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University of Freiburg — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Foundation

Originally Albrechts University, the university started with four faculties (theology, philosophy, medicine, and law). Its establishment belongs to the second wave of university foundings in the German-speaking world in the late Middle Ages, like the University of Tübingen and the University of Basel (Switzerland). Established by papal privilege (papal bull), the university in Freiburg actually was – like all or most universities in the Middle Ages – a corporation of the church body and therefore belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy. The bishop of Basel consequently was its provost or chancellor (Kanzler), the bishop of Constance was its patron, and the real founder of the university was the sovereign, Archduke Albert VI of Austria, being the brother of Frederick III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. At its founding, the university was named after Albert VI of Austria. He provided the university with land and endowments, as well as its own jurisdiction. Also he declared Albrechts University as the "county university" (German Landesuniversität) for his territory until it was handed over to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1490.

The university soon attracted many students, such as the humanists Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johann Reuchlin, and Jakob Wimpfeling. When Ulrich Zasius was teaching law (until 1536), Freiburg became a centre of humanist jurisprudence. From 1529 to 1535, Erasmus of Rotterdam after having left Basel, lived and taught in Freiburg, however, never at the university. From around 1559 on, the university was housed at the Altes Collegium ("Old College"), today called the "new town-hall". The importance of the university decreased during the time of the Counter-Reformation. To counter reformatory tendencies, the administration of two faculties was handed over to the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits in 1620. From 1682 on, the Jesuits built their college, as well as the Jesuit church (nowadays the "University Church" or Universitätskirche).

Campus

Having grown with the city since the 15th century, the university's buildings are deeply intertwined with the city. The three large campuses are the university center next to the historical city center, the institutes quarter, and the engineering campus, but other buildings can be found scattered throughout Freiburg.

The university complex in the historical center of Freiburg contains such picturesque buildings as the Jugendstil Kollegiengebäude I(short: "KG I"), built in 1911 by Hermann Billing, and the gothic revival old university library. The current University Library is also located in the historical center; it is a monumental building erected in the 1970s, and was to be renovated and redesigned beginning in September 2008. It is one of the largest in Germany and placed fourth in an October 2007, German national ranking of university libraries.

The University Church, located across from Kollegiengebäude II (short: "KG II"), was built in 1683 by the Jesuit order. The church and the Jesuit college were handed over to the university after the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773. The church was destroyed in the 27 November 1944, bombing raid on Freiburg, and reconstructed in 1956.

The "institute quarter" (Institutsviertel) is home to the science faculties. This campus was destroyed almost completely in the Freiburg bombing raid in 1944. After World War II, the reconstruction of the institutes began. Today, the quarter houses the physics buildings, the tall main chemistry building, visible from afar, the famous Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry at the Hermann-Staudinger-Haus, various other science buildings, and the preclinical institutes of the Faculty of Medicine.

The engineering campus is located next to the small Freiburg airfield to the northwest of the city center, close to the University Medical Center. The campus is home to the Institut für Mikrosystemtechnik ( Department of Microsystems Engineering) and the Department of Computer Science. With the addition of the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Freiburg became the first classical university to combine traditional disciplines with microsystems technologies.

The University Medical Center (Universitätsklinikum Freiburg) is one of Germany's largest medical centers. It boasts 1,600 beds and handles 55,000 in-patients a year, with another 357,000 being treated as out-patients. It consists of 13 specialized clinics, five clinical institutes, and five centers (e.g. Center for Transplantation Medicine). The University Medical Center achieved many technical advances, such as the first implantation of an artificial heart Jarvik 2000 in 2002.

Most recently, the University of Freiburg purchased a large historic villa in the district of Herdern, which will house part of the literature and linguistics, as well as history departments of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies.

In 2015, the University of Freiburg opened its new library, housed in a modern building with a large glass and chrome facade. The library features a section for quiet work and the permanent collection as well as space for group work, where collaboration is encouraged. The building also includes a student cafe and an outdoor plaza with modern sculpture.

