Netherlands, founded in 1880. VU is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being the University of Amsterdam (UvA).The literal translation of the Dutch name Vrije Universiteit is "Free University". "Free" refers to independence of both state and church. Both within and outside the University, the institution is commonly referred to as "the VU" (pronounced somewhat like "vew" as in "new").
Though founded as a private institution, VU has received government funding on a parity basis with public universities since 1970. Over the past decades, VU has transformed from a small institution into a broad, research-intensive university attended by a wide variety of students of diverse backgrounds. While the Netherlands does not have an official ranking system, according to the "CWTS Leiden Ranking", the Vrije Universiteit was recognized as the second best university, nationally.
The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam and adjacent to the modern Zuidas business district.
In 2014, VU had 23,656 registered students, most of whom were full-time students. Measured in FTE, that year the university had 2,263 faculty members and researchers, who were supported by 1,410 administrative, clerical and technical employees. The university's annual endowment for 2014 was circa €480 million. About three quarters of this endowment is government funding, the remainder is made up of tuition fees, research grants, and private funding.
The official university seal is entitled The Virgin in the Garden. Personally chosen by Abraham Kuyper, the Reformed-Protestant leader and founder of the university, it depicts a virgin living in freedom in a garden while pointing towards God, referring to the reformation in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th century. In 1990, the university adopted the mythical griffin as its common emblem. The position of its wings symbolizes the freedom in the university's name: freedom from both state and church. The bright and blue postmodern symbol has been the focal point of the university's Main Building ever since
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History
Bust of Abraham Kuyper, founder of the VU, in the Main Building.
The VU was founded in 1880 by a group of orthodox-Protestant Christians led by Abraham Kuyper as the first orthodox-Protestant (Calvinist) university in the Netherlands. Kuyper was a theologian, journalist, politician, and prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. He was a professor of theology at VU as well as the university's first rector magnificus (academic president). Kuyper's world- and lifeview is referred to as Neo-Calvinism. Vrije Universiteit literally means 'Free University' (or 'Liberated University') to signify independence from both government and church.
Teaching at the Vrije Universiteit started in 1880 in a few rooms rented at the Scottish Missionary Church (now the Kleine Komedie theater), along the Amstel river in Amsterdam's city centre. Here, Kuyper and four fellow professors began lecturing in three faculties: theology, law, and the arts. Soon the Scottish Missionary Church became too small for the growing number of students and the university bought its first building, located at Keizersgracht 162. In the following years the university acquired more buildings throughout the city. VU was formally accredited and granted the legal right to award academic degrees in 1905. New faculties were subsequently added to the original three, including a science faculty (1930) and a medical faculty (1950).
Funding for the university was provided through the VU Association, the Christian organization founded by Abraham Kuyper, which was firmly rooted within the reformed Protestant community in the Netherlands. By the end of the 1960s, the university received financial support from more than 200,000 private contributors. Many were making small coin donations collected by some 10,000 (mostly fem
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