Charles Loomans

During Charles Loomans' rectorship, the Franco-German war of 1870 broke out. The German victory had repercussions throughout Europe, and was attributed above all to its scientific and technological superiority, and to its teaching methods. The University of Liège called for the introduction of practical courses alongside theoretical ones, as well as additional resources and infrastructures adapted to its needs.

Charles Loomans (1816-1899) received his doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Louvain (1836), and continued his education in Berlin and Heidelberg, before moving on to Paris, where he was able to analyze and compare other university systems on both sides of the Belgian border.

Appointed by Jean-Baptiste Nothomb to draw up a Report on Higher Education in Prussia (1845), the same year he was asked to substitute teach for the philosopher Émile Tandel at the University of Liège. For forty years, he taught moral psychology, anthropology and natural law at the university, including an analytical philosophy essay entitled De la connaissance de soi-même (1880).

Throughout his career, Loomans regularly called for the reform of higher education in Belgium, deploring, like his colleague Antoine Spring, the overly academic training offered to Belgian students, who were consequently little open to the scientific spirit. He therefore proposed to upgrade the preparatory faculties of arts and sciences, with greater emphasis on general culture and basic theoretical foundations, to encourage research and specialization by re-imposing the final thesis requirement and, above all, to introduce into Belgian universities an absolute "freedom to learn and teach" based on the Prussian model.

During his rectorship (1870-1873), he constantly praised the spirit of emulation particularly cultivated by German teachers, unlike the Belgians, who were far too attached to their privileges.