Excellence initiative

The university scored well with its submissions to the German Universities Excellence Initiative. The university received funding in all three categories. In the first category, funding for a new graduate school, the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, was granted; in the second, funding was granted for the excellence cluster Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss); and in the third category, Institutional Strategy Line of Funding, open only to institutions with submissions qualified in the first two categories, the university is receiving funding for "Windows for Research", which aims to promote a high level of interdisciplinarity between research fields and attract scientists from all over the world. To that end, the university founded the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). Being selected for the third category ranks Freiburg as one of nine "excellence universities" in Germany. The university is to receive over EUR 130 million in additional funds over five years (from 2007) from this third category of funding.

In 2009, the university was also successful in a nationwide competition for excellence in teaching, held by the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft. The University of Freiburg, with its plans for future innovative teaching concepts, was selected as one of 10 winners from a field of over 100 higher education institutions.

In 2012, in the third round of the Excellence Initiative, the university was able to successfully extend funding for the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, as well as bioss, while also gaining funding for a new cluster called BrainLinks-Brain Tools, an interdisciplinary neurotechnology project. Citing insufficient evidence of integration of the FRIAS concept into the university's framework, the committee did not extend funding for the FRIAS and the institutional strategy line of funding, despite acknowledging the impressive research and advances achieved at FRIAS in the past years.

Current affairs

Teams of the University of Freiburg frequently participate in academic competitions with considerable success. The moot court team of the Faculty of Law has been the most successful team in the history of the competition Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. The humanoid robot team of the Faculty of Engineering regularly competes with distinction in international tournaments. The University of Freiburg team has also repeatedly scored highly at the International Genetically Engineered Machine undergraduate synthetic biology competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The team was supported by numerous university institutions, among them the recently established bioss cluster of excellence. The University of Freiburg also participates in the National Model United Nations held annually in New York City.

The genetically engineered golden rice was developed by the University of Freiburg (Peter Beyer) and the ETH Zurich (Ingo Potrykus) from 1992 to 2000. It was considered a breakthrough in biotechnology at the time of publication and now can help to provide vitamin A to people lacking access to it in their diets.

When previous rector Jäger retired in 2008, law professor Andreas Voßkuhle was chosen as his successor. However, shortly after the start of his term, the Social Democratic Party of Germany nominated Voßkuhle as vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Voßkuhle accepted the nomination, was confirmed, and took his seat on the court in May 2008. In July 2008, then vice-rector Hans-Jochen Schiewer was elected as successor to Voßkuhle. Schiewer has assumed the position of rector with the start of the winter term 2008/2009.

The University of Freiburg offers educational audio and video contents on the iTunes U software platform since January 2008.

The University of Freiburg Institute of Physics is actively involved with research at the Large Hadron Collider and has contributed significantly to the ATLAS experiment, resulting in the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.

University College Freiburg

University College Freiburg (UCF) is the university's central facility for promoting and administering international, interdisciplinary teaching activities. It was established in 2012 and is situated in the historical buildings of the old university, the historical site of the artes liberales. UCF serves as a lab for innovative teaching approaches and instructional design at the University of Freiburg and works in close co-operation with the faculties and the Rectorate's departments for Instructional Development and International Relations. It is accredited by the University of Freiburg, which draws its authority from the Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency.

The four-year, English-taught Bachelor program in Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is UCF's major offering, the first of its kind in Germany. It emphasizes a broad interdisciplinary education, while at the same time providing for individualized academic concentrations on a high academic level. Students have to complete 240 ECTS credits and are able to major in life sciences, environmental and sustainability sciences, culture and history and governance. Electives can be taken at UCF, in the greater University of Freiburg, during studies abroad or in the form of internships and self-directed practical projects.

