"Universities are really fond of birthday parties [...] But why should historians get involved? Or even feel concerned? Is there more to expect from those celebrations than magnificent but Whiggish volumes, full of idealized remembrances and clever branding? Such are the issues at stake in this original and enlightening collection of essays edited by Pieter Dhondt.[...] In his brilliant historiographical introduction, Pieter Dhondt shows how the traditional jubilee history became more than a weapon of propaganda, with the emergence of university history as a scientific field in its own right, broadening its geographical, thematic and chronological horizons – even if this emancipation is still largely in statu nascendi. [...] their book is rewarding and useful: let us hope it paves the way to an even more independent but fully integrated university history." - Pierre Verschueren, in: The British Journal for the History of Science, 49 (2016), p. 151-152 [DOI: 10.1017/S0007087416000273]