Odense University was a

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It was established in 1966. In 1998, the university was merged with two other institutions to form the University of Southern Denmark. Its campus is now known as University of Southern Denmark Odense (''Syddansk Universitet Odense'', abbr. SDU Odense) and is the university's biggest campus.

History

The university was established in 1966. It had four faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Health Science and Natural Sciences. In 1998, Odense University was merged with the Southern Denmark School of Business and Engineering and the South Jutland University Centre to form the University of Southern Denmark. The campus is now known as SDU Odense, and is considered the main campus of the University of Southern Denmark, both because of its relative size and because the central administration of the university is situated there.

Campus

Being an epitome of Danish functionalist architecture, the campus has been

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

d ''Rustenborg'' (which roughly translates as ''The Rusty Castle'') by students and staff, because it is built from gray concrete slabs clad with

weathering steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...

, in an early architectural use of that material. Its architecture has also given rise to other nicknames and slang expressions among students and staff. For instance, the administrative block goes by the name of ''Førerbunkeren'' (''"

Führerbunker The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...

"''), referring to the architectural similarities between the university building and a stereotypical military building. The University of Southern Denmark's students' magazine is simply called ''Rust''.

Motto and logo

When abbreviated, the university motto becomes ''FIONIA'', the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name for

Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...

. The motto was created by the university's first rector, Mogens Brøndsted in 1966. Brøndsted also designed the university logo, featuring an apple tree.

References

{{Authority control University of Southern Denmark Odense Buildings and structures in Odense