The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) 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 ...

located in the southern hills of the central

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , 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 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Instruction began in 1965. The Ruhr-University Bochum is one of the largest universities in Germany and part of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

, 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. 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

. 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 Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

and Burkhard Dick in

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

. 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 minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

, 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 ( ; , 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 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

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 PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * P ...

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 North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. 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) party. He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum. Biedenkopf made a political career ...

, who later became prime minister of the state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, was rector of the university from 1967 to 1969. The university is organized into twenty-one different faculties. These are: * Faculty of

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Theology * Faculty of

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Theology * Faculty of Philosophy, Education and Journalism * Faculty of History (including the departments of history,

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and archaeological sciences) * Faculty of

Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

* Faculty of Law * Faculty of Economics * Faculty of

Social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

* Faculty of

East Asian studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...

* Faculty of

Sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

* Faculty of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

* Faculty of

Civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

and

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering Academic discipline, discipline related to environmental science. It encompasses broad Science, scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiolo ...

* 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 that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and information technology * Faculty of Mathematics * Faculty of

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

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

* Faculty of

Geosciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

* Faculty of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

* Faculty of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

* Faculty of Medicine * Faculty of

Computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

ECUE - European Culture and Economy ;Interdisciplinary institutions * Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) * 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 initiative ...

(IFHV)

Rankings

In the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

for 2024, the university was ranked 375th globally and 20th nationally. Meanwhile, 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 ...

for 2024 positioned the university in a range between 251st and 300th worldwide, and between 25th and 31st in the national ranking. Similarly, in the 2023

ARWU The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

list, the university placed between 301st and 400th globally and between 20th and 24th nationally.

Points of interest

* Botanischer Garten der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, a

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. is ...

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 Emperor of China, Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and t ...

* Hegel-Archiv, the archives of the German philosopher

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

* 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

Norbert Lammert Norbert Lammert (born 16 November 1948) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 12th president of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017. Early life and education The son of a baker, Lammert attended gymnasium ...

: Politician, served as the 12th President of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017. * Reinhard Marx: Cardinal in the Catholic Church, serving as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. *

Svenja Schulze Svenja Schulze (born 29 September 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She served as Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 2025. Schulze has been serving as m ...

: Politician, currently serving as the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany. * Erwin Sellering: Politician, served as the 4th Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern from 2008 to 2017. * Katrin Suder: Physicist and management consultant, served as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2014 to 2018. * Bernd Baumann: Economist and politician, serving as a member of the Bundestag from Hamburg since 2017. * Jhy-wey Shieh: Diplomat and university professor, serving as the Taiwanese Representative to Germany since 2016. * Melanie Raabe: German novelist and journalist. * Maximilian Reinelt: Rower and physician, Olympic gold medalist in 2012 and silver medalist in 2016. * Sadeq Tabatabaei: Iranian writer, journalist, TV host, university professor at the University of Tehran, and politician. *

Zdzisław Krasnodębski Zdzisław Krasnodębski, alias ''Król'' (10 July 1904 – 3 July 1980) was a Polish pilot and the founder and commander of No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, and the leader of the 1st Fighter Group. Early life and career Krasnodębski was bor ...

: Polish sociologist, philosopher, and politician, serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. * Sylvia Löhrmann: German politician of the Green Party. * Jamiri: One of the most recognized comics artists in Germany. *

Hartmut Neven Hartmut Neven (born 1964) is a German American scientist working in quantum computing, computer vision, robotics and computational neuroscience. He is best known for his work in face and object recognition and his contributions to quantum machin ...

: Scientist working in quantum computing, computer vision, and robotics; Vice President of Engineering at Google, leading the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. * Ali Atalan: Kurdish-German politician of Yazidi faith, former member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Turkish Parliament. *

Andreas Floer Andreas Floer (; 23 August 1956 – 15 May 1991) was a German mathematician who made seminal contributions to symplectic topology, and mathematical physics, in particular the invention of Floer homology. Floer's first pivotal contribution was a s ...

: German mathematician known for his contributions to symplectic topology and the invention of Floer homology. * Oliver Wittke: German politician and geographer. *

Hans-Paul Bürkner Hans-Paul Bürkner (born 1952) is a German management consultant, and a managing director, senior partner, and global chair emeritus of the Boston Consulting Group. Bürkner was President & CEO from 2004 to 2012, and was the firm's first European ...

: German management consultant, serving as Global Chair Emeritus of the Boston Consulting Group. * Daniel Jasinski: German discus thrower, Olympic bronze medalist in 2016. * Sonja Zekri: German journalist and author, focusing on topics such as the Near East, Eastern Europe, culture, and religion. * Afu Thomas (Thomas Derksen), internet celebrity * Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, CEO of

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

, former president of the

Technical University of Braunschweig TU Braunschweig (, unofficially ''University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology'') is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a membe ...

, Chairman of

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the "Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

, former global CEO * Stefan Sommer, former CEO of

ZF Friedrichshafen ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, originally ''Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen'' (), and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a Germany, German technology manufacturing company that supplies systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles ...

* Florian Steger, medical historian and ethicist *

, politician, 12th President of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017 * Reinhard Marx, cardinal in the Catholic church * Sadeq Tabatabaei, writer, journalist, TV host, university professor at the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

and politician *

, politician, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development * Katrin Suder, politician and management consultant

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Universities and colleges established in 1962 Bochum 1962 establishments in West Germany

Facilities

Organization

Rankings

Points of interest

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links