The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
of more than 30,000 students in the city of
Groningen
Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
,
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. Founded in 1614, the university is the second oldest in the country (after
Leiden
Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
).
The University of Groningen has eleven
faculties, nine
graduate school
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachel ...
s, 27 research centres and institutes, and more than 175-degree programmes. The university's alumni and faculty include
Johann Bernoulli
Johann Bernoulli (also known as Jean in French or John in English; – 1 January 1748) was a Swiss people, Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infin ...
,
Aletta Jacobs, four
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winners, nine
Spinoza Prize winners, one
Stevin Prize winner, various members of the
Dutch royal family, several politicians, the first president of the
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...
, and a secretary general of
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
.
History
The institution was founded as a college in 1614 in an initiative taken by the Regional Assembly of the city of
Groningen
Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
and the ''
Ommelanden'', or surrounding region. There were four faculties – Theology, Law, Medicine, and Philosophy.
The
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
of the university was confirmed by
The Estates
The Estates, also known as the States (, , , Hungarian: Rendek), was the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, the divisions of society in feudal times, called together for purposes of deliberation, legislation or taxatio ...
of the
City and County of Groningen in 1615. It consists of the provincial arms, charged with an open book inscribed with the abbreviated words VER/BVM/DNI LV/CER/NA, short for ''Verbum Domini Lucerna Pedibus Nostris''. The shield is surmounted by a golden crown of five leaves and four pearls.
In the first 75 years of its existence about 100 students enrolled every year. Almost half of the students and lecturers came from outside the Netherlands – the first ''rector magnificus'',
Ubbo Emmius, came from
East Frisia
East Frisia () or East Friesland (; ; ; ) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisia (peninsula), East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the ...
in modern-day Germany, for instance – but at the same time there was already a close relationship between the university and the city and the surrounding region.
The development of the university came to a standstill at the end of the seventeenth and during the eighteenth century because of theological differences of opinion, a difficult relationship with the Regional Assembly and political problems that included the month-long siege of the city by the prince-bishop of Münster
‘''Bommen Berend (Bombing Bernhard)''’ in 1672 during which the university fielded a voluntary student company (VSC). On average two to three hundred students were registered with the university at any one time during this period.

During the French occupation between 1775 and 1814 the University of Groningen was administered by the
Imperial University of Paris. Unlike Leiden University, it was not shut down and the institute was renamed Imperial University of Groningen (''Keizerlijke Universiteit Groningen''). During this time period, it remained the only open university in the
Kingdom of Holland. In 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars, at the same time as Leiden and Utrecht, the university gained recognition as a national college of higher education, but this was followed by discussions about closure. The situation improved when a new main university building, the Academiegebouw, was constructed in 1850, a building that was largely financed by the people of Groningen. A fire completely destroyed the building in 1906.
In the meantime, the Higher Education Act of 1876 had radically improved the position of the university, which was renamed the "''Rijksuniversiteit Groningen''" (RUG). Teaching took place in Dutch and Latin, and the university was given a research duty as well as an educational duty.
The University of Groningen developed during the first decades of the twentieth century. The number of faculties and courses grew steadily while the number of students grew rapidly. When the university celebrated its first 300 years in 1914 there were 611 registered students; this had grown to 1,000 by 1924. After a drop back during the Depression, and in particular during the Second World War, the number of students grew rapidly from 1945 to reach 20,000 in 1994. In recent times there are about 32,700 students registered at the University of Groningen with the number of foreign students again growing steadily, and following the tradition set by the first Rector Magnificus, the number of German students and researchers has grown strongly.
In March 2015, the RUG signed an agreement with the
China Agricultural University to establish a campus in the Chinese city of
Yantai. This would have made the RUG the first Dutch university to open a campus in China. The plan was heavily criticised, mainly due to worries about the restriction of academic freedom caused by
censorship in China
Censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is mandated by the country's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world. The government censors content for mainly political re ...
. In January 2018, the plans were cancelled by the Executive Board of the UG, based on the "insufficient support for the project".
