News

Hasselt University has been named the worldwide winner of the Global Student Satisfaction Award 2025 in the category Admission Process. The award was officially presented during the EAIE conference in Sweden on 8 September.

What characteristics of parasites make people shrink, and which ones might make people appreciate them? These are the central questions of the World Archives of Species Perception - Parasite (WASP-P) project at the Centre for Environmental Sciences at UHasselt. This is a sort of beauty contest where the general public can rate 10 species of parasites based on various traits, from beautiful or ugly to harmless or frightening. “We would like to better understand how people perceive parasitic species. Even though at first sight, they may not all look as appealing as a panda, they are an important component of biodiversity. And it's our job as humans to protect these species as well,” say biologists Dr Tiziana Gobbin and Dr Armando Cruz-Laufer.

Mycelium, the underground root network of mushrooms, exhibits excellent insulation properties in terms of thermal conductivity and soundproofing. This is confirmed by new research from the Environmental Sciences Centre at UHasselt. "In some areas, certain mycelium-based materials we produced in our lab even performed just as well as PUR, the well-known insulation material commonly used in construction," says Prof. Dr. François Rineau. So, will we soon be insulating our homes with mushrooms? "It's still too early for that, but these materials hold a lot of potential."

The AnaEE-Flanders consortium, a collaboration between UHasselt and UAntwerpen, which conducts research on the impact of climate change on ecosystems, receives €3,760,223 funding from the Region of Flanders, FWO. "With this funding, we ensure the long-term operation of our facilities to study environmental change impact on ecosystems," says Prof. dr. Nadia Soudzilovskaia, who leads the consortium from the Centre for Environmental Sciences at UHasselt.

Researchers at BIOMED UHasselt, together with technology company ZEISS, which specializes in microscopes, developed a software module that dives deeper and better into human cells using confocal microscopy. This software can even be used to create so-called heatmaps, to see how biomolecules move within cells. "This will really boost the knowledge around cell biology and have an impact on a lot of biomedical and biological research," says Prof. Dr. Jelle Hendrix.

The Flemish government has approved the launch of an English-taught Master of Science in Energy Engineering Technology at the Faculty of Engineering Technology (UHasselt/KU Leuven). This programme prepares future engineers for the many challenges and opportunities involved in the current energy transition.

What is the state of global populations of parasites such as lice, ticks, tapeworms and roundworms? How can we better monitor them and what challenges and positive aspects do these species bring to the environment? To answer these questions, the nature conservation organisation IUCN, known for drawing up red lists of endangered species, is starting a global expert group of which Hasselt University, with funding from the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO-Vlaanderen), coordinates the European members and supports the activities globally.

After the European Union gave the go-ahead for the second phase of the European network of universities EURECA-PRO in June 2023, no more than 140 members from the 9 partner universities are gathering at Hasselt University this week. "In this kick-off week, we are laying the foundation on which we will build our network over the next four years to become the contact point within Europe for sustainable production and consumption," says rector Bernard Vanheusden.

How beautiful, cute, intelligent or dangerous do you find the giant panda, a crane, a sea anemone or a slug? With a large survey of the general public, the Center for Environmental Sciences at UHasselt wants to gain more insight into public perception of animal species. To this end, the researchers developed a "beauty contest" with a platform where visitors can rate some 2,000 animal species. The goal: to help nature conservation.

After several site visits by an external jury and an extensive evaluation over several years, UHasselt's Faculty of Business Economics receives the prestigious AACSB quality label from the American Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. It assesses colleges offering business education worldwide and awards this highly-regarded quality label to institutions that excel in their economic education and research. "Quite an honour for our faculty as only 6% of academic management programmes worldwide have this label," says Dean Prof dr. Piet Pauwels.