In 1991 a meeting between
Dr. Anatoliy Mikhailov, Metropolitan Philaret, the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, and Dr. Vladimir Dounaev took place, at which the idea of founding European Humanities University first emerged. The initiators meant to establish an independent university that would support the revival of the values of European civilization during the period of transition from totalitarianism to a civil society.

The Belarusian Orthodox Church recognized the goal of the new University in overcoming the official atheistic ideology as well as in revitalizing and developing the traditions of Christian humanism as one of the fundamental principles of European culture.

The first international program started in 1993. Through the initiative of the Embassy of France, the French-Belarusian Department of Political and Administrative Sciences was organized. The Department was created on the basis of the French model of the Institutes of Political Sciences. Claude Jolif, Ambassador of France, Alexandre Tolstoy, Director of the Cultural Service at the Embassy of France, and Prof. Yves Schemeil, a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France made a great contribution to the foundation of this Department.

The structure of the university was developed in the process of consultations at the UN Secretariat in Vienna. Irene Melup, veteran of the UN, took an active part in the consultations. In 1992 the Belarussian Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, National Academy of Sciences, the Minsk City Executive Committee, the International Humanitarian Foundation, and a number of scholars and prominent cultural figures joined the project as its founders. Several leaders of the European states, as well as European and American Ambassadors to Belarus welcomed the idea of the foundation of the University.

In 1993 the EHU started cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, which at that time was headed by Ambassador David Swartz. Having retired from his post, Ambassador David Swartz established the U.S.-based European Humanities University Foundation. This cooperation resulted in a number of important academic programs with American universities in the fields of U.S. Studies and Public Administration.

In 1994 the EHU won its first grant from the Open Society Institute to renovate the administrative building at Pr. Frantsiska Skaryny, 24. This building, returned to the Church in the early nineties, was a contribution of the Belarusian Orthodox Church to the University.

Since 1994 the EHU has been engaged in fruitful long-term cooperation with the Open Society Institute, and in particular with the Higher Education Support Program (HESP) in Budapest. The HESP has provided major support for undergraduate studies in humanities and social sciences at the EHU.
The project of reforming legal education in Belarus, implemented on the basis of the Department of Law, gained a reputation as one of the most significant TEMPUS projects. The contacts, which the EHU set up with universities in France and Spain during this project, made it possible to continue further cooperation between the project participants.

This project was the first step of the EHU in cooperation with the European Commission and other European organizations in the area of higher education. This resulted in the development of new academic programs in European Studies and other fields. Among the latest was the beginning of the project on the establishment of a Center for European and Transatlantic Studies supported by the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In 1998 with the support of the German Government and German foundations the Institute for German Studies was organized at the EHU. The first director of this Institute was Professor Dr. M. Staack from Berlin. The Institute of German Studies integrates various cooperation activities with German partners of the EHU and also facilitates contacts in the fields of research and teaching.

The EHU has also built up partnerships with several institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The first agreement with the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences was signed in 1993 followed by the agreements made with the Institute of State and Law and the Institute of Psychology.

The cooperation of the EHU with Russian colleagues has aimed at both collaborative development of Doctoral programs in the humanities and social sciences and the establishment of the international dissertation defense boards to renew the system of training and attestation of university senior faculty not only in Belarus, but also in the neighboring countries. Since 1999 this project has been supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

In line with its new strategy the EHU strives to become an institution that facilitates reform of higher education in the whole region of Eastern Europe. The EHU intends to offer platform for the International Graduate School in Humanities and Social Sciences that will integrate intellectual resources from Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. According to the proposed mission of the School, it will help create a new generation of university senior faculty, capable of transforming the educational system in these countries.

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