Draft:The Brussels School of Governance

Brussels School of Governance

Brussels School of Governance
Type	Research Institute
Established	2021
Parent institution	Vrije Universiteit Brussel
President	Karel De Gucht
Dean	Florian Trauner
Total staff	250
Students	450
Address	Pleinlaan 5 , Brussels , Belgium
Language	English
Website	https://www.brussels-school.be/

The Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) is a higher education institution in Brussels, Belgium. Established in 2021 as an alliance between Vesalius College (VeCo) and the Institute for European Studies (IES), the school was founded under the leadership of Caroline Pauwels, former rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Its purpose is to understand and help tackle key societal dynamics and challenges. In terms of research, the institution focuses on migration and diversity, the digital transformation of society, climate change and green transitions in the economy, as well as diplomacy, strategy and geopolitical competition. It has become highly effective in attracting externally funded projects. In 2025, the school has been implementing three European Research Council (ERC) grants alongside 63 additional research projects funded through external sources. In terms of education, the BSoG offers undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs taught in English. Its graduate programs are characterized by small class sizes and a low student-to-faculty ratio. This pedagogical model aims to facilitate direct interaction between students and instructors.

History

The BSoG is an alliance between Vesalius College (VeCo) and the Institute for European Studies (IES). During its launch event in 2021, then-Prime Minister Alexander De Croo highlighted the institution's focus on public policy and education, particularly noting its establishment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The launching was done remotely, amidst the lockdowns context in 2021.

History of Vesalius College

Vesalius College (commonly abbreviated as VeCo) is a liberal arts college located in Brussels, Belgium. Founded in 1987 through a collaboration between Boston University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), it was the first institution in the Benelux region to adopt an American-style liberal arts education model. The college was established to offer an alternative approach to higher education in Belgium, emphasizing small class sizes, interactive teaching methods, and close student-faculty interaction, inspired by the pedagogical traditions of U.S. liberal arts colleges. Over its more than three decades of operation, Vesalius College has seen graduates who have gained admission to prestigious universities and graduate programs worldwide, including in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. Additionally, its alumni have pursued careers in leading international companies and organizations.

VeCo's first Dean was Franz Bingen, who kept the position until 1997. Franz Bingen and his wife Andrée are still active for the Vesalius community as their Fund awards one Vesalius student every year with the Honours Essay Prize.

The first graduating class of Vesalius College completed their studies in 1991. A significant administrative change occurred in 2004, when the college formally became a non-profit organization (vzw/asbl) under Belgian law. That same year, Vesalius College introduced three-year Bachelor's programs in alignment with the Bologna Process, the European higher education reform initiative. These programs—Business Studies, Communication Studies, and International Affairs—received official recognition from the Flemish authorities. An additional program, International Law, was launched in 2015, expanding the college's academic offerings.

In 2009, VeCo started its first MA program and around the same time, it closed off agreements with other educational institutions in Brussels including Kent University, RITS, Royal Military Academy, BICCS and the Institute for European Studies.

In 2011, Vesalius College moved to Pleinlaan 5 in Etterbeek municipality of Brussels and started collaborating more closely with the IES.

In 2018, it started two new MA programs, one on Diplomacy and Global Governance and one on International Security.

History of the Institute for European Studies

At the start of the new millennium, (2000) Flemish Minister for Education Marleen Vanderpoorten wanted to help universities in their international recognition through the setup of "Bijzondere Universitaire Instituten" – special university institutes. These institutes would be founded within the universities, but would receive separate funding that would allow them to work at "market conditions" and with "functional autonomy". Each university was given part of the cake – notably Brussels and Antwerp could each create their own special institute. Basic condition: it had to enhance an already existing international program that had proven merit and international standing. Antwerp chose its already existing Institute for Development Policy (IOB); Brussels chose for a new institute: the Institute for European Studies (IES).

