Establishment of a university in Brussels , founder of the
Free University of Brussels The history of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is closely linked with that of Belgium itself. When the
Belgian state was formed in 1830 by nine breakaway provinces from the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, three state universities existed in the cities of
Ghent,
Leuven and
Liège, but none in the new capital, Brussels. Since the government was reluctant to fund another state university, a group of leading intellectuals in the fields of arts, science, and education—amongst whom the study prefect of the Royal Athenaeum of Brussels,
Auguste Baron, as well as the astronomer and mathematician
Adolphe Quetelet—planned to create a
private university, which was permitted under the
Belgian Constitution. The country's
liberals strongly opposed to this decision, and furthered their ideas for a university in Brussels as a counterbalance to the Catholic institution. At the same time, Auguste Baron had just become a member of the
freemasonic lodge
Les Amis Philantropes. Baron was able to convince
Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen, the president of the lodge, to support the idea for a new university. On 24 June 1834, Verhaegen presented his plan to establish a free university. In 1836, the university was renamed the
Université libre de Bruxelles ("
Free University of Brussels").
Growth and internal tensions , The Free University grew significantly over the following decades. In 1842, it moved to the
Granvelle Palace, which it occupied until 1928. It expanded the number of subjects taught and, in 1880, became one of the first institutions in Belgium to allow female students to study in some faculties. In 1893, it received large grants from
Ernest and
Alfred Solvay as well as
Raoul Warocqué to open new faculties in Brussels. A disagreement over an invitation to the
anarchist geographer
Élisée Reclus to speak at the university in 1893 from the rector
Hector Denis led to some of the liberal and socialist faculty splitting away from the Free University to form the
New University of Brussels (
Université nouvelle de Bruxelles) in 1894. However, the institution failed to displace the Free University and closed definitively in 1919. In
1900, the Free University's
football team won the bronze medal at the
Summer Olympics. After
Racing Club de Bruxelles declined to participate, a student selection with players from the university was sent by the Federation. The team was enforced with a few non-students. The Institute of Sociology was founded in 1902, then in 1904 the Solvay School of Commerce, which would later become the
Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (part of ULB) and VUB Solvay Business School (part of VUB). In 1911, the university obtained its
legal personality under the name
- Vrije Hogeschool te Brussel.
German occupation and move The
German occupation during
World War I led to the suspension of classes for four years in 1914–1918. In the aftermath of the war, the Free University moved its principal activities to the
Solbosch/Solbos in the southern municipality of
Elsene, and a purpose-built university
campus was created, funded by the
Belgian American Educational Foundation. During the
second occupation of
World War II, the university protested the two
anti-Jewish ordinances of 28 October 1940, but nevertheless collaborated for the expulsion of Jewish professors and students. However, the university ceased its
collaboration when it came to accepting Flemish professors of the
New Order. Thus, the university was again closed by the German authorities on 25 November 1941, and some of its students were involved in the
Belgian Resistance, establishing the sabotage-orientated network
Groupe G.
Splitting of the university Courses at the Free University were taught exclusively in French until the early 20th century. After Belgian independence, French was widely accepted as the language of the
bourgeoisie and
upper classes and was the only medium in law and academia. As the
Flemish Movement gained prominence among the Dutch-speaking majority in Flanders over the late 19th century, the lack of provision for Dutch speakers in higher education became a major source of political contention.
Ghent University became the first institution in 1930 to teach exclusively in Dutch. Some courses at the Free University's Faculty of Law began being taught in both French and Dutch as early as 1935. Nevertheless, it was not until 1963 that all faculties offered their courses in both languages. Tensions between French- and Dutch-speaking students in the country came to a head in 1968 when the
Catholic University of Leuven split along linguistic lines, becoming the first of several national institutions to do so. On 1 October 1969, the French and Dutch entities of the Free University separated into two distinct sister universities. This splitting became official with the act of 28 May 1970, of the
Belgian Parliament, by which the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the French-speaking
Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) officially became two separate legal, administrative and scientific entities. ==Organisation==