The Maison de Melle was a literary, scientific, commercial and industrial institution under the direction of the Josephites, "a congregation devoted to the Christian education of youth, founded in the Diocese of Ghent (Belgium) by Canon van Crombrugghe, in 1817." The college was established in 1837, in a former priory of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. Here the Josephites established for the a course of commercial education, a museum of commercial products and merchandise, laboratories and demonstration rooms. By a royal decree of 11 May, 1901, the Higher School of Commerce of Melle was given the right to confer degrees in commercial science. In 1900 the college of Melle founded a school of industries, with a maritime and a colonial section. Originally school mainly provided education and boarding for boys from wealthy families and it was not until 2002 tha girls were admitted. The school still exists.