University of Cologne

Universität zu Köln
University seal of 1392
Latin: Universitas Coloniensis
Type	Public
Established	1388; 636 years ago (1388)
Academic affiliation	U15
Budget	€897.9 million[1]
Rector	Joybrato Mukherjee
Academic staff	7,393[1]
Students	50,792[1]
Location	Cologne , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany 50°55′41″N 6°55′43″E / 50.92806°N 6.92861°E / 50.92806; 6.92861
Campus	Urban
Website	university.cologne

The University of Cologne (German: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388, the sixth university to be established in Central Europe.^[2] It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with more than 50,000 students.^[1] The University of Cologne is a member of the German U15 association of major research-intensive universities and was a university of excellence as part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative from 2012 to 2019. It is constantly ranked among top 20 German universities in the world rankings.

University of Cologne has 4 Clusters of Excellence; CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research, Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy, CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence for Plant Sciences and Cluster of Excellence Matter and Light for Quantum Information (ML4Q). As of 2022, among its notable alumni, faculty and researchers are 4 Nobel Laureates, 11 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners, 7 Humboldt Professorship winners, 2 Humboldt Research Awards winners and 1 Rhodes Scholar.

History

1388–1798

The university of Cologne was established in 1388 as the fourth university in the Holy Roman Empire, after the Charles University of Prague (1348), the University of Vienna (1365) and the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (1386). The charter was signed by Pope Urban VI. The university began teaching on 6 January 1389, and operated for several hundred years.

In 1798, the university was abolished by the French First Republic, who had invaded Cologne in 1794, because under the new French constitution, many universities were abolished all over France. The last rector Ferdinand Franz Wallraf was able to preserve the university's Great Seal, now once more in use.

1919–today

In 1919, the Prussian government endorsed a decision by the Cologne City Council to re-establish the university. This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the University of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine, which contemporaneously reverted to France with the rest of Alsace. On 29 May 1919, the Cologne Mayor Konrad Adenauer signed the charter of the modern university.

At that point, the new university was located in Neustadt-Süd, but relocated to its current campus in Lindenthal on 2 November 1934. The old premises are now being used for the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

Initially, the university was composed of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (successor to the Institutes of Commerce and of Communal and Social Administration) and the Faculty of Medicine (successor to the Academy of Medicine). In 1920, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts were added, from which latter the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was split off in 1955 to form a separate Faculty. In 1980, the two Cologne departments of the Rhineland School of Education were attached to the university as the Faculties of Education and of Special Education. In 1988, the university became a founding member of the Community of European Management Schools and International Companies (CEMS), today's Global Alliance in Management Education.

The university is a leader in the area of economics and is regularly placed in top positions for law and business, both for national and international rankings.

Organization

The University of Cologne is a statutory corporation (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), operated by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Faculties

The university is divided into six faculties, which together offer 200 fields of study. The faculties are those of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Law, Medicine (with the affiliated University clinic), Arts, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Human Sciences.

Faculty	Students
Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences	c. 10,000
Faculty of Law	c. 5,000
Faculty of Medicine with University Hospital of Cologne	c. 3,200
Faculty of Arts and Humanities	c. 16,500
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences	c. 7,500
Faculty of Human Sciences	c. 2,800

Rectors

On 24 November 2004, the physicist Axel Freimuth was elected as Rector of the University. His (initially four-year) term began on 1 April 2005. He succeeded Tassilo Küpper and was the 49th Rector since 1919. He was previously Dean of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

Academic profile

The University of Cologne is member of the association German U15 e.V. which is a coalition of fifteen major research-intensive and leading medical universities in Germany with a full disciplinary spectrum.

Especially the faculties of law and economics are renowned and leading in Germany. Leading researchers are affiliated to Cologne: e.g., Angelika Nußberger, Thomas von Danwitz, Claus Kreß, Martin Henssler, Ulrich Preis, Heinz-Peter Mansel.

Apart from these, affiliated persons with the university have won various awards including Max Planck Research Award, Cologne Innovation Prize (City of Cologne), Postbank Finance Award (Deutsche Postbank), Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine (Jung Foundation), SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, Wilhelm Vaillant Prize (Wilhlem Vaillant Foundation), Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize (DFG), Alfried Krupp Prize for the Advancement of Young Professors, Innovation Prize of the State of NRW, Karl Arnold Prize (North Rhine-Westphalia Academy of Sciences and Arts).

