Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) 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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

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 most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and is organized in six faculties that cover all major fields of science. In 2007, the university was recognized as an excellence center for computer science in Germany. Thanks to bilingual German and French staff, the university has an international profile, which has been underlined by its proclamation as "''European University''" in 1950 and by establishment of

Europa-Institut The Europa-Institut was founded at Saarland University in 1951, before the signing of the Treaties of Rome, and is the second oldest institution focused on European Integration (after the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium). More than 5,000 stud ...

as its "''crown and symbol''" in 1951. Nine academics have been honored with the highest German research prize, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, while working at Saarland University.

History

Saarland University, the first to be established after

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 ...

, was founded in November 1948 with the support of the French Government and under the auspices of the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. At the time the Saarland found itself in the special situation of being partly autonomous and linked to France by economic and monetary union. With its combination of the German and French educational traditions and the dual languages of instruction, the university had a European perspective right from the start. Prior to the foundation of the university, clinical training courses for medical students at the state hospital, Saarland University Hospital, in

Homburg, Saarland Homburg (; french: Hombourg, pfl, Humborch) is a town in Saarland, Germany and the administrative seat of the Saarpfalz district. With a population of 43,029 inhabitants (2022), it is the third largest town in the state. The city offers over ...

, had been introduced in January 1946 and the "Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Supérieures de Hombourg" established on 8 May 1947 under the patronage of the

. Students in certain disciplines can obtain degree certificates from both universities. The first president of the independent university in 1948 was Jean Barriol. In the same year the university introduced the first courses in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, philosophy and languages. In the 1950s Saarland University joined the Association of West-German Universities and accepted a new, more centralized organizational structure, and the Europa-Institut is established as a European politics and law

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Organization and administration

The university is headed by a board, which includes a president and five vice presidents, responsible for planning and strategy, research and technology transfer, education, and administration and finance, respectively. The president is elected by both the senate and the council in separate votes. The senate, consisting of nine professors, three students, three academic and two administrative staff members, acts as the legislative branch. Further, the university has a council which makes strategic decisions, allocates funding, and supervises the board. The council's members are representatives of private companies and academic institutions including other universities, in addition to representatives of the university's professors, staff members, and students. The university is divided into six faculties: * Faculty of Human and Business Sciences * Faculty of Medicine * Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science * Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology * Faculty of Humanities * Faculty of Law

Academic profile

Research

Saarland University is known for research in Computer Science, nano technology,

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

, European relations, politics and law. The university campus and the surrounding area is home to several specialized research institutes, affiliated with various high-profile independent research societies and private companies, focused on primary and applied research. * Max Planck Institute for Computer Science * Max Planck Institute for Software Systems * German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence - DFKI
CISPA – Helmholtz Center for Information Security
*

Dagstuhl Dagstuhl is a computer science research center in Germany, located in and named after a district of the town of Wadern, Merzig-Wadern, Saarland. Location Following the model of the mathematical center at Oberwolfach, the center is installed i ...

, the Leibniz Center for Informatics * Fraunhofer IZFP * Fraunhofer Institute for

Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

* Society for Environmentally Compatible Process Technology * Institut of the society for the promotion of the applied information research * Leibniz-Institute for New Materials INM * KIST - Korea Institute of Science and Technology Europe Research Society. *

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Visual Computing Institute * Centre for Bio-informatics Saar * Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science - IFOMIS
HIPS – Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
The university science park provides a startup incubator and a technology/research transfer environment for companies mostly focused on IT, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Education

With its numerous degree programmes and the variety of final qualifications offered ( Diplom, Magister,

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

, state examinations and, increasingly, bachelor and master qualifications), Saarland University provides the broad spectrum of disciplines typical of a classical universitas litterarum. The more traditional subjects such as business administration and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

, law and medicine are just as much a part of Saarland University as the new degree programmes that have developed from modern interdisciplinary collaborations and which reflect the increasing demand for such qualifications in today's job market. Examples of these new courses include '

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

with Special Focus on

Human Biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

and

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

', ' Bioinformatics /Computational Biology', '

Mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...

Engineering', 'Micro- and Nanostructured Materials', 'Computer and Communications Technology', 'Historically-oriented Cultural Studies' and 'French Cultural Science and Intercultural Communication'. Integrated degree courses, which can lead to the award of a joint degree, are organized by Saarland University and foreign partner universities in the fields of business administration,

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its 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 which r ...

, chemistry, materials science and in the interdisciplinary programme 'Cross-border Franco-German Studies'. In the area of teacher training, Saarland University offers an integrated bilingual (French-German) course for prospective teachers of geography and history. A further distinctive feature of Saarland University is the fact that the university is able to award French degrees in subjects such as ''Droit'', ''Allemand'' and ''Lettres modernes''. Additional qualifications may also be obtained in numerous

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...

courses. The

is among the very few socio-economic research centers to focus primarily on European integration. Its European law and

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

European management European management is defined as "cross-cultural, societal management based on an interdisciplinary approach" and has three characteristics: # A European management approach needs to take into account the various cultures across Europe and how th ...

programmes uniquely focus on opportunities emerging from an expanding and more integrated Europe. The university is also responsible for conducting Computer Science related courses for students enrolled in the graduate programmes of the MPI for Computer Science and MPI for Software Systems. Saarland University is one of the few universities in Germany where the entire master's programme in Computer Science is taught in English.

Cooperation

Saarland University is part of the ''Software-Cluster'', a local association of universities, research institutes and IT companies in Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Waldorf and Saarbrücken with the purpose of fostering business software development.

