as a centre of excellence in many fields. It is connected to Brussels by a fast train service, and the new town and camups is unusually architecturally interesting.