The Thierry Graduate School of Leadership (THIERRY)

Services & Facilities

LIBRARIES (On-campus and online)

Apart from the on-campus library, the THIERRY Online leadership library (e-library) holds thousands of articles, essays, and other course materials in the domain of leadership studies, development, education, practice, and in the closely related fields and areas of study. The learning resources, including the THIERRY Blue_Marble videos, are used in the programs, courses, and seminars offered by The Thierry Graduate School of Leadership of Belgium, the International Higher Institute for Leadership INSIL Institut Supérieur International de Leadership of France, and at cooperating institutions.

ONLINE ACADEMY (THIERRY Online)

The Thierry Online Unit presents the distance education and blended learning versions of the certificate, diploma, and degree programs in leadership and change.

CAMPUS (The Thierry Eco-campus and Collegiate Meeting Center)

Going back in time: Plato's inspirational academy...

Some 2400 years ago, in Ancient Greece, the philosopher Plato started his grove academy, a school in a garden environment. The subsequent Roman times brought us the word 'campus', originally meaning open field or pasture. That historical legacy was one of the sources of inspiration for the THIERRY eco-campus project. In the summer of 2004, when our graduate school was still located in Brussels, the concept of a small outdoor campus was introduced. The site, having been put at the disposal of the school by special courtesy of its private owners, is also called the Outdoor Academy Ardennes and The House. Both have been integrated into the eco-campus, with its multiyear environmental project initiated in 2010. In accordance with the school's philosophy, and investment policy in which the affordability of studies prevails, the operating costs of the eco-campus are financed by the owners, not by tuition fees of students.

Creating a space: when Nature defines the rules...

The THIERRY eco-campus is distinguishable from others by a series of particularities. The school's aims extend far beyond the waste management, recycling, or environmental protection measures and policies implemented at many university campuses or other organisations around the world. With our eco-campus the emphasis is placed on the premise that mankind's place is subordinate to the natural environment, not the natural environment to fit mankind, nor the preservation of the natural environment for its own sake only. Rather than being a man-designed form of greenery architecture, the campus grounds are part of the surrounding environment : the 850 hectares (2,100 acres) of adjacent and mostly uninhabited woods. The campus was thus "given" its biotope space, while undergoing the many influences of the natural ecosystem at large, and of the local climate. Human intervention is mostly one of tending to the ecological balance of "things". For example, the lawns are not from cultivated grass seeds, but are the original pasture grasses, weeds, and mosses, being mowed so to remain nature-authentic greens. And nearly all of the trees are local indigenous species, not exotic ones.

About The House: its multi-purpose versatility...

Workshops, labs, and course sessions are held on the greens or in the eco-campus' House. The mansion's oak-framed walls and foundations from rock stones, are of the early 18th century. Some of the building materials that had been used then, date back to the second half of the 16th century. They were probably retrieved from the ruins of a nearby but nowadays disappeared medieval iron blast furnace (iron ore and melting dross is still found on the eco-campus grounds). Originally a charcoal- burners' dwelling, the house afterwards became a small cattle farm. In the course of the 20th century it was transformed into a residential lodge, and was enlarged twice. The interior of the house is decorated with century-old furniture made locally. The overall layout lends itself to multiple uses and purposes, for instance the rooms and spaces for small group courses or for individual face to face teaching and coaching sessions, or the reading of a book from the school's leadership library. The words serenity and charm would best describe the overall atmosphere of the eco-campus House.

The Famenne-Ardennes area, throughout history...

The eco-campus site is situated in a hamlet of the northeastern Belgian Ardennes, bordering the Famenne region. Nearby towns include Durbuy, a small city that has kept many of its medieval houses and streets; Manhay, where fierce WWII battles were fought in the winter of 1944; the village of Wéris with its 4000-year-old megaliths; and on the banks of the Ourthe river the town of Barvaux where the school's "Ardennes East" administrative office is located since the end of 2009. In more ancient times, the entire region, with its embanked rivers and endless forests, constituted a natural barrier against invasions. Nevertheless, after the Stone Age tribes, and the Celts, some Gallic and Germanic ones settled here. So did the Romans, the Franks, the Normans, and many later nations. Many of those cultures left their imprints. The fortresses, castles, abbeys, stone-paved roads, and other legacies from the past, also remind visitors that the emperor Charlemagne often crossed on horse this area of Belgium that nowadays connects France and Germany by high-speed trains, and into the greater Europe.

On environment and leadership, for the future...

Apart from the numerous leisure and sports opportunities at and nearby the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership's eco-campus, the students, program participants, alumni, executives, and teachers from around the world, are all treated as true guests and share their passion for leadership, as well as their hopes and worries about the -in all regards- rapidly changing global and local environments.