Luxembourg

Country in Europe

Capital: Luxembourg City
Dialing code: +352
Currency: Euro
Population: 543,202 (2013) World Bank
Official languages: French, Luxembourgish, German

Luxembourg is a small European country, surrounded by Belgium, France and Germany. It’s mostly rural, with dense Ardennes forest and nature parks in the north, rocky gorges of the Mullerthal region in the east and the Moselle river valley in the southeast. Its capital, Luxembourg City, is famed for its fortified medieval old town perched on sheer cliffs.
Luxembourg is the capital of the small European nation of the same name. Built amid deep gorges cut by the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers, it’s famed for its ruins of medieval fortifications. The vast Bock Casemates tunnel network encompasses a dungeon, prison and the Archaeological Crypt, considered the city’s birthplace. Along ramparts above, the Chemin de la Corniche promenade offers dramatic viewpoints.
Luxembourg is a landlocked country in Western Europe bordering Germany, Belgium and France. The country is divided into two distinct geographical regions. The woody uplands of the Ardennes in the north and the fertile lowlands of the south called Bon Pays. The capital is Luxembourg. The population amounts to 0.5 million. The national language is Luxembourgish, while French is used for administrative and media purposes, although German is the main written language for the press.

Higher Education System

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The University Sector

The University of Luxembourg was created in July 2003. The institution comprises nearly all the former existing institutions of higher education in Luxembourg.

At present, the University of Luxembourg is organised in three faculties: Sciences, Technology and Communication; Law, Economics and Finance; Languages and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education.

The University of Luxembourg offers first-degree courses leading to bachelor’s degrees in the fields of law, economics, European culture studies (languages, human sciences), educational sciences, psychology, social sciences, life sciences, engineering, informatics, natural sciences and technology.

Master’s degrees are also awarded. The various programmes are offered in close co-operation with foreign universities (in Belgium, France or Germany).

The Non-University Sector

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The non-university sector consists of two years’ training at the further education level in a limited number of vocational areas (this selection of areas are offered by further education colleges) leading to a Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (higher technician’s diploma).

University of Luxembourg

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If you want to talk to the young woman or man at the nearby café table, first of all you have to find out what language they speak. In the Grand Duchy, one of the founder states of the European Union, about 46% of the 571,000 inhabitants are foreign. This multicultural ambience of day-to-day contact with people from around the world gives the small state an astonishingly cosmopolitan outlook – not least thanks to the European institutions, the financial centre and international students.

But of course it is far easier to get around the capital (107,000 inhabitants) than it is in Berlin or Paris. The distances are short. There is a lively nightlife scene around the fashionable bars of Hollerich, Grund and Clausen in the capital, or in the "Rockhal" and the "Kulturfabrik" at Esch/Alzette.

Furthermore, there are plenty of sports, leisure activities as well as events: cinemas and climbing parks, mountain bike trails and an enormous cultural range – from jazz in the mediaeval city, contemporary art at MUDAM, theatre in every language or classical as well as world music in the most beautiful new building in Luxembourg, the Philharmonie. All this set against the romantic backdrop of the mediaeval city – a UNESCO world heritage site since 1994 –, the castles in the richly-forested north and the vineyards along the Mosel.

Discover the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s many facets!