Frank Vandenbroucke (politician) - Education and Academic Career

Education and Academic Career

Frank Vandenbroucke attended Sint-Pieterscollege in Leuven for his secondary education. He started his academic studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Starting with an undergraduate degree in Economics, he continued and got a Master's degree in Economics from the same alma mater in 1978. After this he got a M.Phil in Economics from Cambridge University, UK (1981–1982). In 1999 he received a D.Phil from the Faculty of Social Studies, Oxford University.

After graduating from the KUL, Vandenbroucke became a Research Assistant at the "Centrum voor Economische Studiën" at the KUL (1978–1980). In 1982 he became a staff member of SEVI, the research department of the SP (1982–1985)

Since 2009 he took on academic positions at the University of Antwerp (professor of Social Economic Analysis, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), and the University of Amsterdam (professor at the Den Uyl Chair at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences). He is guest professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Frank Vandenbroucke’s academic interests focus on social systems and welfare policies. At EU level, he was active in outlining the Open Method of Coordination among Member States to support the enactment of the 2000 Lisbon Strategy. He later worked for the introduction of an ‘horizontal social clause’ in the Lisbon Treaty (today’s art. 9 TFEU) to provide a stronger legal basis for welfare policies in the EU.