The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area,

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in 1965. The Ruhr-University Bochum is one of the largest universities in Germany and part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the most important German research funding organization. The RUB was very successful in the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments (2007), a competition between Germany's most prestigious universities. It was one of the few institutions left competing for the title of an "elite university", but did not succeed in the last round of the competition. There are currently nine universities in Germany that hold this title. The University of Bochum was one of the first universities in Germany to introduce international bachelor's and master's degrees, which replaced the traditional German Diplom and Magister. Except for a few special cases, such as law, these degrees are offered by all faculties of the Ruhr-University. Currently, the university offers a total of 184 different study programs from all academic fields represented at the university.

Facilities

Unlike many older German universities, the buildings of Ruhr-University are all centralized on one campus, located south of Bochum city. The Faculty of Medicine includes several university clinics that are located at different centres in Bochum and the Ruhr area. A major facility for patient care is the University Hospital/Knappschaftskrankenhaus in the district Langendreer of Bochum. Internationally renowned experts in their respective fields include professors Wolff Schmiegel in oncology and

Burkhard Dick Burkhard Dick (born 1963 in Brake, Lower Saxony) is a German ophthalmologist who has specialized in refractive and cataract surgery. With his many contributions to the scientific literature on this topic, he is considered one of the pioneers of e ...

in ophthalmology. The centralized university campus architecture is comprised almost exclusively of the 1960s architecture style referred to as

Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

, consisting of 14 almost identical high-rise buildings. One striking feature of these buildings is that although their roofs are all at the same apparent height (sky level), the absolute heights of the buildings vary in accordance with their placement on the undulating landscape in which the university is located: the campus is at the edge of a green belt on high ground adjacent to the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

valley. The arrangement of the buildings and the (concrete) paths and bridges between them was originally meant to resemble a "harbour of knowledge", with the buildings symbolising vessels, by architect

Helmut Hentrich Helmut Hentrich (17 June 1905 – 7 February 2001) was a German architect who became particularly known for his striking high-rise buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. The architectural firm he founded, ''Hentrich, Petschnigg und Partner (HPP)'', st ...

. The campus has undergone heavy modernisation and extension efforts, including the construction and refurbishment of several buildings. Some of the original 1960s buildings are to be rebuilt, instead of refurbished, due to PCB contamination. The overall campus concept envisions a modern facility and the placement of Bochum as a "knowledge city".

Organization

Ruhr-University is financed and administered by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Currently, 42,718 students are enrolled, and the university employs around 5,600 staff (411 of which are professors), making it one of the ten largest universities in Germany as of 2014.

Kurt Biedenkopf Kurt Hans Biedenkopf (; 28 January 1930 – 12 August 2021) was a German jurist, academic teacher and politician of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU). He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum. Biedenkopf made a political career firs ...

, who later became prime minister of the state of Saxony, was rector of the university from 1967 to 1969. The university is organized into twenty-one different faculties. These are: * Faculty of Protestant Theology * Faculty of Catholic Theology * Faculty of

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, Education and Journalism * Faculty of History (including the departments of History, Art History and Archaeological Sciences) * Faculty of Philology * Faculty of Law * Faculty of Economics * Faculty of Social Science * Faculty of East Asian Studies * Faculty of Sports Science * Faculty of Psychology * Faculty of

Civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and Environmental Engineering * Faculty of Mechanical Engineering * Faculty of

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and Information Technology * Faculty of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

* Faculty of Physics and Astronomy * Faculty of Geosciences * Faculty of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and Biochemistry * Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology * Faculty of Medicine * Faculty of Computer Science ECUE - European Culture and Economy ;Interdisciplinary institutions *

Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) The Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) is a research centre at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. ICAMS focuses on the development and application of a new generation of simulation tools for multi-scale materia ...

* International Graduate School of Neuroscience *

Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict The Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at Ruhr University Bochum (Germany) is one of the leading research institutes on humanitarian law and humanitarian studies in Europe. It was founded in 1988 on the initiativ ...

(IFHV)

Points of interest

Botanischer Garten der Ruhr-Universität Bochum The Botanischer Garten der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (13 hectares), also known as the Botanischer Garten Bochum, is a botanical garden maintained by the Ruhr University Bochum. It is located at Universitätsstraße 150, Bochum, North Rhine-Westp ...

, a botanical garden with

Chinese garden The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate ...

* Hegel-Archiv, the archives of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel * Medical historical collection of the Ruhr-University *Art collection, including Antiquity Museum of the Ruhr-University *Audimax and Klais-Organ of the Ruhr-University *Musisches Zentrum (Artistic center)

Notable alumni

* Afu Thomas (Thomas Derksen), German internet celebrity in China
German version
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Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla Anke Kaysser-Pyzella (born 26 September 1966) is a German Materials science, materials scientist and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer who has been the Chief executive officer, CEO of the German Aerospace Center since October 2020. She ...

, CEO of German Aerospace Center, former president of the Technical University of Braunschweig *

Hans-Paul Bürkner Hans-Paul Bürkner (born 1952) is a German management consultant serving as a managing director and Senior Partner, as well as Global Chair Emeritus of the Boston Consulting Group. Bürkner served as President & CEO from 2004 to 2012, and was the ...

, Chairman of Boston Consulting Group, former global CEO * Stefan Sommer, former CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen *

Florian Steger Florian Steger (born July 1, 1974, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen) is a German medical historian and medical ethicist. Life and impact Steger studied human medicine, classical philology and history at the University of Würzburg and Ludwig Maximilia ...

, medical historian and ethicist

References

External links

* {{Authority control