In Antwerp, you’ll find a highly trained and well motivated workforce.

Antwerp has its own university with a great number of spin-offs and start-ups located nearby. But the appeal of the city reacher a lot wider. Many young graduates come to Antwerp to start their careers and their lives. 

Accreditations & Rankings

The University of Antwerp was the first Belgian university to receive the renowned and prestigious international AACSB accreditations as well as AMBA for its MBA-degree. Its executive MBA program moved up 10 places to rank 45 worldwide and is n.1 in the Benelux. It is the highest ranking ever achieved by a Belgian business school. Also its Master in Management (29th place) is ranked in the yearly Financial Times rankings. The University of Antwerp attained 13th place as well in the top 50 universities ranking 2021.

The university’s key research domains are in the fields of harbour & logistics, sustainability, science & engineering, and medical sciences. In addition, Antwerp is home to a number of specialised knowledge centres linked to the university or the colleges.

Frontline Research Domains

• Drug Discovery and Development
• Ecology and Sustainable Development
• Harbour, Transport and Logistics
• Imaging
• Infectious Diseases
• Materials Characterisation
• Neuroscience
• Socio-Economic Policy and Organisation
• Urban History and Contemporary Urban Policy

A unique concentration of study programmes

Antwerp differentiates itself with its unique concentration of study programmes within a relatively small area. Within a 204 km² radius, students can choose from more than 200 study programmes offered by the institutions of higher education based in the city, in various disciplines such as economy, history, medical sciences and much more. However, what makes Antwerp extra special is the additional range of (often internationally) renowned programmes in specific knowledge domains related to the clusters of the Antwerp economy.

Thanks to these study programmes, the Antwerp region benefits from a large pool of highly trained and specialised talent that helps shape the future of the Antwerp economy. Managers within companies often recognise a flexible, internationally-focused mentality among the talent in Antwerp that, combined with their multilingualism and good training, enables them to perform well in an increasingly dynamic, global context. Entrepreneurial talent also has every opportunity to flourish at an early stage in Antwerp. For example, TAKEOFFANTWERP, an initiative organised by the Antwerp University Association, City of Antwerp, Chamber of Commerce VOKA and student organisation SYNC, offers various forms of support to starters, including a specific status as a ‘student entrepreneur’.

Over 15,000 people in the province of Antwerp work in research and development. That is over a quarter of all the people in Flanders employed in R&D.

The province of Antwerp devotes 2.5 billion euros to research and development. That is 24% of the Belgian total and 39% of the Flemish total, which puts Antwerp in first place in Flanders.

The province of Antwerp is the frontrunner when it comes to the number of patent applications, with its 129 patent applications making up 25% of all such applications in Flanders. Over half of these patent applications were made by companies in the district of Antwerp.