Early history The roots of UCSIA go back to Sint-Ignatius Handelshogeschool (Saint-Ignatius School for Higher Education in Commerce) founded by the
Jesuit (Society of Jesus) in
Antwerp in 1852. This was one of the first European business schools to offer formal university degrees. It later opened a Faculty of Literature and Philosophy (including Law) and a Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. It was renamed Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen (UFSIA) in the 1960s when the
Belgian Government granted it university status. In the early 1970s UFSIA joined into a confederation with "Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen" (RUCA) and "Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen" (UIA), public institutions. In 2003 UFSIA, RUCA, and UIA merged into the
University of Antwerp to become the first explicitly pluralistic university in Belgium, offering philosophical, ethical, and spiritual discourse and openness towards religious and intercultural dialogue. It soon became the third largest university in
Flanders with 20,000 students. ==See also==