De verloren strijd voor één universiteit in België, 1814-1835

Abstract

Pieter Dhondt, The lost campaign for one single university in Belgium, 1814-1835After the defeat of Napoleon and the disappearance of the existing institutions for higher education, the struggle for a university flared up between a number of Belgian cities. Countless pamphlets were published in quick succession; many defended the establishment of one single university, others argued that several institutions should be set up. All of them supported the idea of a university in their own city. Few people were satisfied with the autocratic decision of Wilhelm I in 1816 to establish three state universities. Towards the end of the 1820s the issue came up again. The establishment of free universities after the revolution added an ideological component to the debate. It was only in 1835 that an agreement was finally reached on the number of universities and their location. The compromise was far from clear and, as had been the case fifteen years earlier, those advocating the concentration of all intellectual and financial resources into one singleinstitution had lost their case.