Our History

EFR is the oldest study association of Rotterdam. Founded in 1925, EFR has a longstanding relationship with the student life in Rotterdam. Over the years a large variety of events were organised, below shows a timeline containing the key events from 1925-2023.

How did we get here?

The association changed and grew to keep with everchanging times, having started as the Vereniging Voor Studentenbelangen to it's current name of EFR.

1913

Founding of the ‘Handels Hoge School, HHS’, the predecessor of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

1925

EFR's predecessor, Vereniging Voor Studentenbelangen was founded

1926

NHH becomes the NEH, the Nederlandse Economische Hogeschool

1964

The Vereniging Voor Studentenbelangen becomes the Economic Faculty Association.

1969

The structure of the association changed due to the introduction of master study clubs. The study clubs Finance, Marketing, Econometrics, Business and Informatics are founded.

1973

Erasmus University Rotterdam as we know it nowadays was founded.

1979

EFR's magazine, the Eclaire, was published for the first time.

1980

Founding of the EFR Business Week. It started as a week long conference, aimed to inspire the students.

1991

The new EFR logo was presented along with a new corporate identity.

1993

First Eurotour was organised. The Eurotour was a two week exchange with a European partner university.

1995

First World Leader Cycle award was given to F.W. de Klerk, the state president of South Africa.

1997

The first edition of the Rotterdamse Bedrijvendagen was organised, now known as the Erasmus Recruitment Days.

2009

Refreshing of the EFR logo to fit in with the new digital era.

2015

Launch of the Erasmus Recruitment Platform, EFR's and STAR's online recruitment platform.

2016

EFR welcomes Ban Ki-Moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the Erasmus University to award him the World Leader Cycle award.

2016

Inclusion of ESE in the official logo with the launch of the new corporate identity.

2017

Launch of EFR's new website.

2019

Organisation of the first ever EFR Master Career Week. An event that has since come to become one of EFR's flagship events of the year.

2022

EFR becomes the first carbon neutral study association of the Netherlands.