The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a medium-sized university, with some 9000 registered students. About 1800 VUB-students are from outside Belgium, of whom about 800 come from Asia, Africa and South America. The VUB has two campuses. The main campus is in Etterbeek. Most faculties are located here. The Campus offers many facilities, and it is the livelier of the VUB-campuses. It is situated close to the heart of Brussels. The other campus is the Medical Campus in Jette. The "Human Ecology graduate programme" is also based on the Campus in Jette.

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a Flemish university with a specific ideological basis, i.e. free inquiry. The University was founded in 1970, when it split off from the French-speaking Université Libre de Bruxelles. At present the VUB is a completely independent university, though still ideologically and philosophically related to the ULB. The ULB and VUB have a very distinct place within the unversity landscape in Belgium. A basic understanding of free inquiry will illustrate this special position.

The principle of free inquiry is open to various interpretations. The minimal interpretation equates free inquiry with the scientific model as practised today, even in universities with a religious basis. This, of course, was not so when the first free university in Brussels was founded in 1835, at a time when Christian institutions considered it their job to contest new approaches in the fields of geology and biology, to cite but two. In more philosophical terms, free inquiry begins with the supposition that the truth is complex and dynamic. Any view we may have of reality is incomplete.

Free inquiry is a way to acquire knowledge about reality, by constantly adjusting our view of reality. This implies the willingness to confront knowledge with new knowledge, to take other views into consideration, to submit one's views to the consideration of others, to draw conclusions from such confrontations and considerations, and finally, the willingness to change your views if the conclusions make this necessary. Dogmas and prejudice have no place in this never-ending process of acquiring knowledge. Free inquiry is opposed to "Absolute Truth", and "Absolute Truth" is opposed to free inquiry. Free inquiry therefore distinguishes itself from religions or ideologies in which absolute truth is claimed.

The VUB also distinguishes itself from neutral state universities, because the VUB is not necessarly neutral. This can be illustrated by the social implications of free inquiry: everyone has a right to exercise free inquiry. This means that everyone must have the chance to develop, must have free access to knowledge, and that free inquiry should serve the creation of the conditions that facilitate the personal development of all. Free inquiry thus implies working towards a global society which offers everyone the possibility of practising free inquiry. This is not to say that all who adhere to the principle of free inquiry share the same view on how this global society should look, or how it should come about. That would be contradictory to the principle of free inquiry.

What they do share is a critical approach. Free inquiry goes beyond the neutral attitude of everyone being entitled to an opinion, or to no opinion at all. The free inquirer should form an opinion and express it, and, ideally, be as critical of his or her own opinion as of others. That's why the VUB is in favour of progress, controversy and social commitment. We should conclude by stating categorically that the VUB is a pluralist university, in the sense that it is open to everyone no matter what his or her religious or philosophical convictions, provided they respect the fact that the education and research at the VUB, and its view of society, are based on the principle of free inquiry. To the free inquirer meeting people with different backgrounds and views is an enrichment. Everyone who comes to the VUB with the same openness of mind and heart is more than welcome.