Bachelor in Chemistry

Chemistry studies matter, its composition, properties and reactions. Chemistry naturally links Natural Sciences. Today, chemistry plays a central role in three major areas in our Society, which are as many challenges for our development: health, energy and environment.

The Department of Chemistry of ULB takes these demands into account: it trains students to analyse new problems Society poses and to develop their creativity to solve them. This training will allow students to fulfil their personal aspirations in a large number of areas of application, traditional or new, including creating materials having new properties, developing alternate sources of energy, discovering new medicines, helping to preserve the quality of food resources, controlling and reducing pollution…

The specific competences aimed are listed under the heading “Learning objectives”.

The methods used depend upon the subject taught: ex cathedra courses, sessions of supervised exercises, practical work, practical training, projects, personal work

The training at ULB emphasises the importance of the experimental approach and personal work. Together with the practical work and sessions of supervised exercises, the “active” work carried out by the bachelor represents more than 50% of his/her training. During his/her BA, the student is also brought round to actively developing projects at the “Experimentarium of Chemistry” or the “Spring of Sciences”.

The BA in Chemistry ends with an end-of-cyclepersonal work, during which the student tackles research for the first time in teams of the department.

Learning support is provided in personalised guidance structures in chemistry, physics and mathematics. A dedicated room, a library, collections of exercises, access to computer help, a standard laboratory and more are available for this purpose.

The ULB is a full, French-speaking university, located in the capital of Europe. It benefits from a remarkable cultural melting pot (a definite source of richness), which makes it naturally open to the international market.

The Department of Chemistry is composed of internationally-recognized research groups, the activities of which having been rewarded by several prestigious prices, including the Nobel Prize. To date, the Department of Chemistry is the only one in Belgium to have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Department of Chemistry also benefits from scientific activities (colloquia and chairs in Chemistry), organised at ULB by the International Solvay Institutes in Physics and Chemistry.

All year long, most courses are supplemented with exercise sessions and laboratory classes, which are supervised by academic and scientific staff, and individual supervised coursework.

The student has at his/her disposal:

• laboratories

• the university libraries

• individual guidance for chemistry, physics and mathematics with access to the following : fully equipped and supervised working room, library, collections of additional exercises, access to IT resources, standard laboratory …

In addition to the learning support mentioned above, the first-year students can be helped (“parrainer”) by higher-degree students in Chemistry.