Agricultural History Review, Volume 57 Part 2 (2009), pp. 236–256

As in neighbouring countries, a number of initiatives were undertaken in Belgium during the second half of the nineteenth century to establish higher agricultural training. The State Agricultural College in Gembloux was founded in 1860, the Agricultural Institute in Leuven, attached to the Catholic University of Leuven, followed in 1878. This article focuses on the changing profile of the Leuven Agricultural Institute and the specific factors that motivated its initiators. It reveals that Catholic politicians and intellectuals perceived the liberal Gembloux to be a threat to the agricultural sector and the countryside. Through raising awareness of agricultural science, via a new education offensive and a Catholic agricultural network, they not only wanted to modernize the sector, but also hoped to curtail liberal and socialist influence. Professors and graduates from Leuven, who held influential positions at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Belgian Farmers' Union, played a key role in this strategy. Meanwhile the character of the agricultural education offered by Leuven changed profoundly. Initially the focus was on theoretical and encyclopaedic instruction. From the 1890s onwards agriculture-oriented courses were developed, and the first scientific research centres started. 

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