Erasmus University Rotterdam

Erasmus University Rotterdam (Dutch: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam [eːˈrɑsmʏs ynivɛrsiˈtɛit rɔtərˈdɑm]; abbreviated as EUR) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century Christian humanist and theologian.

Erasmus MC, the teaching hospital and medical school of Erasmus University, is one of the largest medical institutions in Western Europe and the foremost medical and trauma centers in the Netherlands.

Erasmus University Rotterdam was founded on 8 November 1913 as the Netherlands School of Commerce (Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool, or NHH) through private initiative with broad support from the business community of Rotterdam. In 1937, the school was recognized as a higher educational institute with university status, providing education in commerce and economics as an academic discipline. This resulted in a change of its 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 (Medische Faculteit 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, after which the institution was renamed under its current name Erasmus University Rotterdam (Erasmus Universiteit 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.

This domain includes the Erasmus MC, the Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management (ESHPM) and the Institute for Medical Technology Assessment (iMTA).

Erasmus MC is the new name for the university medical centre in Rotterdam, which is a merger of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the University Hospital Rotterdam (Dijkzigt, Sophia, Daniel den Hoed clinic). The biomedical cluster plays a leading role in the field of analysis of role of individual genes playing role in diseases. The Forensic Molecular Biology department works together with the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI). Major long-term genetic epidemiological studies among the elderly and children are Erasmus Rotterdam Health for the Elderly (ERGO) and Generation R respectively. The Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management (ESHPM) forms a bridge between medicine and the health sciences on the one hand and social sciences on the other. The institute for Medical Technology Assessment (iMTA) conducts health economic research in collaboration with both the Erasmus MC and the Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management.

This area includes the Erasmus School of Economics and the Rotterdam School of Management. Its economics programs and management programs attract students and postgraduates from all over the world. The research schools Erasmus Institute for Management (ERIM) and the Tinbergen Institute attract PhD students, research fellows, PostDocs and visiting professors of repute from all corners of the world. Other joint ventures are the English-language programme International Business Administration, the Erasmus Executive Development programme (EED) and the Erasmus University Centre for Contract Research and Business Support (ERBS).

The research focuses on the organisation of business and society. This area has ground in common not only with economics and management, but also with medicine and health sciences.