Now Thursday May 28th, the VUB celebrates its Dies Natalis, or Birthday. When that happens, our university will have reached the beautiful golden age of 52 years. Exact that many years ago is it since King Baudouin signed the law granting the VUB legal personality. In other words, that happened on 28 May 1970. But the university already started its first academic year on 1 October 1969. The reason for that coincides with the language struggle and contestation movement of the sixties.
In the past, honorary doctorates were conferred on the occasion of the university's official birthday on 28 May. Read here more about the fascinating history and evolution of this tradition here.
The discrepancy between the de facto start up of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and its official birth date is remarkably linked to the hoopla around the splitting of Leuven University. On April 24th, 1969 a proposed law on the proper legal position of VUB (and ULB) was already drafted. But the former government wanted to deal with the issue of the Brussels and Leuven universities together. ULB and VUB however decided not to wait and split - or double, as it was called at the time - outside the law. Not that it required taking a big risk: then minister of National Education was ULB professor Piet Vermeylen. He guaranteed both universities separate government subsidies, independent of the awarding of legal status.
The foundation of VUB is furthermore closely linked to Belgian history as a whole. Interested in more insights into the matter? You can always pay a visit to CAVA, the Center for Academic and Humanistic Archives, that is located on the Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus of VUB in Etterbeek. A nice article on the intercession of the history of Vrije Universiteit Brussel and that of Belgium can also be found in the digital library for Dutch linguistics (in Dutch)