erasmus university rotterdam was founded on 8 november 1913 as the netherlands school of commerce (, or nhh) through private initiative with broad support from the rotterdam business community. in 1937, the school was recognized as a higher educational institute with university status, providing education in commerce and economics as an academic discipline. this resulted in a change of its name: the nhh became the neh, or netherlands school of economics (). the growing complexity of society led in the 1960s to the arrival of the faculties of law and social sciences, followed in later decades by philosophy, history and arts, and business administration.