AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY

Amsterdam University has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted among the UNIVERSITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

	FOUNDATION
Year	1632 A.D.
City	Amsterdam
Founder	Gerardus Vossius
Where	Republic of 7 United Provinces
Originary subjects	law, letters and philosophy , medicine , theology

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	NOWADAYS
State	Netherlands
Name	University of Amsterdam (Universiteit van Amsterdam, ex-Athenaeum Illustre)
Seates	Agnietenkapel , Binnengasthuis , Maagdenhuis , Oost-Indisch Huis , Bushuis , Oudemanhuispoort , Science Park , Academic Medical Centre
Degree programs	Dentistry , Economics and Business, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Sciences , Social and Behavioural Sciences
Library	YES internal , Museum Vrolik
Collegium	Collegium Chirugicum , University Professors , Roeterseiland Campus
Alumni	UvA Alumni Hub
Famous teachers	Johannes Vossius , Caspar Barlaeus , Tobias Asser , Luitzen E.J. Brouwer , Johannes van der Waals , Jacobus van ’t Hoff , Hugo de Vries
Famous scholars	Descartes , John Locke , Hugh Grotius , Ien Ang , Sophia Antoniadis , Willem Frederik Hermans , Boudewijn Sirks , Wim Duisenberg
Awards	6 Nobel Prize winners (Chemistry, Medicine, Physics) and 7 Spinoza Prize winners

In January 1632 A.D. Gerardus Vossius opened the Athenaeum Illustre, predecessor of the Amsterdam University, with his inaugural lecture titled 'De historiae utilitate' (trad.: On the usefulness of history). The day after Caspar Barlaeus gave a famous lecture on the wise merchant ('Mercator Sapiens'): these two professors, already well known figures in the international world of learning, started the history of the Universiteit van Amsterdam in the historical Agnietenkapel of the convent of St. Agnes.

Vossius came from the University of Leiden (read below), where he had become a renowned scholar: Amsterdam seems to have been very keen to tempt him to join the Athenaeum, as they offered him a rich annual salary that made him the best paid professor in the Republic of the 7 United Provinces. Barlaeus, on his part, was a celebrated orator and poet familiar to the academic environment: his inaugural lecture was an ode to the city government, which had the wisdom to bring together successful tradesmanship and letters and philosophy within the Athenaeum. A bond between the University and the City of Amsterdam that would always remain strong in the centuries to come.

In next years Amsterdam University housed several other practically-oriented institutions of higher education: the Collegium Chirurgicum, which provided training for surgeons even prior its foundation, while other institutions provided theological courses guaranteed by the relative religious freedom in Amsterdam. So their students regularly attended classes at the Athenaeum that became a training center for city councillors, clergymen, well-to-do citizens and merchants in a wealthy, prospering town. There was born the pastoral reformed church conveyed by the Accademy and the Seminar of Amsterdam University, where European exiled cause of the Protest went for studying and learning the critical theology of Illuminism: so, they came out main authors and thinkers of the 'rational phylosophy' like Descartes, J.Locke and H.Grotius.

Only in 1815 A.D. Amsterdam University was officially recognised as an institution of higher education and received the statutory obligation “...to disseminate taste, civilization and learning..." as well as “...to replace, at least in part, the institutes of higher education and an academic education for those young men whose circumstances unable them to fully spend the time necessary for an academic career at an institute of higher education.”. In addition, the Athenaeum was already offering classes for students attending non-academic professional training, in particular pharmacy and surgery, since XVIII century A.D.. Finally, it worked together with theological institutions such as the Evangelisch-Luthers Seminarium (evangelical-lutheran) and the Klinische School (medical school), successor to the Collegium Chirurgicum which had been discontinued during the Napoleonic epoch.

In 1877 A.D. Amsterdam University became a municipal school, possessing the same rights as national universities but financed by the City. Professors and other lecturers were appointed by its council and formed a group of people more colourful than their colleagues at the national universities, so that once again the Athenaeum flourished, in particular the science department which attracted many celebrities including several Nobel prize winners. Another effect of the of Amsterdam University's municipal status was the relatively early addition of the faculties of Economics and Social Sciences. But after the Second World War the cost of university education rose rapidly putting a great constraint on the Athenaeum’s growth, so that in 1961 A.D. the national government took over funding from the city and appointment of professors transferred to the Board of Governors, while the city’s influence ended completely when the appointment was handed over to the Executive Board.

