International Relations of European Higher Education
Founding conference, 7 to 9 December 1989
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

‘It was the right initative at the right time and in the right way – an association of colleagues and friends, non-profit, democratic, open, something to which everybody could contribute’. This is the way one of the founding members explained the successful launch of the European Association for International Education in 1989. Besides the formal founding of the EAIE during the Business Meeting, an extensive conference programme addressing the theme “International Relations of European Higher Education” was attended with great enthusiasm by close to 600 people from all over Europe and the world to Amsterdam. This number pleasantly surprised the organisers, as they had been expecting only around 300 people. As a stimulating closing cultural event of the conference a guided tour of one of Amsterdam’s most famous museums, the Van Gogh museum was organised. Amsterdam graduates of art history introduced the conference participants to the work of the famous Dutch impressionist painter, hopefully leaving the participants with good memories of Amsterdam and the first EAIE Conference.