Almost no other European country offers such a diverse higher education landscape: some two million students are registered at Germany’s 100 universities, 52 art colleges, 162 universities of applied sciences, 16 theological colleges, 6 teacher training colleges and 29 colleges of public administration. Whether it is a traditional university or a specialized university of applied sciences – everyone will find the right study program in “Campus Germany”. Below is a selection of universities in Germany.
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald
Founded in 1456, alma mater gryphiswaldensis is one of the oldest universities in Germany. After reunification in 1990, it has also become one of Germany’s best universities: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität enjoys an excellent reputation, especially in English studies, business administration and biology. Since 1990 there has been a threefold increase in the number of students, which has risen to 9,000. As a result, the university has become the most important economic factor in Greifswald (58,654 inhabitants). Due to its location on the Baltic Sea coast the university has traditionally maintained close contacts with higher education institutions in nearby Poland, the Baltic states, Russia and the Scandinavian countries.
FACTS
Students: 9,250
Foreign students: 617
Professors: 153
Departments: 5
Year of foundation: 1456
Population: 58,654
www.uni-greifswald.de
Universität Rostock
Since the foundation of the first university in the Baltic region in 1419, Rostock has maintained its reputation as a centre of scholarship and learning. Although the university then only taught law, medicine and philosophy, today its almost 12,000 students can choose between 50 subjects in eight departments. The university is also prepared to follow new paths by teaching less common subjects such as demography, regional culture and environmental protection. The same innovative approach is also applied to diplomas: most courses now lead to the award of internationally accepted bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Top ratings – among others, by the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung – in the subjects of law, electrical engineering and political science prove that the university continues to be among the best in the land – even after 586 years.
FACTS
Students: 11,900
Foreign students: 400
Professors: 270
Departments: 8
Year of foundation: 1419
Population: 198,303
www.uni-rostock.de
Universität Hamburg, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg and Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Politik
Hamburg is one of Germany’s most important study locations with more than 70,000 students and 11 institutions of higher education ranging from the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Politik to the Technische Universität. Two thirds of its students are registered at the Universität Hamburg. Each year in the Hanseatic city, 858 professors conduct 1,200 diploma examinations and almost 1,000 state examinations. The university’s 19 departments offer a very wide range of subjects. In line with Hamburg’s image as the “gateway to the world”, the university also places great emphasis on international contacts. The north German university runs exchange programs for professors and students with more than 40 higher education institutions worldwide. Although much smaller, the Bucerius Law School has a very high international standing. The private law school was only founded in 1999 and its central focus is business law.
FACTS
Students overall: 71,320
Foreign students: 9,302
Universities: 5
Universities of applied science: 4
Art colleges: 2
Population: 1.73 million
www.uni-hamburg.de
Berlin University
With 140,000 students, four universities, seven universities of applied sciences and three arts colleges, Berlin is also Germany’s higher education capital. 29 Nobel Prize winners – including Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, Emil Fischer, Max Planck and Fritz Haber – conducted research at Humboldt-Universität alone. The fact that top research is the order of the day at Humboldt-Universität is also confirmed by excellent ratings in more recent league tables – especially in the fields of mathematics, German studies, and chemistry.
Founded in 1810 on Unter den Linden, the university is also regarded as the “mother of all modern universities”. It was the first to put into practice the ideal of the unity of research and teaching called for by the person who gave the university its name: Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). The Charité, Europe’s largest university hospital, is also world-famous. A total of 8,000 students are registered on courses in 11 medical disciplines at the Charité, which is run jointly by the Humboldt-Universität and the Freie Universität. Many famous physicians – for example, Rudolf Virchow and Ferdinand Sauerbruch – worked in Berlin and founded a medical school of world renown.
With more than 40,000 students, the largest university in the German capital is the Freie Universität, an institution with an unusual history. Concerned students and professors founded the Freie Universität in the western sector of Berlin on December 4, 1948 with support from local politicians and American occupation forces after students had been denied the right to attend Universität Unter den Linden in East Berlin for political reasons. Today, with courses in some 100 subjects, the university is one of the most diverse higher education institutions in Germany. In addition to more traditional disciplines such as languages, law and natural sciences, it also offers more specialized subjects such as theatre studies and Jewish studies. The internationally renowned Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science is equally popular with students and researchers.
Very specialized courses, on the other hand, are offered by Berlin’s smaller higher education institutions, such as the private Europäische Wirtschaftshochschule (European School of Management) and the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts). The latter’s four departments – architecture, media and design; fine arts; music; and performing arts – attract creative geniuses from all over the world. Would you like to create new designs with London fashion legend Vivienne Westwood? Berlin’s Universität der Künste offers that possibility.
