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The Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Vrije Universiteit should not be confused with the University of Amsterdam. The name is often abbrevated as VU. It is the university of the Vereniging voor Christelijk Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs (Association for Christian Scientific Education).
The association was founded in 1880, and headed by Abraham Kuyper, as the first protestant university. Vrije Universiteit literally means Free University to signify freedom from government and church.
The education itself however, is not free of cost; like all accredited universities in The Netherlands students pay a (government determined) fee, while students receive a student loan from government as well.
About 17,000 students (2004) attend the university, with 2,200 scientific employees, and 1,600 non-scientific employees.
Graduates
- Jan Peter Balkenende, the current Prime Minister of the Netherlands, was a professor at the VU.
- Wouter Bos, party leader of the Dutch Social Democrats studied at the VU
- Andrew S. Tanenbaum is a professor of computer science at the faculty of "Exact" sciences that comprises the fields physics, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, computer science, and pharmacy. He is the author of the famous book Computer Networks.
- Gerrit Zalm, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the cabinet Kok II, Balkenende I and Balkenende II, also studied economics at the VU.
- Pim Fortuyn, the murdered party leader of the LPF studied sociology at the VU and was a professor there as well.
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