The official starting date of the IES, according to the Decree, was January 2001, whereas the Institute formally started on 1 January 2002. According to the Decree, the mission of the IES is to teach at advanced Master level (MaNaMa), to do research (PhD level) and to provide academic services in the field of European Studies, including through the use of "virtual educational platforms". The Dean of the Faculty Michel Magits and the to-be-President of the Institute, Bart De Schutter, together with a few other founding fathers of the Institute (amongst whom was Karel De Gucht) actively sought people that had management experience and at the same time knowledge about virtual educational platforms.

According to the decree, the official starting date of IES was January 2001. However, the Institute's operations only started in January 2002.

Locations

The Brussels School of Governance is located at Pleinlaan 5 in Etterbeek, on the edge of the campus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

In recent years, the School has held its graduation ceremony at prominent locations: in the Royal Library of Belgium (2022, 2023) and on the Grand-Place of Brussels (2024).

Management

The BSoG is managed by the Executive Committee, led by Prof. Dr. Florian Trauner who has been acting as dean since January 2024. The Vice Dean for Education is Prof. Dr. Sven Van Kerckhoven. Anthony Antoine is the Executive Director and Jacintha Liem is the Head of Secretariat. The Executive Committee is accountable to the Board of the BSoG, the president of which is Prof. Dr. Karel de Gucht.

Research

The BSoG hosts four research centres:

• Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I)
• Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy (C3E)
• Centre for Migration, Diversity and Justice (CMDJ)
• Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS)

One of the milestones of the BSoG in the field of research is its organisation of the bi-annual European Union in International Affairs (EUIA) conference. The first EUIA edition was in 2008. It is a major forum for academics and policymakers to debate the role of the EU in addressing global challenges. The ninth edition (#EUIA25) of this conference will take place in Brussels on 21-23 May 2025 and will focus on the theme Europe in a Fragmenting World". It is organised in collaboration with the Egmont Institute, the Institut d'Etudes Européennes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the University of Warwick, and the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS).

Educational programs

The Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) provides undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs. All programs are taught in English and seek to mix teaching from practitioners (often with a background in the EU’s institutions) and academics. Its Bachelor's programs include International Affairs, International and European Law, and Global Business. At the master's level, the school offers degrees in Global Security and Diplomacy. For postgraduate studies, BSoG runs an LLM in International and European Law, which was introduced in 1971, and an Advanced Master on European Governance. These programmes are held in the evening and attract students as well as working professionals.

• BA Preparatory Program
• BA in International Affairs
• BA in International and European Law
• BA in Global Business and Entrepreneurship
• MA in Global Security and Strategy
• MA in Diplomacy and Global Governance
• Advanced Master on European Governance
• LLM in International and European Law
• Postgraduate certificate in EU Policy Making
• Postgraduate Certificate in Global Risk Analysis and Crisis Management
• Certificate Program in European Peace and Security Studies
• Summer School on EU Policy Making
• Winter School on EU Policy Making
• Undergraduate Summer Program
• PhD Program

Notable alumni

Alumni of the Brussels School of Governance and its predecessor institutions, the Institute for European Studies and Vesalius College, include:

• Eugene Alexander Regan, an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the European Court of Justice since October 2015.
• Zoran Milanović, Prime Minister of Croatia (2011-2016 and 2020-present)
• Julie (Speer) Jackson, Emmy award winning storyteller, writer, executive producer, director film & TV
• Dagny Asmunsdottir, Icelandic TV chef and author of cookbooks
• Miguel Fernandez Rosas, Group COO Moneytrans
• Balazs Martonffy, Consul General of Hungary in Chicago
• Klara Richtarechova, general director of Desyre SRO
• Bora Kamwanya and, Acting chief of staff Human Rights Ministry Democratic Republic of Congo
• Cédric Frère, former Regent of the National Bank of Belgium

Collaborations

In the context of its academic programs and research activities the BSoG collaborates daily with universities and institutions around the world. It has longstanding partnerships with the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), the EUTOPIA Network (notably with the University of Warwick and NOVA University Lisbon), the Diplomatische Akademie Wien, and the University of Southern California.