Facts and figures

Key facts and figures about the University of Groningen are:
* The university, as of 2020, has 34,000 students enrolled in various programs from the undergraduate level up to doctorate students. This includes 8,250 international students.
* The university currently has 3,600 individuals in its academic staff. The
UMCG included, a third of the academic staff is international.
* 425
full professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
s
* 45+ bachelor's degree programmes (35+ bachelor's degree programmes are taught in English)
* 120+ master's degree programmes taught in English
* 40+
research master's
A Master of Research (Abbreviation, abbr. MRes, MARes, MScRes, or MScR) degree is an internationally recognised advanced postgraduate research degree in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. In most cases, the degree is designed ...
and top programmes
* 11 faculties (one in the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden), nine graduate schools
* 140,000 alumni
* 120+ nationalities
* 8,000 research publications
* 4,350 PhD candidates (51% international)
* 1.0 billion EUR budget
* Research grants from the
Dutch Research Council (NWO): 14 starting grants (Veni), 5 experienced research grants (Vidi) and 4 senior research grants (Vici) awarded in 2020
* Research grants from the
European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...
(ERC): 1 Starting Grant, 1 Consolidator Grant, 3 Advanced Grants and 1 Proof of Concept Grant awarded in 2020
* 18 patent applications in 2020
The university operates under the BSA (Binding Study Advice) system, under which a first year undergraduate (bachelor) student must achieve a certain number of
ECTS in order to progress to the second year. This varies from 30 ECTS to 45 ECTS among various degrees.
RUG has its own newspaper: the '.
The university's Center for Information Technology (CIT) houses an
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
Blue Gene/L supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
and data center of
Target used by the
LOFAR project as well as a Virtual Reality and 3D-visualisation center.
Rankings and reputation
* The University of Groningen (RUG) is a member of the so-called Excellence Group of universities in Europe. The Excellence Group has 56 members, which is 1.3 percent of the approximately 4,500 European institutions of higher education.
* RUG belongs to the top 100 large comprehensive research universities in the world.
* RUG was #80 in the
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...
2021.
* According to the 2019
U.S. News & World Report, the Faculty of Economics and Business ranks as 3rd in the Netherlands, 10th in Europe and 32nd in the world for Economics and Business.
[Global University Rankings](_blank)
retrieved 4 April 2015
* In 2021, the university ranked #64 in the
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). In addition to this overall score, the university falls within the global top 100 for several specific fields and subjects: Psychology (41), Clinical Medicine (51–75), Business Administration (37), Ecology (51–75).
* RUG was ranked #139 worldwide in the QS WUR 2024.
* The university was ranked #73 worldwide in 2019 by the National Taiwan University that publishes the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities.
* The Webometrics placed the university #85 worldwide and #14 in Europe.
*The university was ranked 3rd place in the
UI GreenMetric World University Ranking in 2021, which includes 780 universities. UI GreenMetric World University Rankings was launched by
Universitas Indonesia (UI) to focus awareness on sustainability in university policy-making. Universities are ranked in the basis of self-reported data in the areas of Setting and Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change, Waste, Water, Transportation, and Education and Research.
*From 2019 to 2020, the university was ranked 91st place in
the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).
*In 2019, Times Higher Education introduced a new ranking:
the Europe Teaching Rankings. The university was ranked 26th place, which includes more than 200 universities. This new ranking focusses on higher education institutions' teaching quality and learning environments for students.
*The university was ranked 1st in the Netherlands by
U-Multirank (UMR)in 2019. UMR was developed by a consortium consisting of the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) in Twente, the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) in Germany and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) in Leiden. The university achieved the highest score on 16 indicators that include International Orientation dimension, Research and Knowledge Transfer.
* The Faculty of Economics and Business is accredited by both
AACSB and
EQUIS.
Organisation

The RUG has 6,250 employees.
The university library was renovated between 2013 and 2017. The RUG has a branch in Leeuwarden. Plans to establish a "branch campus" in China's Yantai were called off in January 2018, and the University Museum is now in the process of being established.
