UCL hosts the oldest Department of Dutch in the Anglophone world. Founded in 1919 with support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy and Anglo-Dutch business circles, it was here that Dutch first attained the status of a serious academic discipline. The first incumbent of the Chair for Dutch Studies became the later famous historian Pieter Geyl (1919–1923).
Because of the great success, in 1923 the Chair was split into a historical and a literary Chair with illustrious scholars such as Peter Harting (1923–1925), Jacob Haantjes (1925–1931), Theodoor Weevers (1931–1971), Reinder Meijers (1971–1993) and Reinier Salverda (1993–2006) following Geyl on the Chair for Dutch literature, as well as Jane Fenoulhet and Theo Hermans, to name but the full professors.