The story
Founded by William I of the Netherlands in 1817.1
The university was founded in 1817 by William I of the Netherlands, then King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and by his Minister of Education, Anton Reinhard Falck. The foundation of the university was the result of a long intellectual tradition which dates back to the origins of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. Beginning in the eleventh century, the influence of the principality attracted students and prominent scientists and philosophers, such as Petrarch, to study in its libraries. The reputation of its medieval schools gave the city the reputation as a new Athens.
A 17 March 1808 decree by Napoleon I concerning the organization of an imperial university indicated Liège as the site of a new academy to be composed of a Faculty of Arts and a Faculty of Science—the first university charter for Liège. Ultimately, Liège owes its university to William I of the Netherlands, who remembered the city's prestigious legacy of teaching and culture when he decided to establish a new university on Walloon soil.
Nearly 200 years later, settled to some extent in the Sart-Tilman district of Liège, the University of Liège belongs to the French community of Belgium. The university is located at the edge of the river Meuse, in the center of the Island, the Latin Quarter of Liège. In 2009, the Agronomical University of Gembloux (FUSAGx), based in Gembloux, in the Province of Namur, integrated ULiège. It has adopted a new name for academics as well as research, namely Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech.
Chronology
1817: foundation of the University of Liege by William I of the Netherlands
1838: opening of the Liège mining school
1881: first female student
1882: beginning of the construction of the Trasenster Institutes in Liège:
1882: Institute of Astrophysics and the Cointe Observatory;
Read the full text
1883: Institute of Pharmacy, the Botanical Institute and the Montefiore Institute of Electrical Engineering;
1885: the Auguste Swaen Institute of Anatomy;
1888: Institutes of Physiology, of Zoology and of Chemistry
1955: foundation of the University of Lubumbashi (called Elisabethville at the time) by the State University of Liège
1967: beginning of the transfer process from the city center to the Sart Tilman campus
1969: the Cureghem University of Veterinary Medicine in Brussels is administratively attached to the University of Liège
1989: the State University of Liège becomes a university of the French Community of Belgium
1991: The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is transferred from Brussels to the Sart Tilman campus
2004: The Fondation universitaire luxembourgeoise integrates the University of Liège, creating the Faculty of Science's Department of Environmental Science and Management
2005: HEC Liège (Management School) and the Department of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Liège merge to create the HEC Liège – School of Management of the University of Liège business school
2009: The University of Agricultural Sciences of Gembloux (FUSAGx) in Gembloux is integrated into the University of Liège, becoming an independent faculty under the name Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech
2010: Through the merger of the Institut supérieur d'architecture Saint-Luc de Liège (ISA Saint-Luc Liège) and the Institut supérieur d'architecture Lambert Lombard (ISAI LL), a new faculty is created within ULiège: the Faculty of Architecture
2015: the Institute of Human and Social Sciences (ISHS) becomes an independent faculty: the Faculty of Social Sciences (FaSS)
2021: The Department of Media, Culture and Communication of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters establishes its school of journalism, with various auditoriums, classrooms and studios in the renovated Grand Poste de Liège; named Media Campus, these facilities are located in front of the historical faculty buildings. The student radio station 48FM is also moving there.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Liège, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4