FACTS
Students: 140,000
Foreign students: 19,408
Universities: 4
Universities of applied science: 7
Arts colleges: 3
Population: 3.4 million
www.uni-berlin.de
Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
Why not study in the heart of Europe? The Europa-Universität Viadrina, Germany’s most eastern university, lies directly on the German-Polish border. Since its refoundation in 1991, the university in Frankfurt (Oder) has seen itself as a bridge between eastern and western Europe. No one personifies this better than Director Gesine Schwan. The political scientist is coordinator of German-Polish Cooperation and was also a candidate for the office of federal president in 2004. The university’s function as an international bridge is also underlined by crossborder courses in Poland, a German-Polish law degree and cooperation agreements with 140 higher education institutions around the world. The university’s student body is also very international: about 33 percent of the more than 5,000 students come from outside Germany. 1,331 students from Poland alone are studying in the departments of law, economics and cultural studies.
FACTS
Students: 5,110
Foreign students: 1,866
Professors: 49
Departments: 3
Year of foundation: 1991
Population: 66,341
www.euv-frankfurt-o.de
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Last year, Münster won first place in the international LivCom Awards competition to find the world’s cities with the best quality of life. The city in North Rhine-Westphalia has long been a favourite with students from all over the world. A total of 39,000 students study 120 subjects in 15 departments. More than 250 institutes and seminars are engaged in both pure and applied research. Among others, key areas include molecular cell dynamics, symbolic communication and molecular orientation. University-based research is supported by 16 institutes that are externally financed but work very closely with the departments of the university. One special feature of Münster is the fact that although the university’s almost 300 buildings are spread throughout the city, they can still all be easily reached by bicycle.
FACTS
Students: 39,000
Foreign students: 3,600
Professors: 600
Departments: 7
Year of foundation: 1780
Population: 281,285
www.uni-muenster.de
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Very few institutions of higher education are able to profit from a first-class research cluster like the one in Göttingen: the university is surrounded by five Max Planck Institutes, a German Aerospace Centre research facility, the German Primate Centre, a number of independent research institutes and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. The university draws considerable benefit from this – as do researchers from all over the world. For example, it has been able to establish new high-tech courses such as bioinformatics, molecular biosciences and neurosciences in close cooperation with research and industry. Seven Nobel Prize winners, including Gustav Hertz and Max Born, have taught in Göttingen, and more than 40 of them have conducted research here – most recently, Herbert Kroemer. Very few university towns are as strongly influenced by their universities as Göttingen with its old half-timbered houses: a total of 24,000 students live and study here – among just 129,000 inhabitants.
FACTS
Students: 24,000
Foreign students: 3,000
Professors: 489
Departments: 13
Year of foundation: 1737
Population: 129,106
www.uni-goettingen.de
Universität zu Witten/Herdecke
Since its foundation 23 years ago, the university in Witten/Herdecke has remained Germany’s only private university. It may be small, with just 1,118 students, but it still offers a relatively wide range of subjects – from medicine and music therapy to economics. What is more, the quality of its courses is excellent, as its ratings show: this small university achieved first place in the field of business administration in the league tables compiled by the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the weekly magazines Stern and Spiegel. A unique feature in Germany is its “Studium fundamentale”, a compulsory additional interdisciplinary course in humanities, cultural studies and the arts – including, among other things, history, art theory, philosophy and drama. This is intended to ensure students receive the broadest possible education.
FACTS
Students: 1,118
Foreign students: 99
Professors: 27
Departments: 5
Year of foundation: 1982
Population: 102,415
Fernuniversität Hagen
FernUniversität Hagen offers distance learning programs that enable students to study for a degree without attending seminars or lectures. The only distance university in the German-speaking countries was founded in 1974 when it began delivering specialist knowledge to students’ homes every two weeks in the form of study units, assignments, CD-ROMs or over the Internet. 55,000 students are currently taking this opportunity to study subjects such as electrical engineering, mathematics and economics in an extremely flexible way. The qualifications offered – diplomas and bachelor’s degrees – are comparable with those at conventional universities. However, students are not just left to their own devices. In addition to the course tutors in Hagen, counsellors are also available at 70 study centres that the university has set up across Europe for its students.
