Erasmus University Rotterdam - History

History

Erasmus University Rotterdam has existed in its present form since 1973. Its history, however, dates back to 1913, the year in which the Netherlands School of Commerce (Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool or NHH) was founded through private initiative with broad support from the Rotterdam business community. The statutory recognition of higher education in commerce and economics as an academic discipline resulted in 1939 in a change of name. The NHH became the NEH or Netherlands School of Economics (Nederlandse Economische Hogeschool). The growing complexity of society led in the 1960s to the arrival of the faculties of Law and Social Sciences, followed in later decades by Philosophy, History and Arts, and Business Administration.

From 1950, the Foundation for Higher Clinical Education used its best efforts to get a full academic medical study programme established in Rotterdam, and with success: In 1966, the government established the Medical Faculty Rotterdam, housed next to Dijkzigt Hospital. Together with the Sophia Children's Hospital and the Daniel den Hoed Clinic, it forms the University Hospital Rotterdam, which as of 1 January 2003 bears the name Erasmus MC. In 1973, the Medical Faculty Rotterdam and the Netherlands School of Economics merged to become Erasmus University Rotterdam – the first university in the Netherlands named after a person, a man to whom Rotterdam owes the reputation it has held for centuries in the academic world.