History
Since 2003, the Bruyns Fund has awarded scholarships to roughly 20 laureates from countries such as DR Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
The Fund Bruyns takes its name from Father Louis Bruyns sj (1919-2001) who devoted most of his life to Africa as a missionary, a trainer of executives and an administrator. He also has considerable merits in his own country as a professor and as a manager.
Louis Bruyns was born on 15 January 1919 in Essen, Belgium. After completing his classical humanities, he joined the Jesuit order in 1936. He first studied philosophy, theology and classical philology. In 1945, he obtained a master’s degree in economic sciences and a master’s degree in political and social sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven.
Father Louis Bruyns dedicated himself to the welfare of Africa for many years. From 1945 to 1947, he worked at the Kisantu mission post in the former Belgian Congo as inspector of the primary school network.
After his return, he completed his doctoral dissertation on socio-economic development in Lower Congo in 1951. From 1953 to 1968, he stayed in Africa again. Among other things, he was a professor at the University Centre Lovanium, founder and rector of the Centre Médico-Scolaire – a complex of schools and a hospital – and the representative of Belgian Congo in the Bureau International du Travail in Geneva.
After his return from Africa in 1968, Father Bruyns played a very important role in the Antwerp University Community. He became administrator and professor of the Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius (UFSIA), later director of the Institute for Postgraduate Education (IPO) and rector of the UFSIA. After his retirement, Fr Bruyns was appointed president of the Joint Office University of Antwerp (GBUA) where he worked to promote cooperation between Antwerp’s university institutions.
The Fund
is a separate task force operating within UCSIA.
The current members are: Tom De Herdt and Danny Cassimon for IOB, and Martin Decancq and Stijn Latré for UCSIA.
The working group launches an annual project call.
