Who are we?
BEST Brussels is one of the 95 Local BEST Groups (LBGs) around Europe. We are situated on the campus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where we every year welcome our participants and cooperate with the engineering and science departments to prepare our Summer Course. Besides organizing our yearly Summer Course, we try to broaden our minds by organizing every year different and even more events! Besides the international events we host, we also organize some local activities to have a closer contact with our fellow students at the VUB. Being a member of LBG Brussels brings not only taking responsibilities along, but it also contains having a lot of fun with friends, developing yourself and meeting many European students, that pass by spontaneously in our beautiful city.
The history of LBG Brussels
Summer 1993: a group of students at the faculty of Applied Sciences wanted to organize a cultural exchange. Browsing through the net they discovered BEST and from that point, BEST Brussels was founded. Already during the summer of 1994, the first Summer Course was organized, entitled “Management for Engineers”. Due to the success of this course, BEST Brussels became officially accepted as “Baby-member” in November 1994 at the General Assembly in Timisoara. During the summer of 1995, we organized our second summer course with the subject “Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in Cities”. Shortly after, we received the “Full-member”-status during the Presidents Meeting of November 1995 in Trondheim (Norway). This allowed us to fully co-operate and take part in decisions at BEST. From that day on, BEST Brussels has organized yearly a successful Summer Course, touching diverse technological topics in cooperation with many departments of the VUB. Not only organizing public events, our members and students of our university have had the chance to experience new cultures during many cultural exchanges. BEST Brussels has also largely contributed to the international action at BEST. Hosting internal BEST events (like board meetings, committee meetings, training events,…) our biggest challenge was organizing the General Assembly in 1997, in cooperation with the four Belgian BEST groups at that moment (Brussels ULB, Liege, Louvain-la-Neuve, and Ghent). Besides organizing internal events, many of our members have been or are internationally active in several departments.
Situating the VUB – Our University
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is the Flemish university in Brussels that grew out of the French-speaking ‘Université Libre de Bruxelles’ (ULB) in 1970. In this 30 years, the VUB has become a well-respected player in the Belgian and European academical world. Characterized by its very open approach the university has a very international orientation, with a wide variety of classes taught in English for students of all nationalities. Both in fundamental and applied research the VUB pushes the frontiers of research. This environment forms the ideal base for the self-development, which is important for every student. Brussels, Capital of Belgium and Europe!
Brussels – Capital of Belgium & Europe!
Brussels, a city full of life during the day, but its monuments, its habitants, and its young and diverse students make the city shine even during the night. This capital is not only different from all other Belgian cities because of its bilingual language, it is also the capital of the continent: all languages & cultures and commerce, meet here in a cosmopolitan atmosphere of business and relaxation. It is a city, which takes everyone from the international businessman to the unobtrusive tourist to its heart. We’re sure that you will love the city as well!
BEST International
For more information on the international structure of BEST, you can visit the international website.