Founded in Belgium’s main seaport in 1959 as the Institut voor Postuniversitair Onderwijs, the school took its current name in 2010 after a decade as the University of Antwerp Management School.
Accredited by AMBA and AACSB, it operates under the slogan of "Opening Minds. Touching Souls. Energising Business".
Suitably for a city with many multilingual inhabitants, the school has a considerable tradition of international partnerships, offering one of the first executive MBAs in Russia in partnership with the IBS-Moscow school as far back as 1998. Its own executive EMBA offers the option of study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Sun-Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, while MBA options include China-Europe Business, incorporating several months of study in Shanghai, and Global Supply Chain Management.
New offers in 2018 include an MBA in fashion management with partners in Sao Paulo, London and Milan, and it has also become a partner in the Dutch government’s well-regarded programme for cultural leaders which will be extended to Belgium and rebranded as the "Leadership in Culture Lange Landen" programme.
Having been located in a 15th Century city centre mansion named Het Brandijser for many years, the school moved in late August 2018 to larger premises at Boogkeers, mixing new buildings with a conversion of existing premises.
The building is known in Antwerp for being inscribed with the poem een minimum by Ramsey Nasr, restored to the façade as part of the conversion process in May 2018.
Social projects developed by students include the Streetstore programme from 2015, intended to assist Antwerp’s homeless population.