Nowadays Amsterdam University has grown into an internationally oriented institution with around 30,000 students, 3,000 PhD researchers, 6,000 staff and over a hundred different nationalities present. The Agnietenkapel is still the heart of the academy and it forms the backdrop to many academic events including PhD conferrals, inaugural lectures and symposia.

Since its foundation, the Amsterdam University has been a member of the International Association of Academies (AIA) and of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It also participates in All European Academies (ALLEA), in European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC), in Inter Academy Council (IAC) and in Inter Academy Medical Panel (IAMP). The Athenaeum is accredited of the research university status by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, which grants accreditation to institutions who meet a national system of regulations and quality assurance controls.

Even more, Amsterdam University partecipates to many Exchange Programmes for international students, as the Erasmus Student Network and programmes for UE state members students, holding an Erasmus+ Charter for Higher Education. The Office of International Student Affairs oversees and coordinates incoming student exchange programmes within the Global Exchange Programme, hosting them in the Amsterdam University college. The intellectual and cultural atmosphere at the Athenaeum is internationally oriented and attracts students from the Netherlands and beyond counting over 2,500 international students and researchers from over 100 countries. Amsterdam University ranking is enlisted within the most 100 important high school rankings of the world. Does the University of Amsterdam teach in English? It has an extensive network of foreign partner universities, facilitating students and staff exchanges. Within Europe, Amsterdam University has exchange agreements with over 200 institutions, while Outside Europe it has close ties with approximately 40 universities on all continents and close ties are harbored with other institutions internationally through its membership in the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the Institutional Network of the Universities from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA), the European University Association (EUA) and with Universitas 21.

Amsterdam University offers more than 60 bachelor and 250 Masters courses, a prestigious Professional Education in technologic and Business fields, PhD opportunities and interdisciplinary, innovative and independent research involving more than 3,000 scientists. The logo of the University of Amsterdam consists of a black square with 3 white Saint Andrew's Crosses and a white 'U': this is an adaptation of the coat of arms of Amsterdam which also uses the Saint Andrew's Crosses to represent the three plagues of Amsterdam, fire, floods and the Black Death.

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In Netherlands there are two other oldest universitas connected to Amsterdam University: the Universiteit Leiden and the Universiteit Utrecht.

The first was established in 1575 A.D. by the Staatholder William I of Orange-Nassau dinasty as Leiden Academia Lugduno Batava, in recognition of the city’s courageous resistance against the seige by the Spanish invaders (with motto praesidium libertatis, trad. "bastion of freedom"): Leiden University celebrates this event every year in the form of the Cleveringa lecture in Leiden and Cleveringa meetings held throughout the world. The rich history of this academy was documented in the series of books 'Groepsportret met Dame' (trad. Group Portrait with a Lady) by Willem Otterspeer, professor of history at that university. Scaliger, Jan van Hout, Boerhaave, Thorbecke, Kamerlingh Onnes, Einstein, Huizinga, Cleveringa are some of its many famous scholars, such as Descartes, Rembrandt, Christiaan Huygens, Hugo Grotius, Benedictus Spinoza, and later Baron d'Holbach. Also members of the Dutch royal family as Queen Juliana, Queen Beatrix and King Willem-Alexander are alumni, even ten prime ministers of the Netherlands and the U.S. President John Quincy Adams studied at this university. Its library offers access to a great number of archives and studies indispensable to anyone who wants to learn more about Leiden University's history, that is nowadays established in the cities of Leiden and The Hague.

Utrecht University is a wide-range, international research university of high standing, with a strong connection to the city and roots lying deep since 1636 A.D.. Its interdisciplinary research targets 4 themes: life sciences, pathways to sustainability, dynamics of youth, institutions for open societies, makiing the academy a trailblazer in the field of modernising educational concepts and the student pass rate is high. Utrecht University researches, educates and communicates the results across disciplines and shares knowledge and insights that lay the foundation for the future: shared perspectives are the source of tomorrow’s solutions. The main vision is 'open': attitude, science, meeting, view. This aspect depends on its historu, when this university attracted many students from abroad (especially Germany, England and Scotland) who witnessed the intellectual and theological battle fought between proponents of the "new philosophy" (Descartes lived for a few years in Utrecht) and proponents of the strict Reformed theologian Voetius. They also witnessed the teachings of renowned Dutch jurist Johannes Voet, a university alumnus and professor of law whose works remain highly authoritative in modern Roman-Dutch law. Are to undeline the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, among the largest academic botanic garden in the Netherlands.

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