Saarland University (, ) 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

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

, the capital of the German state of

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major fields of science. In 2007, the university was recognized as an excellence center for computer science in Germany. Thanks to bilingual German and French staff, the university has an international profile, which has been underlined by its proclamation as "''European University''" in 1950 and by establishment of Europa-Institut as its "''crown and symbol''" in 1951. Nine academics have been honored with the highest German research prize, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, while working at Saarland University.

History

Saarland University, the first to be established 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 ...

, was founded in November 1948 with the support of the French Government and under the auspices of the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. At the time the Saarland found itself in the special situation of being partly autonomous and linked to France by economic and monetary union. With its combination of the German and French educational traditions and the dual languages of instruction, the university had a European perspective right from the start. Prior to the foundation of the university, clinical training courses for medical students at the state hospital, Saarland University Hospital, in

Homburg, Saarland Homburg (; , ; ) is a town in Saarland, Germany and the administrative seat of the Saarpfalz district. With a population of 43,029 inhabitants (2022), it is the third largest town in the state. The city offers over 30,000 workplaces. The medica ...

, had been introduced in January 1946 and the "Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Supérieures de Hombourg" established on 8 May 1947 under the patronage of the

. Students in certain disciplines can obtain degree certificates from both universities. The first president of the independent university in 1948 was Jean Barriol. In the same year the university introduced the first courses in law, philosophy and languages. In the 1950s Saarland University joined the Association of West-German Universities and accepted a new, more centralized organizational structure, and the Europa-Institut is established as a European politics and law

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Organization and administration

The university is headed by a board, which includes a president and five vice presidents, responsible for planning and strategy, research and technology transfer, education, and administration and finance, respectively. The president is elected by both the senate and the council in separate votes. The senate, consisting of nine professors, three students, three academic and two administrative staff members, acts as the legislative branch. Further, the university has a council which makes strategic decisions, allocates funding, and supervises the board. The council's members are representatives of private companies and academic institutions including other universities, in addition to representatives of the university's professors, staff members, and students. The university is divided into six faculties: * Faculty of Human and Business Sciences * Faculty of Medicine * Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science * Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology * Faculty of Humanities * Faculty of Law

Academic profile

Research

Saarland University is known for research in Computer Science, nano technology, medicine, European relations, politics and law. The university campus and the surrounding area is home to several specialized research institutes, affiliated with various high-profile independent research societies and private companies, focused on primary and applied research. * Max Planck Institute for Computer Science * Max Planck Institute for Software Systems * German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence – DFKI
CISPA – Helmholtz Center for Information Security
* Dagstuhl, the Leibniz Center for Informatics * Fraunhofer IZFP * Fraunhofer Institute for

Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

* Society for Environmentally Compatible Process Technology * Institut of the society for the promotion of the applied information research * Leibniz-Institute for New Materials INM * KIST – Korea Institute of Science and Technology Europe Research Society. *

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

Visual Computing Institute
Centre for Bioinformatics Saar
* Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science – IFOMIS
HIPS – Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
The university science park provides a startup incubator and a technology/research transfer environment for companies mostly focused on IT, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Education

With its numerous degree programmes and the variety of final qualifications offered (

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

, Magister, PhD, state examinations and, increasingly, bachelor and master qualifications), Saarland University provides the broad spectrum of disciplines typical of a classical universitas litterarum. The more traditional subjects such as

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

and economics, law and medicine are just as much a part of Saarland University as the new degree programmes that have developed from modern interdisciplinary collaborations and which reflect the increasing demand for such qualifications in today's job market. Examples of these new courses include '

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 ...

with Special Focus on

Human Biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

and

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

', '

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

/Computational Biology', '

Mechatronics Mechatronics engineering, also called mechatronics, is the synergistic integration of mechanical, electrical, and computer systems employing mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering and computer engineering, and also ...

Engineering', 'Micro- and Nanostructured Materials', 'Computer and Communications Technology', 'Historically-oriented Cultural Studies' and 'French Cultural Science and Intercultural Communication'. Integrated degree courses, which can lead to the award of a joint degree, are organized by Saarland University and foreign partner universities in the fields of business administration,

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 ...

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 ...

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

and in the interdisciplinary programme 'Cross-border Franco-German Studies'. In the area of teacher training, Saarland University offers an integrated bilingual (French-German) course for prospective teachers of geography and history. A further distinctive feature of Saarland University is the fact that the university is able to award French degrees in subjects such as ''Droit'', ''Allemand'' and ''Lettres modernes''. Additional qualifications may also be obtained in numerous postgraduate courses. The Europa-Institut is among the very few socio-economic research centers to focus primarily on European integration. Its European law and

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

European management European management is defined as "cross-cultural, societal management based on an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary approach" and has three characteristics: # A European management approach needs to take into account the various cultures acro ...

programmes uniquely focus on opportunities emerging from an expanding and more integrated Europe. The university is also responsible for conducting Computer Science related courses for students enrolled in the graduate programmes of the MPI for Computer Science and MPI for Software Systems. Saarland University is one of the few universities in Germany where the entire master's programme in Computer Science is taught in English.

