Bielefeld University
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Bielefeld University (German: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the established universities. In particular, the university aims to "re-establish the unity between research and teaching", and so all its faculty teach courses in their area of research. The university also stresses a focus on interdisciplinary research, helped by the architecture, which encloses all faculties in one great structure.
It is among the first of the German universities to completely switch some faculties (e.g. Biology) to Bachelor/Master-degrees as part of the Bologna process.
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[edit] Faculties
Bielefeld University offers many options to study, but it is famous for its faculty of sociology. It is not only the sole faculty of sociology in Germany, but is associated with Norbert Elias and Niklas Luhmann, who were professors there. The faculty of history is also well-known for launching the "Bielefeld School" of Social History under Hans-Ulrich Wehler. The faculty of pedagogical studies is also named one of the best in Europe. The Laborschule and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) belong as a project to that outstanding faculty.
The following 13 faculties also belong to the university:
- Faculty of biology
- Faculty of chemistry
- Faculty of history, philosophy and theology
- Faculty of Health
- Faculty of literatur
- Faculty of math
- Faculty of pedagogical studies
- Faculty of physics
- Faculty of psychology
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of sociology
- Faculty of technology
- Faculty of economics
[edit] Library
The library is located on the second floor of the main building. It contains more than 2 million books and is renowned for its exceptional opening times. It is open 357 days each year, from 8am in the morning until 10 pm at night.
[edit] Protests against tuition fees
Bielefeld University was one of the centers of student protests in the fight against the introduction of tuition fees. In the course of the protests the central hall and the office of the university president was occupied by protesting students for over a month. In a vote organised by the AStA and the students parliament, about 94% of participants voted against the introduction of tuition fees, although only 22% of the students did cast their vote. This is comparable to similar results at other German universities.
In its session of July 12, 2006, the university senate decided to introduce tuition fees of 1000 Euro for a year, beginning in 2007.[1][2]
In August 2006 a universal key for the university went missing during a senate session. After that multiple cases of arson and defacements of university property were reported. Especially university president Dieter Timmermann was a target of these attacks. The damage, mainly caused by the replacement of thousands of locks, was estimated at over a million euro.
[edit] Location
The University of Bielefeld is a one building university with a typical functional 60's concrete style. The university is located in the west of Bielefeld right next to the 'Teutoburger Wald' with the possibility for a walk through the forest. You can access the university with surban railway number 4 in about 10 minutes from the city center or in about 15 minutes by car.
[edit] The university in numbers
| Number of study possibilities | 74 |
| Professors | 275 |
| Number of employees (scientific) | 471 |
| Number of employees (not scientific) | 839 |
| Number of students (not German) ... | 18,128 (1,785) |
[edit] References
- ^ (German) Mitteilung des Referats für Öffentlichkeitsarbeit (PDF-Datei)
- ^ (German) Mitteilung des Studierendensekretariats (PDF-Datei)
[edit] External links
- Universität Bielefeld - Official site (in German)
- Universität Bielefeld - International - Information for international students (in English)
