College of Europe - History

History

The College of Europe was the world’s first university institute of postgraduate studies and training in European affairs. It was founded in 1949 by leading European figures such as Salvador de Madariaga, Winston Churchill, Paul-Henri Spaak and Alcide De Gasperi in the wake of the Hague Congress of 1948. They imagined a college where Europe's future leaders, some from countries only a short while before at war with each other, could live and study together. The Hague Congress also led to the creation of the European Movement.

A group of Bruges citizens led by the Reverend Karel Verleye succeeded in attracting the College to Bruges. Professor Hendrik Brugmans, one of the intellectual leaders of the European Movement and the President of the Union of European Federalists, became its first Rector (1950–1972).

After the fall of communism, and in the wake of the changes in Central and Eastern Europe, the College of Europe campus at Natolin (Warsaw, Poland), was founded in 1993 with the support of the European Commission and the Polish government. The College now operates as ‘one College – two campuses,’ and what was once referred to as the ‘esprit de Bruges’, is now known as the ‘esprit du Collège’.

In 1998, former students of the College set up the Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation, which is presided over by Javier Solana.

The number of enrolled students has increased significantly since the 1990s.

The College of Europe originally had no permanent teaching staff; the courses were taught by prominent academics and sometimes government officials from around Europe. Especially in the last couple of decades, the college has increasingly employed Professors and other teaching staff on a permanent basis.