Cooperation

Saarland University is part of the ''Software-Cluster'', a local association of universities, research institutes and IT companies in Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Waldorf and Saarbrücken with the purpose of fostering business software development.

Rankings

Saarland University is recognized in several

university ranking College and university rankings order higher education institutions based on various criteria, with factors differing depending on the specific ranking system. These rankings can be conducted at the national or international level, assessing inst ...

systems. 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 ...

of 2024, the institution was ranked 600th globally and 35th on a national level. The university's standing was slightly higher in the ARWU World 2022 rankings, where it was positioned within the 501–600 range globally and between 32nd and 36th nationally.

Notable people

Leibniz Prize winners

* Rolf Müller,

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 ...

(2021) * Joachim Weickert,

Digital image processing Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allo ...

(2010) * Hans-Peter Seidel,

Computer Graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

(2003) * Manfred Pinkal,

Computational Linguistics Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...

(2000) * Johannes Buchmann, Information Theory (1993) * Michael Veith,

Inorganic Chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...

(1991) * Herbert Gleiter,

Material Science A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geol ...

(1989) * Günter Hotz, Kurt Mehlhorn and Wolfgang Paul,

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, ...

(1987)

Alumni

* David Bardens (born 1984), Physician * Susanne Albers (born 1965), Scientist * Peter Altmaier (born 1958), Politician (CDU) * Karl-Otto Apel (born 1922), Philosopher * Hans Hermann Hoppe (born 1949), Philosopher and Economist * Peter Bofinger (born 1954), Economist * F. Thomas Bruss (born 1949), Mathematician * Ralf Dahrendorf (1929–2009), Politician * Lars Feld (born 1966), Economist * Jürgen W. Falter (born 1944), Political Scientist * Winfried Hassemer (born 1940), Scientist * Philip Hall (born 1967), British diplomat * Jürgen Hescheler (born 1959), physician, researcher and university professor * Werner Jeanrond (born 1955), Theologian * Ursula Kampmann, numismatist * Alexandra Kertz-Welzel (born 1970), Professor of Music Education at LMU Munich * Reinhard Klimmt (born 1942), Politician (SPD) *

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...

(born 1962), Politician (CDU) * Christian Graf von Krockow (1927–2002), Political Scientist and Author * Daniel Kroening, computer scientist * Oskar Lafontaine (born 1943), Politician (Linkspartei) * Wilfried Loth (born 1948), Historian *

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyerMarcus Jung (15 December 2022)�''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung''. and former politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Mini ...

(born 1966), Politician (SPD) * Werner Maihofer (1918–2009), Lawyer and Politician (FDP) * Matthias Maurer (born 1980), Materials Scientist and Astronaut * Bernhard Nebel (born 1956), Scientist * Anke Rehlinger (born 1976), Politician (SPD) *

August-Wilhelm Scheer August-Wilhelm Scheer (born July 27, 1941) is a German Professor of business administration and business information at Saarland University, and founder and director of IDS Scheer Aktiengesellschaft, AG, a major information technology, IT service ...

(born 1941), Scientist and Entrepreneur * Claus-Peter Schnorr (born 1943), Scientist * Ottmar Schreiner (born 1942), Politician (SPD) * Diana Stöcker (born 1970), Politician (CDU) * Christina Weiss (born 1953), Journalist and Politician * Michael Wolffsohn (born 1947), Historian * Johanna Narten (1930–2019), historical linguist and first woman member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

Points of interest

The main campus in Saarbrücken is just outside the city, set between picturesque hills. Cycling from the university to the city or a short wander in the forest close to campus are favorites of students and faculty. * Botanischer Garten der Universität des Saarlandes, the university's

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 ...

The Hermann-Neuberger-Sportschule ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

is located next to the campus and hosts the Olympiastützpunkt Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland that is the Olympic Training Center for Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. * There is also a recreation center called Uni-Fit.

University hospital

The University Hospital of the Saarland ( or UKS) is the hospital of Saarland University in Homburg, Saarland, Germany. It is concentrated on a campus south of the city center, with more than 100 clinic buildings scattered across more than 200 hectares of forest. In the course of the project UKS Projekt Zukunft, which was started in 2009, numerous new buildings are being built and the clinics for internal medicine are being combined in a large building complex. Affiliated are the medical faculty of the Saarland University with about 2000 medical students, and a school center with eleven schools for health professions.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Universities and colleges in Saarland Education in Saarbrücken Buildings and structures in Saarbrücken 1948 establishments in Germany 1948 establishments in Saar Universities and colleges established in 1948