Free University of Brussels
Belgium · Europe
About
The Free University of Brussels (French: Université libre de Bruxelles or ULB; Dutch: Vrije Hogeschool te Brussel, later Vrije Universiteit Brussel) was a private university in Brussels, Belgium. It existed between 1834 and 1969 when it split along linguistic lines.
Founded in 1834 on the principle of "free inquiry" (French: libre examen), its founders envisaged the institution as a freethinker reaction to the traditional dominance of Catholicism in the country's education system. It was avowedly secular and particularly associated with political liberalism during the era of pillarisation. The Free University was one of Belgium's major universities, together with the Catholic University of Leuven and the state universities of Liège and Ghent.
The "Linguistic Wars" affected the Free University, which split along language lines in 1969 in the aftermath of student unrest at Leuven the previous year. Today, two institutions carry the "Free University of Brussels" name: the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Although separate, both institutions continue to collaborate under the auspices of an umbrella organisation known as Brussels University Alliance since 2013.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.