FACTS
Students: 55,000
Foreign students: 4,170
Professors: 100
Departments: 6
Year of foundation: 1974
Study centres: 70
Universität zu Köln
The history of Germany’s second oldest university began in 1388 in the immediate vicinity of Cologne Cathedral. In the course of its more than 600 years, the alma mater on the Rhine has evolved into an outstanding university. Furthermore, with almost 50,000 students it is now Germany’s largest institution of higher education. The Philosophy Department alone has over 14,000 students – more than many entire universities. It should therefore come as no surprise that it is one of the top four research universities in Germany. The latest innovation is a four-year Anglo-German law degree program that is being offered jointly with University College London.
Cologne is also the home of the Deutsche Sporthochschule (photograph), a sports school that is unique in Germany. More than 6,000 students are studying for a sports science diploma or a teaching qualification.
FACTS
Students: 49,102
Foreign students: 6,226
Professors: 864
Departments: 8
Year of foundation: 1388
Population: 1.02 million
Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University
Technology enthusiasts’ eyes light up when they hear the letters RWTH (Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University). The university is considered a centre of excellence in mechanical and electrical engineering, an assessment that is also confirmed by the top ratings it has received in the league tables compiled by the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung. Intensive research in traditional disciplines, such as German studies and medicine, is also considered important in the region where Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium meet. Aachen’s 28,000 students often maintain contacts with their future employers. Despite the emphasis on research, the university also attaches great significance to practical training and close ties with industry.
FACTS
Students: 28,454
Foreign students: 6,300
Professors: 410
Departments: 9
Year of foundation: 1870
Population: 256,162
Universität Bonn and the Wissenschaftliche Hochschule in Vallendar
You will meet students from Bonn at higher education institutions all over the world. That is really no surprise because the university in the federal city has cultivated international interchange for decades. This is also proven by the number of foreign students: they account for 5,100 of the university’s roughly 30,000 students. The excellent reputation of the university is not only founded on its outstanding results – for example, in mathematics and pharmacy. With 13 postgraduate research centres, it also offers numerous opportunities for advanced study. In the same region, you will also find the privately run Wissenschaftliche Hochschule (Graduate School of Management) in Vallendar near Bonn. It has only 331 students, but often tops the higher education league tables (Stern).
FACTS
Students: 30,000
Foreign students: 5,100
Professors: 530
Departments: 7
Year of foundation: 1818
Population: 312,317
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Goethe, Schiller, Hegel and Fichte have strongly influenced intellectual life at the university in Jena, which was founded in 1558. After German reunification, the university in the small Thuringian town was able to pick up on its long tradition and once again become an academic centre of international standing: 24,000 students are now studying in the town with 100,000 inhabitants. In addition to traditional humanities subjects, the university is now especially strong in fields such as medicine and pharmacy, in which it tops university rankings. Subjects like optical physics and clinically oriented neurosciences are also part of the research landscape in Jena.
FACTS
Students: 19,702
Foreign students: 951
Professors: 334
Departments: 10
Year of foundation: 1558
Population: 102,634
TU Dresden
Founded in 1828, Dresden’s Technische Universität is one of Germany’s oldest technical universities. With more than 30,000 students it is now the largest university in Saxony and one of the most dynamic in Germany, as developments over recent years have shown. Although it used to focus largely on the natural sciences and engineering, following the addition of new departments in the humanities, social sciences and medicine, Technische Universität Dresden has been transformed into a general university offering a range of academic courses most higher education institutions would find difficult to match.
FACTS
Students: 30,466
Foreign students: 2,245
Professors: 480
Departments: 14
Year of foundation: 1828
Population: 515,613
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main
Economic and social sciences were first acknowledged as academic subjects at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, which was founded in 1914. The university became famous as a result of the Critical Theory formulated by Theodor W. Adorno at the Institute for Social Research. Today, with more than 42,000 students, the university is one of Germany’s ten largest institutions of higher education. Teaching in the 16 departments is primarily oriented towards basic research and practical knowledge. Smaller, but equally renowned are the Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst und Musik (College of Performing Arts and Music) and the Städelschule, where Wolfgang Tillmans and Ayse Erkmen teach free fine art. In the same region, you will also find the European Business School at Oestrich-Winkel, outside Frankfurt. Germany’s oldest privately run business school has maintained an outstanding reputation for more than 30 years.
