History of Campus Belval

How did we end up here of all places?

Often whenever I meet someone new at the university, after the basic introductions are finished one of us will usually turn to the other and say something along the lines of “So, how come you ended up in Luxembourg?” The answers to this question vary so much from person to person that it never seems like a mere formality; from tuition fees, ease of travel, language learning opportunities or simply being from Luxembourg and wanting to study from home.

The question posed in the title, and hopefully the answers given are along a similar line. Unfortunately for me – and perhaps rather fortunately for those of you reading this – the question is not a philosophical one, rather it is just a snapshot of the recent history of the university and why, of all places, Belval was chosen as the site for the majority of the university to operate out of. As well as some speculation on my part of where this may leave us in the future.

The 2002 Masterplan

As I’m sure even the most unobservant student is well aware, the site of the university used to be a steel mill, which finally shut down production in 1997 after reducing its capacity over the previous four years. As a result of this, much of the economy in and around Belval diminished and the site was chosen as one of four “reclamation projects’’ by the government at the time and a new “public-private partnership” Agora was set up to oversee this project in 2000. While the public element of the new company was composed of various government officials, the private side was (and is) essentially run by the ex-steel baron who owned and does in part still own the site where the Belval campus would eventually be built. This resulted in the board of Agora being composed of four members of the private sector, four government officials and one representative from the commune of Esch and one from Sanem.

Now, it is important to remember that the university did not exist in any capacity until 2003 when several research institutes in the city merged into the beginnings of the university we know today. This means that when Agora first began considering what to do with the old steel mills in Belval they, for better or worse, had no idea what it would actually become. In fact, the initial plan was to create an “environment for research” without any students, or indeed a university at all. Partly driven by the idea in fashion at the time that Luxembourgish students would go to university abroad. bringing back expertise from the rest of Europe and beyond upon completing their degrees.

Belval, with all six furnaces in operation

The project of revitalising Belval unsurprisingly took a long time, from the myriad internal difficulties in maintaining a longterm project across changes of government, the arduous process of decontaminating the soil at the site – is it any wonder most of the trees are in giant plant pots? – preserving and burnishing the steel kilns, the list goes on… And in that time a great many things changed including the inception of the brand new “Université du Luxembourg” at the then campus in Limpertsberg. It was with this decision to form an actual university that the project in Belval changed from simply a research centre to the pale imitation of a campus that we know and love today. This decision, for better or worse, is one that has shaped the experiences of not only those students who actually study in Belval, but also all of those who have to commute to Kirchberg or Limpertsberg from there.

However, it took several more years for the idea of Belval not just as a research centre, but as a university to take shape. Initially the idea was that the university would draw inspiration from other new universities in the surrounding areas, specifically Leuven-la- Neuve with the aim of drawing in roughly 30,000 students – obviously that has not happened yet, and the number of students has plateaued at around 6-7000 in recent years. According to Rolf Tarrah, the rector at the time, there were a number of miscommunications between Agora and the university as it existed before Belval campus in which Agora wanted to know student numbers for the purpose of university capacity, which the university could not provide without knowing the available capacities and so on… Furthermore, the same rector also expressed concerns at the conference “let’s talk about Belval” about the prospects of a fulfilling and well rounded student-life in Belval considering the small number of students, concerns which in my modest and personal opinion seem fairly well founded.

However, Etienne Router – the former president of Agora – claimed that the restoration project was a huge success, thanks in part to both governmental and private investment as well as ongoing support for the project across changes of government. The aims of the project crucially not being limited to building a functioning university but as part of a larger project of decentralising Luxembourg by creating multiple “living and working hubs” throughout the country for certain industries, hence the moniker “Cité des Sciences”.

Students going to SEVE

2022, in a parallel universe

With the end goals being to provide jobs and investments in these underdeveloped ex-industrial areas, limit the exponential increases in housing costs in and around Luxembourg City by providing alternate places to work, and finally to reduce the congestion in the city and commute times in genera for people working in Luxembourg. In all of this they may well have succeeded, but the campus starts to make a little more sense when considered as a means to an end in all of this rather than the end itself.

A further issue that was raised both in the conference and in conversation with other students is the issue of exactly who the university is owned by. Part of the problem surrounding this is that there are three major players involved. The university itself, Fonds Belval, and Agora. The university for the time being does not own any of the campus or buildings on it, instead renting them from and also paying for maintenance and upkeep through Fonds Belval. While this may seem bizarre to some, myself included, according to Mr. Tarrah whether or not a university owns the buildings it operates out of has little effect on the quality of the university itself and it is not altogether uncommon for universities to have arrangements like this throughout the world.

As such, the problem of ownership was not a large focus for him during his time as rector, so much as the state of the campus itself and the moving of most departments from the city. Agora on the other hand, owns the land itself and still oversees the ongoing development projects in and around the campus – with the current plan being to buy out what remains of the private sector influence within Agora by 2030, bringing the land back into public ownership.

Re-urbanisation begins

Now what comes next is little more than speculation on my part. However, it doesn’t seem altogether unlikely that due to both moving the majority of the university from the city, and the fact that the initial plan for the Belval reclamation project was not to build a university but rather a research centre has in some way impacted or exacerbated the issues surrounding student housing. As such, a lot of the housing developments in the area are aimed at families and first time buyers rather than housing students due to the expected increase in researchers and other office jobs as a result of the project.

For example, the residential projects between Belval and Belvaux contain only one student residence in what has essentially become a brand new small town of apartment blocks. Furthermore, the move from the city to Belval campus has meant the loss of both opportunities for students to feasibly rent in the city as well as the small amount of accommodation that the university had there – due to issues with refurbishment, flooding as well as it being sold off.

So, while I agree with Mr. Reuter that the restoration project in Belval was a success, this does not mean that the project of building the university itself was entirely successful. And going into the future, with student life still being rather quiet due to numbers of students plateauing around 6-7000 and the issues already faced with shortages of student accommodation now. It does seem that without resolving the issue the university will not grow much larger than this while the rest of Belval may start to dwarf it in the years to come.

by Kieran Salt