Today, at Gasthuisberg campus, the foundation stone has been laid for STEPS, KU Leuven’s new skills centre for students and health professionals. This building will house innovative learning environments and advanced simulation technologies for students in the Biomedical Sciences Group and for health professionals. With this project, the university takes an important step in expanding and strengthening its infrastructure for education and training in the context of health care.
The past decade, the number of students in Biomedical Sciences (Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Movement & Rehabilitation Sciences) has substantially increased. To make sure all these students can easily respond to the rapidly changing health care context and needs, the university will support a number of initiatives for educational innovation and interprofessional student education. Additionally, continuing education is an absolute requirement to make sure we keep working on the bridge between the professional field and the academic world.
a realistic working environment that
will optimally prepare students
for the real workplace.
One of the important pillars of that approach is the skills education in the study programmes. That is why the university is building a multidisciplinary and high-performing skills centre, to create a realistic learning environment for students, which will optimally prepare them for the professional field. The project was named STEPS: Skills Training Education Proficiency Simulation. This project will be housed in the existing building ‘Onderwijs & Navorsing 2’, and in a new building, of which the foundation stone was laid today. The new building should be ready by the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.