The University of Groningen is represented in the Academic Heritage Foundation, a foundation that aims to preserve university collections and cultural treasures.
Faculties

The University of Groningen is organized in eleven faculties that offer programmes and courses in the fields of humanities, social sciences, law, economics and business, spatial sciences, life sciences, and natural sciences and technology. Each faculty (''cf.'', College in the USA or School in Europe) is a formal grouping of academic degree programmes, schools and institutes, discipline areas, research centres, and/or any combination of these drawn together for educational purposes. Each faculty offers bachelor's, master's, PhD, and exchange programmes, while some also offer short certificate courses.
Since 2014, the RUG also has a partly independent
liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...
,
University College Groningen (UCG).
* Faculty of Economics and Business
* Faculty of Arts
* Faculty of Law
* Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society
* Faculty of Philosophy
* Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences
* Faculty of Medical Sciences
* Faculty of Science and Engineering
* Faculty of
Spatial Sciences
*
University College Groningen
* Campus Fryslân
National Cooperation
*Exposome-NL, Dutch consortium cooperating in the field of exposome research.
International Cooperation
The University of Groningen engages in many types of international cooperation throughout both teaching and research. The main networks and partners of the university are:
*Enlight, an alliance of nine European universities, The Guild of European research-intensive universities and the
Coimbra group
The Coimbra Group (CG) is an international association of 40 universities in Europe. It was established in 1985. It works for the benefit of its members by promoting "internationalization, academic collaboration, excellence in learning and rese ...
, a network of 37 long established European multidisciplinary universities.
*Strategic partnerships (academic connection):
Universität Hamburg (UHH) and
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
*Global strategic partnerships:
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it is also the second oldest autonomous university in the country.
The university is organised across numerous colleges and schools, includi ...
(Singapore),
Osaka University (Japan),
Macquarie University
Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...
(Australia),
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia),
Universidad de Antioquia
The University of Antioquia (), also called UdeA, is primarily a Public university, public research, research-based university, located in the city of Medellín, Colombia. With regional campuses in Amalfi, Antioquia, Amalfi, Andes, Antioquia, An ...
(Colombia),
Universidad de Chile (Chile),
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico),
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil),
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...
(South Africa)
Campus
The various faculties are housed around the city. Most of the faculties- including the faculties of Law, Arts and Philosophy are located in and around the city center. The university's original building, which acts as the main administrative building, lies exactly in the center of the city at the ''Broerstraat''. The faculty of medical sciences is located close by at the
University Medical Center Groningen(UMCG). The Faculties of Economics and Business, Spatial Sciences, and Science and Engineering are housed in the northern outskirts of the city, at the Zernike Campus, named after
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winner
Frits Zernike. The Zernike campus is also shared by the
Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the other big university in the city, making the total number of students studying there around 40,000.
The university has libraries in three locations: the main one at the city center, one in the Duisenberg building in Zernike Campus, and one in the faculty of medicine, that includes a vast array of books and online material for students. The university has also recently opened another campus in
Leeuwarden, Friesland, referred to as "Campus Fryslân", that offers multiple disciplines in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Student life
The city of Groningen is known as the student city of the Netherlands; around one-third of the city's residents are students at either The University of Groningen or at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences. The university, through ACLO, offers a wide range of sporting activities, and courses. Almost each sport has its own association, and offers the use of its facilities at discount rates for students.
The university also has multiple student societies that organize social events for its members, as well as student and study associations, that are mostly concerned with specific faculties and courses.
The use of
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
s as the means for transport is particularly prevalent for locals and students alike, and has integrated, labelled bike paths from the city center to Zernike. The city is popularly referred to as "The World Cycling City" because of this.
