Universität Heidelberg

Introduction

The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University, Ruperto Carola) is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in contemporary Germany and 5th oldest in Central Europe. It was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire. Heidelberg has been a coeducational institution since 1899. Today the university consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programmes at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group. The language of instruction is usually German.

Rupert I, Elector Palatine established the university when Heidelberg was the capital of the Electoral Palatinate. Consequently, it served as a centre for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century.  Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and developed into a "stronghold of humanism", and a centre of democratic thinking.  At this time, Heidelberg served as a role model for the implementation of graduate schools at American universities. However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP university during the Nazi era (between 1933 and 1945). It later underwent an extensive denazification after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.

Modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology, psychiatric genetics, environmental physics,  and modern sociology  were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty.

The university has an emphasis on research and has been associated with 56 Nobel Prize laureates.It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities,  and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorates successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International students from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body. Heidelberg comprises two major campuses: one in Heidelberg's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld quarter on the outskirts of the city. The university's noted alumni include eleven domestic and foreign Heads of State or Heads of Government.

Admission

In the winter-semester 2006/2007, the university offered 3,926 places in undergraduate programs restricted by numerus clausus, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.3%. Most selective are the undergraduate programs in clinical medicine, molecular biotechnology, political science, and law, with acceptance rates of 3.6%,  3.8%,  7.6%  and 9.1%  respectively. The selection is exercised by allocating the best qualified applicants to a given number of places available in the respective discipline, thus depending primarily on the chosen subjects and the grade point average of the Abitur or its equivalent. For some majors and minors in humanities—particularly for conceptually non-vocational like classics and ancient history—unrestricted admission is granted under certain criteria (e.g., relevant language proficiency), as applications regularly do not exceed the number of places available. For prospective international undergraduate students, a language test for German—such as the DSH—is required. Admission to consecutive Master's programs always requires at least an undergraduate degree equivalent to the German grade "good" (i.e., normally B+ in American, or 2:1 in British terms). Except for the Master's programs taught in English, a language test for German must be passed as well. Ph.D. admission prerequisite is normally a strong Master's-level degree, but specific admission procedures vary and cannot be generalized.  International applicants usually make up considerably more than 20% of the applicant pool and are considered individually by the merits achieved in their respective country of origin.

Facilities abroad

Heidelberg University founded a Center for Latin America in Santiago, Chile in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by Heidelberg University or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education. It also coordinates the activities of Heidelberg University in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation.

The university is also represented by a liaison office in New York. Its main tasks include promoting existing collaborations, building up new networks, creating joint study programs, and maintaining and expanding academic contacts with American universities.

In addition, the Heidelberg South Asia Institute maintains branch offices in New Delhi, India; Islamabad, Pakistan; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Faculties

After a 2003 structural reformation, the university consists of 12 faculties, which in turn comprise several disciplines, departments, and institutes. As a consequence of the Bologna process, most faculties now offer Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees to comply with the new European degree standard. Notable exceptions are the undergraduate programs in law, medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, from which students still graduate with the State Examination, a central examination at Master's level held by the State of Baden-Württemberg.

v  The Faculty of Behavioural Sciences and Empirical Cultural Sciences

v  The Faculty of Biosciences

v  The Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences

v  The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences

v  The Faculty of Law

v  The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science

v  The Faculty of Medicine

v  The Faculty of Medicine in Mannheim

v  The Faculty of Modern Languages

v  The Faculty of Philosophy and History

v  The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy

v  The Faculty of Theology

Associated institutions

Ø  Network for Research on Ageing

Ø  Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim

Ø  Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research,

Ø  Heidelberg State Observatory,

Ø  University Hospital Heidelberg,

Ø  University Hospital Mannheim.

