Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU; russian: Балтийский федеральный университет имени Иммануила Канта) formerly known as the ''Immanuel Kant Russian State University'' (russian: Российский государственный университет имени Иммануила Канта, ''Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet imeni Immanuila Kanta''), or in brief the ''Kant University'' (russian: Университет Канта, ''Universitet Kanta''), is a public research university located in the enclave of

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The university was formerly known as the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Pruss ...

(1544-1946), As a result of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Russia annexed the city of

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

from

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

and renamed it Kaliningrad, therefore the establishment was renamed Kaliningrad State University (1946–2005), then from 2005 onwards the university was renamed Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in honor of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

, a German philosopher. The university claims to maintain the traditions of its German predecessor, the

. In 2020, the university was ranked #1,000+ in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE WUR), and in 2022 it was ranked #2,350 in the

Webometrics The science of webometrics (also cybermetrics) tries to measure the World Wide Web to get knowledge about the number and types of hyperlinks, structure of the World Wide Web and using patterns. According to Björneborn and Ingwersen, the definitio ...

Ranking Web of Universities.

History

The former

was commonly known as the Albertina. It was East Prussia's sole university and was specially regarded for its mathematics and astronomy. The campus was severely damaged by British aerial bombing in August 1944 during

. The Albertina was closed after Königsberg was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

in 1945. After the war, Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad and the new

Russophone This article details the geographical distribution of Russian-speakers. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the status of the Russian language often became a matter of controversy. Some Post-Soviet states adopted policies of derussi ...

''Kaliningrad State Pedagogical Institute'' used the campus of the Albertina from 1948 to 1967, including the main Albertina building inaugurated in 1862. In 1967, the institute received the status of a university and became known as ''Kaliningrad State University''. In 2005, during the celebrations of the 750th anniversary of the founding of Königsberg, President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

of Russia and Chancellor

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

of Germany announced that the university would be renamed ''Immanuel Kant Russian State University'' in honour of

. As of 2005, the university consisted of twelve faculties with courses ranging from

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

to the

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

. It had approximately 12,800 students enrolled, both

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

and post-graduate, and 580 faculty staff. IKSUR's Kant Society was created to study

Kantianism Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of min ...

, or Kantian philosophy. The university is also interested in the historical connections between Königsberg and Russia as far back as the 16th century. In 2010-2011 the university is undergoing an enlargement and rebranding process which will lead to changing its name from Immanuel Kant State University of Russia to Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.

Education and training

The Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University of today is an educational, scientific, cultural and enlightenment centre of the westernmost region of Russia. * The university implements more than 300 educational programmes in the fields of secondary, vocational and higher education as well as continuing and post-university education. * The university employs 900 teaching staff. * The total number of students and doctoral students exceeds 14,000. * List of the IKBFU educational programmes participating in the "Best educational programme of innovative Russia" project, which is being carried out by the Guild of professional education experts, the National centre of public accreditation and the editorial board of the Akkreditathsiya v obrazovanii magazine: ''Social and cultural services and tourism; Law; Services; Interpreting and translation studies; Applied mathematics and informatics; Marketing; Mathematical maintenance and administration of information systems; Tourism; Mathematics; Philosophy; Journalism; Transport management and logistics.'' Percentage of students according to the major fields of study * Humanities 37.2% * Economics and Management 12.4% * Services 10.7% * Natural Sciences 10.4% * Physical and Mathematical Sciences 8.2% * Transport 5.8% * Education and Pedagogy 4.4% * Healthcare 4.0% * Information Security 2.8% * Electronic and Radio Engineering and Communications 1.6% * Social Sciences 1.5% * Culture and Arts 1.0%

Ranking

In 2020, the university was ranked #1,000+ in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE WUR), and in 2022 it was ranked #2,350 in the

Ranking Web of Universities.

Innovation

A science park was set up at the university in 2008. The major task of the park is the concentration of research potential. The IKBFU innovation park implements the Presidential programme for training managerial staff for national enterprises.

Notable people

International cooperation

The level of international cooperation places IKBFU amongst the top ten higher educational institutions of Russia. The aim of the International Office is managing and coordinating international activities of the university as a whole, its students and Ph.D. candidates, teachers and staff members.

References

External links

*
Official website in English
(Archive) * {{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1948 Buildings and structures in Kaliningrad Universities in Kaliningrad Oblast 1948 establishments in the Soviet Union Federal universities of Russia University of Königsberg