Notable people

Leibniz Prize winners

* Rolf Müller,

Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

(2021) * Joachim Weickert,

Digital image processing Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allo ...

(2010) * Hans-Peter Seidel,

Computer Graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

(2003) * Manfred Pinkal, Computational Linguistics (2000) * Johannes Buchmann, Information Theory (1993) * Michael Veith, Inorganic Chemistry (1991) * Herbert Gleiter, Material Science (1989) * Günter Hotz,

Kurt Mehlhorn Kurt Mehlhorn (born 29 August 1949) is a German theoretical computer scientist. He has been a vice president of the Max Planck Society and is director of the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science. Education and career Mehlhorn graduated i ...

and Wolfgang Paul,

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

(1987)

Alumni

* David Bardens (born 1984), Physician * Susanne Albers (born 1965), Scientist * Peter Altmaier (born 1958), Politician (CDU) * Karl-Otto Apel (born 1922), Philosopher * Hans Hermann Hoppe (born 1949), Philosopher and Economist * Peter Bofinger (born 1954), Economist * F. Thomas Bruss (born 1949), Mathematician *

Ralf Dahrendorf Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and a ...

(1929–2009), Politician * Lars Feld (born 1966), Economist * Jürgen W. Falter (born 1944), Political Scientist * Winfried Hassemer (born 1940), Scientist *

Philip Hall Philip Hall FRS (11 April 1904 – 30 December 1982), was an English mathematician. His major work was on group theory, notably on finite groups and solvable groups. Biography He was educated first at Christ's Hospital, where he won the Thomps ...

(born 1967), British diplomat * Werner Jeanrond (born 1955), Theologian *

Alexandra Kertz-Welzel Alexandra Kertz-Welzel (born October 15, 1970) is Professor (highest academic rank), Professor and Chair of Music Education at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany. She studied at the Hochschu ...

(born 1970), Professor of Music Education at LMU Munich *

Reinhard Klimmt Reinhard Klimmt (born 16 August 1942 in Berlin) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD). From 1998 to 1999, he was Minister-President, Minister President of Saarland, and 1999–2000, Feder ...

(born 1942), Politician (SPD) *

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from ...

(born 1962), Politician (CDU) * Christian Graf von Krockow (1927–2002), Political Scientist and Author * Daniel Kroening, computer scientist *

Oskar Lafontaine Oskar Lafontaine (; born 16 September 1943) is a German politician. He served as Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998, and was federal leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) from ...

(born 1943), Politician (Linkspartei) *

Wilfried Loth Wilfried Loth (born 29 August 1948) is a German historian and political scientist. Life Wilfried Loth was born 29 August 1948 in Wadern. From 1966 to 1972, he studied German studies, History, Philosophy and Education at Saarland University. ...

(born 1948), Historian *

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protectio ...

(born 1966), Politician (SPD) *

Werner Maihofer Werner Maihofer (20 October 1918 – 6 October 2009) was a German jurist and legal philosopher. He served as Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior from 1974–1978 until he resigned after a scandal involving an illegal wiretapping of Klau ...

(1918–2009), Lawyer and Politician (FDP) * Alfred Werner Maurer (born 1945), architecte, archéologue, historien de l'art excavation directeur Mumbaqat Syrie * Matthias Maurer (born 1980), Materials Scientist and Astronaut * Bernhard Nebel (born 1956), Scientist *

Anke Rehlinger Anke Gabriele Rehlinger (''né'' Moos; born 6 April 1976) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the Minister-President of Saarland since 25 April 2022. After her party won the 2022 state elect ...

(born 1976), Politician (SPD) * August-Wilhelm Scheer (born 1941), Scientist and Entrepreneur * Claus-Peter Schnorr (born 1943), Scientist * Ottmar Schreiner (born 1942), Politician (SPD) * Diana Stöcker (born 1970), Politician (CDU) * Christina Weiss (born 1953), Journalist and Politician * Michael Wolffsohn (born 1947), Historian *

Johanna Narten Johanna Narten (Hannover, 5 October 1930 – Uttenreuth, 15 July 2019), was a German Indo-Europeanist and Indo-Iranian linguist who discovered the reconstructed morphological category in Proto-Indo-European now known as the Narten present. She ...

(1930-2019), historical linguist and first woman member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Points of interest

The main campus in Saarbrücken is just outside the city, set between picturesque hills. Cycling from the university to the city or short wander in the forest close to campus is a favorite of students and faculty. * Botanischer Garten der Universität des Saarlandes, the university's

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

The Hermann-Neuberger-Sportschule ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

is located next to the campus and hosts the Olympiastützpunkt Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland that is the Olympic Training Center for Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. * There is also a recreation center called Uni-Fit.

University hospital

The University Hospital of the Saarland (in German: Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes or UKS) is the hospital of Saarland University in Homburg,

, Germany. It is concentrated on a campus south of the city center, with more than 100 clinic buildings scattered across more than 200 hectares of forest. In the course of the project UKS Projekt Zukunft, which was started in 2009, numerous new buildings are being built and the clinics for internal medicine are being combined in a large building complex. Affiliated are the medical faculty of the Saarland University with about 2000 medical students, and a school center with eleven schools for health professions

References

External links

Saarland University Website
{{Authority control Universities and colleges in Saarland Education in Saarbrücken Buildings and structures in Saarbrücken Educational institutions established in 1948 1948 establishments in Germany 1948 establishments in Saar Universities established in the 1940s