In order to provide a framework and didactic guidance for interdisciplinary higher education, the University of Freiburg has established two chairs at UCF: Epistemology and Theory of Science (Prof. Dr. Frieder Vogelmann, who is also the dean of studies) and Science and Technology Studies (Prof. Dr. Veronika Lipphardt). The college and the program are directed by Managing Director Paul Sterzel and the Academic Coordinator Thorsten Leiendecker.

UCF is a member of the European Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and of EPICUR, a group of eight universities in six countries that explore a modern and internationally connected university experience Students are able to participate in a double degree program with the University College Maastricht.

Students at UCF organize a number of interest groups, for instance a magazine publishing group, a 3D printing group, an arts collective, and a Model United Nations team. They represented by an elected board of twelve student office holders. Alumni are a part of a subgroup within the greater University of Freiburg alumni association.

Graduate schools

The University of Freiburg has a variety of graduate education and research opportunities. In an evaluation of European graduate programs, Freiburg was ranked among the leading universities in several subject fields examined.

One of the notable graduate opportunities is the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, a project funded by the German Excellence Initiative.

Apart from the many graduate programs of its faculties, Freiburg has set up additional specialized graduate schools and graduate research centers, coordinated by the newly founded International Graduate Academy (IGA) Freiburg. The IGA coordinates five graduate schools: the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine; the European Cultures and Intercultural Interweaving school; the Theology and Religious Studies school; the Hermann Paul School of Language Sciences, and the Environment, Society and Global Change graduate school of the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences.

The IGA also coordinates 12 Graduate Research Centers (Graduiertenkolleg): Biochemistry of Enzymes; Friends, Patrons, Clients; Formation and Development of Present-Day Landscapes; Mathematical Logics and Applications; Mechanisms of Neuronal Signal Transduction; Catalysts and Catalytic Reactions for Organic Synthesis (in cooperation with the University of Basel); Particle Physics; Embedded Microsystems; From Cells to Organs: Molecular Mechanisms of Organogenesis; Signal Systems in Model Organisms of Plant Origin; Micro Energy Harvesting; and PhD program Computational Neuroscience at the Bernstein Center Freiburg for Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology.

Finally, the university operates three joint graduate schools with the Max Planck Society: the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology; the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment; and the International Max Planck Research School for Comparative Criminal Law.

Together with the EUCOR universities of Basel and Strasbourg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Freiburg also runs the shared graduate school École supérieure de biotechnologie Strasbourg, enabling the students to obtain an international degree in biotechnology and a trilingual education, as classes are taught in English, German, and French.

International cooperation

The university is part of the regional EUCOR federation together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the universities of Basel, Mulhouse, and, marked by particularly close ties, Strasbourg. Freiburg is further a member of the League of European Research Universities; the European University Association; ASEA-Uninet; AC21; and the International Forum of Public Universities (IFPU). The university also has exchange agreements and cooperative efforts with universities on almost every continent.

The University of Freiburg initiated an English language international master's program in social sciences, the Global Studies Programme (GSP) in 2001. The aim of the program is to enable students to study social sciences in different regions and cultures. Combining various disciplines such as sociology, political sciences, anthropology and geography, students approach globalization with a unique perspective. The program is conducted jointly by the University of Freiburg with the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, the Latin American Social Sciences Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Students in the GSP master's program study on three different continents during the two-year degree program. Since 2008, the GSP also offers a PhD program in Global Studies. The Global Studies Program has received many awards, among them the BMW Group Award for Intercultural Learning in 2004 as well as being listed a Top Ten International master's degree Course in Germany by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in 2006.

In 1995, the University of Freiburg helped the Aromanian professor Vasile Barba found the European Center of Aromanian Studies (Aromanian: Tsentrul European ti Studii Armãneshti; German: Europäisches Zentrum für Aromunische Studien), specialized on Aromanian studies.

The university also supports the Institute for Russian-German Literature and Cultural Relations at the Russian State University for the Humanities as well as the Vladimir Admoni School for Doctoral Studies at the University of Latvia.

Approximately 1/6th of its students are international students. Many students at this university participate in the ERASMUS exchange program.