Rankings

According to the QS World University Rankings, the university held the 268th position globally and the 17th position nationally in 2024.^[3] The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2023 saw the university at the 160th place globally and 15th place at the national level.^[4] In the Academic Ranking of World Universities, more commonly known as the ARWU rankings, for the year 2022, the university was ranked within the 151-200 range globally and between 6th and 9th in the national ranking.^[5]

By subject

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023[6] Subject Global National Arts & Humanities  156  9–10 Linguistics  101–150  4–10 Archaeology  51–100  6–8 Classics and Ancient History  24  5 English Language and Literature  251–300  10–12 History  151–200  9–12 Modern Languages  201–250  10–13 Philosophy  101–150  8–12 Engineering and Technology N/A N/A Life Sciences & Medicine  185  10 Biological Sciences  144  11 Medicine  151–200  8–13 Psychology  151–200  8–9 Natural Sciences N/A N/A Geography  151–200  8–10 Social Sciences & Management  246  9 Accounting and Finance  201–250  6–7 Anthropology  101–150  6–7 Business and Management Studies  251–300  9 Communication and Media Studies  201–250  9–10 Economics and Econometrics  151–200  5–8 Law and Legal Studies  201–250  9–12 Sociology  151–200  9–11 THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023[7] Subject Global National Arts & humanities  85  7 Business & economics  201–250  10–14 Education  151–175  9–10 Law  151–175  7–8 Social sciences  176–200  9–13 Clinical & health  201–250  12–16 Life sciences  101–125  11–12 Physical sciences  251–300  22–26 Psychology  126–150  14–16

ARWU Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022[8] Subject Global National Natural Sciences Physics  201–300  13–23 Chemistry  301–400  26–30 Earth Sciences  101–150  5–12 Geography  151–200  8–13 Atmospheric Science  151–200  11–14 Engineering Materials Science & Engineering  401–500  22–30 Biotechnology  201–300  14–25 Life Sciences Biological Sciences  76–100  6–11 Human Biological Sciences  101–150  13–20 Agricultural Sciences  151–200  9–18 Medical Sciences Clinical Medicine  201–300  14–22 Public Health  301–400  12–22 Dentistry & Oral Sciences  201–300  22–28 Medical Technology  51–75  9–12 Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences  301–400  24–29 Social Sciences Economics  151–200  6–8 Law  201–300  3–7 Political Sciences  101–150  5–7 Sociology  35  1 Education  201–300  8–15 Communication  151–200  11–14 Psychology  101–150  5–11 Business Administration  101–150  1–2 Management  151–200  2–3

Museums and collections

• GeoMuseum: The only natural history museum in Cologne
• Theatre Collection in Schloss Wahn: images and text from European theater from the 16th century
• Max Bruch Archive of the Institute of Musicology: autographs and writings from and about Max Bruch
• The Kathy Acker Reading Room, the personal library of author Kathy Acker.
• Musical Instrument Collection of the Musicology Institute
• Egyptian collection: Papyri and parchments, ceramics and small sculptures
• Prehistoric collection artefacts from all periods of prehistoric and early history also from foreign sites, from the Neanderthal fist to the bronze sword and iron weapons of the early Middle Ages
• Papyrus collection of the Institute of Antiquity
• Barbarastollen: Under the main building, a mining gallery was built as part of a museum for trade and industry in 1932

• 
  Main building (east view)
• 
  Building of the WiSo Faculty
• 
  Building of the Faculty of Philosophy
• 
  The building of the university and City Library of Cologne
• 
  The seminar building (built in 2009 by Paul Böhm )
• 
  Building of the Center for Organic Electronics (COPT)

Students and faculty

In 2005, the university enrolled 47,203 students, including 3,718 graduate students. In 2003, the number of post-doctoral researchers was 670.

There were 6,157 international students in the 2005 Summer Semester (approximately 13% of all students). Those from developing countries made up about 60%, representing a total of 123 nations. The largest contingents came from Bulgaria (10.5%), Russia (8.8%), Poland (7.4%), China (6.2%) and Ukraine (5.7%).

There are 508 professors at the university, including 70 women. In addition, the university employs 1,549 research assistants, with an additional 765 at the clinic, and 1,462 other assistants (3,736 at the clinic).

Partner universities

The University of Cologne maintains twenty official partnerships^[9] with universities from ten countries. Of these, the partnerships with Clermont-Ferrand I and Pennsylvania State are the oldest partnerships. In addition, Cologne has further cooperations^[10] with more than 260 other universities.

Notable alumni and professors

In popular culture

The University of Cologne was commemorated on the Federal Republic of Germany's postage stamp in 1988, celebrating university's 600 years.^[12]