Funded projects

The Brussels School of Governance has developed into a center for academic excellence and collaboration, hosting a high number of research projects funded by Flemish, Belgian, European or international sources. Examples thereof include:

• Curiae Virides: a research project exploring how the third wave of global judicial (and social) Activism is filling ecological governance gaps and challenging the liability-remedy paradigm (funded by the European Research Council)
• The European Green Deal: Governing the EU's Transition towards Climate Neutrality and Sustainability (GreenDeal-NET), funded by the EU's Erasmus+ program
• Jean Monnet Chair ECOvalence : Governing the environment-economy nexus in the European Green Deal, funded by EU's Erasmus
• BRIDGES : Assessing the production and impact of migration narratives, funded by the European Commission under the framework of Horizon Europe
• BIRMM: Brussels Interdisciplinary Research centre on Migration and Minorities with the support of funding from Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Whole-COMM:Exploring the Integration of Post-2014 Migrants in Small and Medium-Sized Towns and Rural Areas from a Whole of Community Perspective, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020
• EDMO BELUX 2.0: European Digital Media Observatory for Belgium and Luxembourg, funded by the European Union
• TITAN : AI for Citizen Intelligent Coaching against Disinformation, funded by Horizon Europe
• SHIELD vs DISINFO : Students’ of Higher Education critical digital Literacy Development against Disinformation, funded by Erasmus+ program
• SINATRA: Sino-American Competition and European Strategic Autonomy, funded by the European Research Council
• CODE: Competition in the Digital Era: Technology and Geopolitics in the XXI Century, funded by the European Research Council
• INPACE: Indo-Pacific-European Hub for Digital Partnerships, funded by the European Commission under the framework of Horizon Europe

Media appearances

Koert Debeuf – VUB/BSoG Professor / Distinguished Adjunct Professor in Middle East Studies at the Brussels School of Governance

• Trump's approach could boost Türkiye's role in Europe's defense strategy: Experts. Türkiye Today
• A personal view from on the ground in Damascus
• Pourquoi les États-Unis attaquent-ils les Houthis au Yémen? "Trump veut obtenir un accord nucléaire avec l'Iran rapidement"

Daniel Fiott - Head of the Defence and Statecraft Program at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS)

• Is Defense the Same as Illegal Drugs?　Negative Image an Obstacle to European Funding. Appearances on Japanese media:
• Europe Is Pouring Money Into Defense. Is It Enough?
• A fragmented defence industrial base is holding back EU armament.

Alexander Mattelaer

• Belgian army armoured vehicles show cracks.
• Belgium is militarily 'vulnerable and weak', expert claims.

Sebastian Oberthür - Director of the Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy (C3E)

• Brüssel, meine Liebe? Von der Leyens Kampf gegen die Bürokratisierung - Taschenspielertricks?
• Parlementsverkiezingen Duitsland : "Hoogstwaarschijnlijk coalitie tussen Union en SPD, maar grote thematische verschillen"

Florian Trauner – BSoG Dean

• Will Frontex's expansion lead to more oversight and accountability?

Awards

• Ilke Adam and Omar N. Cham won the 2024 Regional Studies Association Best Paper Award and for their work in the journal Territory, Politics, Governance. They won this Award for the first paper they co-authored on 'The politicization and framing of migration in West Africa: transition to democracy as a game changer?'.
• In 2024, Iva Dodevska, Postdoctoral Researcher at the BSoG won the Maria Ioannis Baganha Dissertation Award2024 at the IMISCOE2024 conference with her outstanding dissertation, "Europe and Its Others: Migrant Integration in Research and Policy."
• In 2022, BSoG Professor Peter McKiernan was awarded the Cooper Medal for Outstanding Contribution and Leadership at the British Academy of Management.
• In 2020, the European Commission selected the BSoG project 'RePast' as one of six success stories. The EU-funded REPAST project was exploring how societies deal with the long shadow of past conflicts, in a bid to generate insights and provide advice for policymakers and civil society.
• In 2017, researcher Lisanne Groen won the Best PhD ThesisPrize of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES)