Katholike University Leuven was founded in 1425 and today has expanded into the largest university of Flanders, with 29000 students. Its history of nearly six hundred years has provided K.U.Leuven with its own dynamic international dimension. Today international co-operation is regarded as essential for a modern university. Top-level research is judged according to international standards and implies interaction, co-operation and exchange, both of researchers and results. One European survey ranks K.U. Leuven among the top ten European universities in terms of its scholarly output. Likewise with regard to teaching, several quality surveys demonstrate that K.U.Leuven stands on par with internationally respected institutions in a large number of fields. This academic reputation attracts students from all over the world. K.U.Leuven has been involved in the Erasmus student exchange programme since its launch in Europe in the 1980s; the growing success of the Erasmus programme later on led to the launch of the Socrates programme, and today K.U.Leuven has over 300 contracts under this programme. Each year around 600 international Erasmus students spend part of their study programme in Leuven, while about 500 of our students share the same European experience at a foreign university. The TEMPUS-PHARE programme was set up for students and researchers from Eastern Europe, while contacts with universities in the former Soviet Union are being built up through the TEMPUS-TACIS programme.