FACTS
Students: 53,225
Foreign students: 10,293
Universities: 1
Universities of applied science: 1
Other higher education institutions: 3
Population: 652,138
TU Darmstadt
Darmstadt’s technical university is certainly no ivory tower. It has a reputation as a “working university” with demanding courses and an international standing. Although its courses focus largely on technological and scientific subjects like mechanical engineering and physics, the university also offers unusual programs such as the science of sports with a special emphasis on informatics. Students profit not only from the excellent training, but also from Darmstadt’s location in the Rhine-Main region. Initial career opportunities are significantly increased by studying in one of Europe’s largest economic regions and in the immediate vicinity of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC).
FACTS
Students: 17,327
Foreign students: 3,253
Professors: 289
Departments: 14
Year of foundation: 1877
Population: 138,196
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Historical splendour and leading research come together in Würzburg. Founded 603 years ago, its university is one of the five oldest higher education institutions in Germany. Würzburg was where the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, X-rayed the human body for the first time. Other Nobel Prize laureates, such as Johannes Stark and Klaus von Klitzing, also conducted research at the university. The spectrum of subjects available to the 20,000 students is very large: 12 departments offer courses ranging from Roman Catholic theology to medicine. High academic standards continue to be a trademark of Würzburg, which repeatedly tops university league tables – for example, the ranking compiled by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
FACTS
Students: 20,000
Foreign students: 1,400
Professors: 281
Departments: 12
Year of foundation: 1402
Population: 128,851
Universität Mannheim
The university in Mannheim has a distinctive profile: it is considered one of Europe’s best higher education institutions in the fields of economics and social sciences. This is confirmed in numerous rankings – for example, those compiled by Focus, the German weekly magazine, and the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung. As recently as 2004, 600 German companies voted the university the best in Germany. When it comes to teaching, the university concentrates on economics and social sciences. Other disciplines – such as law and humanities – are also linked with these main subject areas in an interdisciplinary way. A central research area is informatics. Its campus is also unique: the university is housed in Germany’s largest Baroque palace.
The city of Mannheim is also home to Germany’s first pop academy (photograph) that trains musicians and music managers in the music business and pop music design.
FACTS
Students: 12,850
Foreign students: 2,000
Professors: 113
Departments: 6
Year of foundation: 1907
Population: 325,135
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
No other German university is as well-known around the world as the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg. As a result of its outstanding teaching and research, it plays at the very top of the international higher education Champions League. Traditionally strong in the humanities, today the university also leads in the natural sciences – for example, physics – in higher education rankings like that compiled by the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung. It is above all in medicine, however, that Heidelberg excels. Key areas of the university’s research are focused in that field: for example, molecular biology and cancer research. For centuries, the name of Heidelberg has been synonymous with student life, Romanticism and gentility. This image not only attracts more than 26,000 students to the banks of the Neckar, but also top researchers from around the world. Seven Nobel Prizes have gone to the 618-year-old university, which is Germany’s oldest. The laureates include Georg Wittig, Bert Sakmann, Walter Bothe and Hans Jensen. Many members of Germany’s intellectual and research elite are associated with this long-established university: Max Weber, Robert Bunsen and Georg Friedrich Hegel, for example, all taught in Heidelberg. Sixteen postgraduate research centres – more than at any other German higher education institution – ensure that the university will remain at the top of the research league in the future.
FACTS
Students: 26,742
Foreign students: 5,578
Professors: 403
Departments: 12
Year of foundation: 1386
Population: 143,000
www.uni-heidelberg.de
Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Record in Bavaria: Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg offers the widest range of subjects of all German universities. Approximately 90% of the subjects offered in German institutions of higher education can be studied at its 265 chairs. The university’s almost 24,000 students, who are distributed between the two cities, can choose between traditional subject areas such as applied sciences, medicine, law and the humanities, or elect to study more exotic disciplines such as Baltic studies, Christian archaeology and Indo-Iranian studies. The university is currently expanding its international program, which already includes English-language courses such as chemical engineering and computational engineering.
FACTS
Students: 23,615
Foreign students: 2,336
Professors: 539
Departments: 11
Year of foundation: 1743
Joint population: approx. 594,000
Whether they aim to be mechanical engineers, managers or musicians, Stuttgart can offer its almost 36,000 students the most up-to-date teaching and research facilities. The largest institution of higher education is Universität Stuttgart, which has 22,000 students. Its main focuses include environmental sciences, energy technology, and transport and vehicle technology. It also has a strong international presence – for example, as the partner university of the German University in Cairo. Stuttgart’s oldest higher education institution is Universität Hohenheim. Located to the south of the city, it specializes in agricultural science and natural sciences. The city is also a popular study location for artists and musicians: Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste is one of Germany’s largest art colleges, and Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst organizes 250 concerts and 200 performances a year in Stuttgart alone.