Student housing
The University of Groningen does not have student accommodation. It does, however, offer students with accommodation via
SSH Student Housing, which operates student houses in various locations in Groningen, and various other cities within the Netherlands. A significant number of students live in private accommodations within the city, however, a recent addition to the housing options for students is
The Student Hotel as well. In an effort to combat the annual housing shortage, the city of Groningen has incentivized the construction of short-term accommodation such as The Village which is made of shipping containers for international students. The Dutch government has strict laws for private accommodations for both tenants (students) and the landlords, so that fair rent prices, and renting conditions can be maintained.
In 2018, the university received national attention due to the housing crisis in the city of Groningen. Due to the fact that most incoming students at the university are primarily from other parts of the country, or the world, there has been a lack of housing options for students. Especially in the fall semester of 2021 the housing crisis hit its peak with hundreds of students reportedly not having any accommodation and resorting to emergency shelters. The housing shorting evoked a protest in the city centre which culminated in the Academy building being temporarily occupied by students to put pressure on the city to extend emergency housing.
Research
In 2023, 635 PhDs were awarded (12% of the total for the Netherlands). Around 60% of newly-admitted PhD students came from abroad.
Research schools, centres and institutes
Humanities and Social Sciences
* Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG)
* Centre for Religion and Heritage
*Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalization (CRCG)
*Centre Religion, Health and Wellbeing
*CRASIS, Culture, Religion and Society in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
*Globalisation Studies Groningen (GSG)
* Groningen Institute of Archeology (GIA)
* Groningen Institute for Educational research (GION)
* Groningen Research Institute of Philosophy (GRIPH)
* Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG)
* Heymans Institute
*Institute of Indian Studies
* Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS)
*Qumran Institute
* Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI)
Law
* Centre for Law, Administration and Society (CRBS)
* Groningen Centre of Energy Law (GCEL)
Economics & Business
* SOM research institute
Life Sciences
* Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCN) / UMCG
* Research Institute BCN-BRAIN / UMCG
* Cancer Research Center Groningen (CRCG) / UMCG
* Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES)
* Groningen University Institute for Drug Exploration (GUIDE) / UMCG
* Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology (GBB)
* Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy (GRIP)
* Science in Healthy Ageing and healthcaRE (SHARE), UMCG
* W.J. Kolff Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science / UMCG
Science and Engineering
* Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
* ENTEG - Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen
* ESRIG - Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen
* GBB - Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute
* GELIFES - Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences
* GRIP - Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy
* ISEC - Institute for Science Education and Communication
*
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
*
Stratingh Institute for Chemistry
* Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity
*
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (ZIAM)
Graduate schools
The University of Groningen's Graduate Schools are organized somewhat different from its international counterparts. The main difference is that the Graduate Schools do not contain all Master's programmes; Graduate Schools manage and facilitate the two-year Master's programmes: top master's degree programmes and Research master's degree programmes.
* Graduate School of Behavioural and Social Sciences
* Graduate School of Economics and Business
* Graduate School of Humanities
* Graduate School of Law
* Graduate School of Medical Sciences
* Graduate School of Philosophy
* Graduate School of Science
* Graduate School of Spatial Sciences
* Graduate School of Religion, Culture and Society
Notable alumni
Notable alumni of the University of Groningen include:
Heads of Government
*
Paramanga Ernest Yonli, Prime Minister of
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...
*
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
*
Suzanne Camelia-Römer, Prime Minister of the
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...
*
Etienne Ys, Prime Minister of the
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...
*
Johan Remkes, Deputy Prime Minister of the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
Business leaders
*
Bart Becht, CEO of
Reckitt Benckiser
*
Maarten van den Bergh, Chairman of
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...
, named the most powerful businessman in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
in 2005 by
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
*
Marc Bolland, CEO of
Marks & Spencer
*
Dolf van den Brink, CEO of
Heineken N.V.
*
Paul Polman, CEO of
Unilever
Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
*
Roel de Vries, Global Head of Marketing at
Nissan Motor Corporation
*
Hans Wijers, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
ING
Ing, ING or ing may refer to:
Art and media
* '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film
* i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group
* The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''
* "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...
, former CEO of
AkzoNobel
*
George Möller, CEO of
Robeco, former CEO of
Euronext
*
Chris Vogelzang, CEO of
Danske Bank
Danske Bank A/S (, ) is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail custome ...
*
Volkert Engelsman, CEO of
Eosta
*
Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, CEO of
SHV Holdings
*
Marjan Rintel, CEO of
KLM, former CEO of
Dutch Railways
*
Louise Gunning-Schepers, chairman of the Supervisory Board of the
Schiphol Group
*
Maria Oudeman, president of
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...
, former director of
Equinor
Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renew ...
Economists and scientists
*
Wim Duisenberg, first president of the
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...
*
Klaas Knot, current President of the Dutch
central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)
*
Dirk Stikker,
Secretary General of NATO
*
Diederik Stapel, professor of social psychology known for fabrication of research data
*
Gerbrand Bakker, early 19th century physician
*
Johan van Benthem, logician
*
Johann Bernoulli
Johann Bernoulli (also known as Jean in French or John in English; – 1 January 1748) was a Swiss people, Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infin ...
, mathematician
*
Bart Bok
Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, w ...
,
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
*
Hans van Abeelen, first Dutch
behavior geneticist
*
Corina Brussaard, Antarctic researcher in viral ecology and phytoplankton
*
Anita Buma, Antarctic researcher in marine
ecophysiology
Ecophysiology (from Greek , ''oikos'', "house(hold)"; , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia''), environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the response of an organism's physiology to envir ...
*
Wei Ji Ma, professor of psychology and neuroscience
*
Ben Feringa, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016 for his work on molecular motors
*
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
while professor in
Leiden
Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
for his experiments on the properties of matter at low temperatures which made the production of liquid
helium
Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
possible
*
Frits Zernike, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
for his invention of the
phase-contrast optical microscope in 1953.
Politicians
*
Job Cohen, former mayor of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
and former leader of the
Dutch Labour Party
*
Pim Fortuyn
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in ...
,
lecturer, later politician and founder of the
Pim Fortuyn List (and assassinated in 2002)
*
Pavela Mitova, member of parliament
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
*
Niccolò Invidia, member of parliament
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
*
Jacques Wallage
Jacques Wallage (; born 27 September 1946) is a retired Netherlands, Dutch politician of the Labour Party (Netherlands), Labour Party (PvdA) and sociologist.
Wallage attended a Gymnasium (school), Gymnasium in Groningen from April 1959 until M ...
, former mayor of Groningen
*
Halbe Zijlstra, former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs
*
Bruno Bruins, former Dutch State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science
Others
*
Albert Hofman, epidemiologist at the
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
*
Turtle Bunbury, Irish historian and author
*
James Burnett
*
Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager, featured on ''
Million Dollar Traders'' on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
*
Ubbo Emmius, founder of the University of Groningen and first
rector magnificus
A rector (Latin for 'ruler') is a senior official in an educational institution, and can refer to an official in either a university or a secondary school. Outside the English-speaking world, the rector is often the most senior official in a u ...
*
Willem Frederik Hermans
Willem Frederik Hermans (; 1 September 192127 April 1995) was a Dutch author of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, as well as book-length studies, essays, and literary criticism. His most famous works are ''The House of Refuge'' (novella, 195 ...
, lecturer and writer
*
Gerardus Heymans, philosopher and psychologist
*
Jack Hoeksema, linguist and professor in the Department of Dutch Language and Culture
*
Pieter Crull, jurist, attorney-general of Suriname and acting governor
*
Peter Hofstee, professor of
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
, joined
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
in 1996, currently the chief architect of the
Synergistic Processor Element (SPE) of the Cell microprocessor
*
Johan Huizinga, historian
*
Aletta Jacobs, first woman in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
to receive an
MD
*
Ashin Jinarakkhita, Indonesian Buddhist monk
*
Roland Kupers, Dutch theoretical physicist
*
Johann Heinrich Alting, theologian
*
Annemarie, Duchess of Parma, journalist, consultant, and member of the
Dutch royal family
*
Jaap Kunst, ethnomusicologist (studied law)
* Prince
Maurits van Oranje Nassau, first cousin of King
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born 27 April 1967) is King of the Netherlands since 30 April 2013.
Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht during the reign of his maternal grandmother, Queen Juliana, as the eldest ch ...
*
John Nerbonne, professor of humanities computing, expert in dialectology, member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Science
*
Wubbo Ockels, first Dutch
astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
, received a PhD degree in
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, 1973
*
Jan Oort, astronomer
*
Johannes Jacobus Poortman, philosopher, psychologist
*
Dagmar Reichardt, professor of Cultural Industry at
University of Latvia
*
James Renwick (1662–1688) Scottish
Covenanter
*
Willem de Sitter, astronomer
*
Tom Snijders, statistician and
sociologist, expert on
multilevel analysis and developer of Siena in R, a program for longitudinal
social network analysis
Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...
*
Henk G. Sol, Professor of
Business Engineering and ICT
*
Pieter Jelles Troelstra, lawyer, politician (early 20th century)
*
René Veenstra, professor of
sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, expert on
social network analysis
Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...
and group processes in
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...
*
Wietse Venema, programmer and physicist
*
Clemens von Bönninghausen, lawyer, botanist, homeopathic physician
*
Epke Zonderland,
2012 Olympics gold medalist
Notable researchers
*
Dirk Bezemer (born 1971), economist
*
Mineke Bosch, historian
*
Cornelis de Bot, linguist
*
Marijn van Dijk, developmental psychologist
*
Caroline van Eck, art historian
*
Paul van Geert, developmental psychologist
*
Nathalie Katsonis, chemist
*
Wander Lowie, linguist
*
Angus Maddison, British
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
* Lodi Nauta, professor of the History
*
Sijbren Otto, chemist of Philosophy
*
Erik Scherder
*
Wolfgang Stroebe, social psychologist
*
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Imre Szent-Györgyi de Rapoltu Mare, Nagyrápolt (; September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986) was a Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and disc ...
, biochemist, awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...
in 1937
*
Marjolijn Verspoor, linguist
*
Ben Feringa, synthetic organic chemist, awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016
*
Pauline Kleingeld, professor of Ethics and its history
*
Amina Helmi, Argentine astronomer, and a professor of dynamics, structure and formation of the milky way
*
Cisca Wijmenga, professor of Human Genetics
*
Theunis Piersma, professor of Global Flyway Ecology
*
Bert Röling, Professor of Law and progenitor of the field of Polemology in the Netherlands
*
Linda Steg, professor of environmental psychology, and a pioneer and world leader in the field of environmental psychology
*
Sabeth Verpoorte professor of
microfluidics and miniaturized "lab-on-a-chip" systems in the Faculty of Science and Engineering
*
Jacques Zeelen, professor of globalization studies and humanitarian action
See also
*
Education in the Netherlands
Education in the Netherlands is characterized by division: education is oriented toward the needs and background of the pupil. Education is divided over schools for different age groups, some of which are divided in streams for different educatio ...
*
Energy Delta Institute
*
List of early modern universities in Europe
The list of early modern universities in Europe comprises all University, universities that existed in the early modern age (1501–1800) in Europe. It also includes short-lived foundations and educational institutions whose university status is ...
References
Further reading
*
Klaas van Berkel, ''Universiteit van het Noorden. Vier eeuwen academisch leven in Groningen''. 3 vols. Hilversum, Verloren, 2014, 2017, 2022.
* John Flood ed., ''The University of Groningen: An Unofficial History''. Groningen, Department of English Language & Culture, 2018.
* Gerda C. Huisman, ''The University Library of Groningen: Four Hundred Years of History''. Groningen, Barkhuis, 2016. Groningen
Online
External links
*
University of Groningen Datasets
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Groningen
1614 establishments in the Dutch Republic
Buildings and structures in Groningen (city)
Educational institutions established in the 1610s
Supercomputer sites
Groningen, University Of
Law schools in the Netherlands
Education in the Dutch Republic