University of Antwerp

Geschiedenis

The University of Antwerp is one of the major Belgian universities located in the city of Antwerp. The name is abbreviated as UAntwerp, as the abbreviation UA should no longer be used.As of 2014, the University of Antwerp ranks as 170th globally according to Times Higher Education, 205th according to QS World University Rankings and between the 201 and 300th place according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.HistoryOriginsThe university's roots go back to Sint-Ignatius Handelshogeschool founded by the Jesuit 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 and a Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. It was renamed Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen in the 1960s when the Belgian government granted it university status. In the early 1970s UFSIA joined into a confederation with "Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen" and "Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen", public institutions.MergerIn 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 religion and intercultural dialogue. It soon became the third largest university in Flanders with 20,000 students. In order to face the challenges posed by the internationalization of European education and research, the University is part of the Antwerp University Association (AUHA). The Catholic influence that the Jesuits had at UFSIA continues through the Saint Ignatius University Centre (UCSIA), Antwerp, founded in 2003.