Ø   

Organisation and length of courses

The academic year is divided into two semesters. The winter semester runs from 1 October to 31 March and the summer semester from 1 April to 30 September. Classes are held from mid-October to mid-February and mid-April to mid-July. Students can generally begin their studies either in the winter or the summer semester. However, there are several subjects students can begin only in the winter semester. The standard time required to finish a Bachelor's degree is principally six semesters, and a further four semesters for consecutive Master's degrees. The normal duration of Ph.D. programmes for full-time students is 6 semesters. The overall period of study for an undergraduate degree is divided into two parts: a period of basic study, lasting at least four semesters, at the end of which students must sit a formal examination, and a period of advanced study, lasting at least two semesters, after which students take their final examinations.

Campuses

Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism, and its old town and castle are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport. Heidelberg University's facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.

Student life

The university offers a broad variety of athletics, such as teams in 16 different court sports from American football to volleyball, courses in 11 different martial arts, 26 courses in physical fitness and body building, 9 courses in health sports from aquapower to yoga, and groups in 12 different dance styles. Moreover, equestrian sports, sailing, rowing, skiing in the French alps, track and field, swimming, fencing, cycling, acrobatics, gymnastics, and much more. Most of the sports are free of charge. Heidelberg's competition teams are particularly successful in soccer, volleyball, equestrian sports, judo, karate, track and field, and basketball. The track and field team regularly achieves best placings at the German university championships. The University Sports Club men's basketball team, USC Heidelberg, is the championship record holder, won 13 national championships, and is the only university team playing at a professional level in the second division of Germany's national league.

Moreover, the university supports a number of student groups in various fields of interest. Among them are four drama clubs, the university orchestra Collegium Musicum, four choirs, six student media groups, six groups of international students, nine groups of political parties and NGO's, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines, four clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, a chess club, a literature club, a debate society, two student management consulting groups, and four religious student groups. Student unions structure themselves as "Studierendenrat" (Student body council) as well as on department level.

Heidelberg's student newspaper "ruprecht" is — with editions of more than 10,000 copies — one of Germany's largest student-run newspapers. It was recently distinguished by the MLP Pro Campus Press Award as Germany's best student newspaper. The jury of journalists from major newspapers commended its "well balanced, though critical attitude" and its "simply great" layout that "suffices highest professional demands." The ruprecht is financed entirely by advertising revenues, thus retaining independence from university management. Some renowned journalists emerged from ruprecht‍ '​s editorial board. However, the critical online student newspaper UNiMUT, which is run by the joint student council of the faculties, criticized the ruprecht often for being conformed, and exceedingly layout-oriented. Heidelberg is also home of Germany's oldest student law review Heidelberg Law Review. The journal is published quarterly, at the beginning and end of each semester break, and is circulated throughout all of Germany.

Heidelberg hosts 34 student corporations, which were largely founded in the 19th century. Corporations are to some extent comparable to the fraternities in the US. As traditional symbols (couleur) corporation members wear colored caps and ribbons at ceremonial occasions (Kommers) and some still practice the traditional academic fencing, a kind of duel, to "shape their members for the challenges of life." In the 19th and early 20th century, corporations played an important role in Germany's student life. Today, however, corporations include only a relatively small number of students. Their self-declared mission is to keep academic traditions alive and to create friendships for life. The corporations' often representative 19th-century mansions are present throughout the Old Town.

Heidelberg is not least famous for its student night life. Besides the various parties regularly organized by the student councils of the faculties, the semester opening and closing parties of the university, the dormitory parties, and the soirées of Heidelberg's 34 student fraternities, the city, and the metropolitan area even more, offers night life for any taste and budget. Adjacent to University Square is Heidelberg's major night life district, where one pub is placed next to each other. From Thursday on, it is all night very crowded and full of atmosphere. Moreover, Heidelberg has five major discos. The largest of them is located at the New Campus. The city of Mannheim, which is about three times as large as Heidelberg, is a 15-minute train ride away, and offers an even more diverse night life, having a broad variety of clubs and bars well-frequented by both Heidelberg's and Mannheim's student community.