FACTS
Students: 33,000
Foreign students: 2,600
Universities: 2
Universities of applied science: 3
Arts colleges: 3
Population: 590,992
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
“Attempto!” (I will try) was the Latin motto that Count Eberhard gave his new university at its foundation in 1477. It must indeed have taken a certain amount of courage 528 years ago to found a university in a little-known provincial town in southwestern Germany. Yet, what was once Germany’s smallest university town has since become one of the best known centres of higher education in the country. The project management of the excavations in the ancient city of Troy has made Tübingen as internationally famous as the countless personalities that have taught, researched and studied on the river Neckar. Among others, they have included Federal President Horst Köhler, Nobel Prize winners Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Günter Blobel, scholars like Ernst Bloch, Johannes Kepler and Georg Wilhelm Hegel as well as the poets Hölderlin and Mörike.
Today, some 22,000 students are registered at the university in Tübingen, which has just over 87,000 inhabitants. There is therefore more than a little truth in the local adage that “All Tübingen is a university.” More than 70 different courses are offered in the university’s 14 departments, and there are also 12 postgraduate research centres. Teaching and research at Eberhard-Karls-Universität are excellent. Whether you study the league tables produced by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung, or the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Tübingen always occupies one of the top places. Especially in English studies, chemistry, mathematics, pharmacy, political science, German studies and medicine, its results are far above average. The university is also committed to international interchange: it maintains a global network of partnerships with more than 140 higher education institutions in 42 countries.
FACTS
Students: 22,000
Foreign students: 3,146
Professors: 450
Departments: 14
Year of foundation: 1477
Population: 87,262
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau
Teaching, learning, research have now belonged in Freiburg for almost 550 years. The city in southwestern Germany is one of the most traditional university locations. The university is in the heart of the city – not only geographically. Although the humanities traditionally play a major role at the university, it actually offers a broad range of courses with more than 60 subjects taught in 11 departments. Furthermore, courses are of exceptional quality, as top rankings – not only in the higher education league table published by Der Spiegel – demonstrate. The university is among the top centres for German studies, medicine, history, law, sociology, dentistry and English studies. Academic excellence is nothing new in Freiburg: 10 Nobel Prize winners, including Friedrich August von Hayek, worked here, as did Walter Eucken, the founder of the Freiburg School of Constitutional Economics. Students are attracted to Freiburg not only by its academic excellence, but also by the city’s quality of life. It is the warmest place in Germany, and the Black Forest, Alsace and Switzerland are on the doorstep.
FACTS
Students: 22,020
Foreign students: 3,817
Professors: 363
Departments: 11
Year of foundation: 1457
Population: 212,998
Munich University
The “world city with a big heart” is also a world city of learning: with 80,000 students at 11 universities, universities of applied science and other higher education institutions, Munich is Germany’s second largest centre of scholarship after Berlin. Furthermore, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität is on the way to joining the Top Ten of European universities. 47,000 students are registered at Munich’s largest university, which is also one of the Germany’s strongest research centres. Take political science, for example: whether it is the Middle East conflict, globalization or EU enlargement, policymakers constantly seek guidance from researchers at the Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung. The Technische Universität München (TUM) has won a whole series of awards. For example, it was the only European university to receive a distinction for outstanding research in the 2004 Sun Java System Campus Awards organized by Sun Microsystems. Spiegel, the weekly newsmagazine, rated the university as the best German higher education institution. Since 1961, three Nobel Prizes have gone to the university, whose main emphases include new high-technologies, biophysics and tumour research. Places at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen are particularly sought-after. After all, most well-known German directors learned their craft in Munich.
FACTS
Students: 87,085
Foreign students: 13,979
Universities: 3
Universities of applied science: 3
Other higher education institutions: 5
Population: 1.26 million
Universität Konstanz
Seminars and sailing almost belong together at the Universität Konstanz because the university is located directly on the banks of Lake Constance. Situated where Germany, Switzerland and Austria meet, it is in one of Germany’s most beautiful regions. In addition to excellent leisure opportunities, the university, which was only founded in 1966, offers more than 40 courses in the natural sciences, humanities, law and economics. Although relatively small, with just 10,000 students, higher education league tables rate the university as one of the best in the country. Its special feature is unusual courses. In 2005, for example, it will be launching a degree course in public policy and management to train political managers for parliaments and authorities.
FACTS
Students: 10,109
Foreign students: 1,449
Professors: 174
Departments: 13
Year of foundation: 1966
Population: 81,220
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