It originates in the School of Political and Social Sciences founded by Jules Van den Heuvel in Louvain in 1892.

These new schools attempt to meet the challenges of industrial, political and scientific revolutions and train those who will engage in the conduct of the economy and social life.

This independent institution moved to Mons in 1899, obtained university status and eventually merged with UCLouvain in 2011.

Closely associated with each other, the two schools of UCLouvain will not stop reinventing and reorganizing themselves over time to keep pace with the changes in society and the development of the human and social sciences.

The ISEA became the Institute of Administration and Management (IAG), while communication, demography, European studies and labour sciences appear as departments.

In 2008, the IAG becomes autonomous under the name of Louvain School of Management, which two years later become a fully separate faculty.

[3] Though strongly related, the Faculty of Economic, Social, Political and Communication Sciences (also abbreviated ESPO) of UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels, is a distinct and autonomous faculty founded in 1965, located on Saint-Louis University's main campus, in the center of Brussels.

The faculty hosts six schools, in addition to a structure of management for undergraduate programmes (SESP), and the FOPES open faculty: The UCLouvain School of Communication (COMU) organises the different degrees in information and communication studies, including two different master's degrees in journalism; the first one ('advanced studies') being focused on research, and the second one being the Louvain School of Journalism (École de journalisme de Louvain, abbreviated EjL) degree, which is part academic and part practical.