The Georg-August-Universität of Göttingen was founded in 1737 with an inherent commitment to the critical spirit of the Enlightenment. Throughout the course of its history, the “Georgia Augusta” has succeeded in attracting and retaining world-class researchers whose groundbreaking basic research led to the establishment of the University’s international reputation, both in the natural sciences and in the arts, and who remain influential in the shaping of the University profile to this day; the name of Göttingen is associated with more than 40 Nobel Prize winners who have lived and worked here. Today, the University is confronting the challenge of not merely maintaining but enhancing its high standard of research and the strong Göttingen focus on research-based teaching by undertaking reform projects in the areas of research, teaching and administration.
Research and Research Perspectives
Tradition has served Georg-August University well in supplying it with a full spectrum of scientific disciplines (including health sciences). Today the University has organized the disciplines into 13 Faculties; it is recognized as an international research university of renown. With more than 4.5 million volumes, over 16,000 academic journals, 12,635 documents and 3,100 incunabulae, the Lower Saxony State and University Library is one of the most extensive university libraries in Germany. In past centuries the Göttingen library started as the first library with both scientific and universal holdings. It had European renown even then. Today its historic holdings - like, for example, the Gutenberg Bible, a UNESCO world treasure item - are being made available to all by an extensive digitalisation program. More than 143 subject-specific libraries across the campus complement the central library's vast holdings.
Interdisciplinarity is much more than a buzzword at Göttingen. We have gained much experience over time with cross-disciplinary research and study centers - such as, for example, the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Forestry and the Center for North American Studies. Our experience has served as the background for increased cooperation of scientists from various disciplines in a number of new research groups. The University is focusing its forces on these cross-disciplinary agglomerations doing research in Biodiversity and Ecology as well as in Media Sciences and Medieval and Early Modern Studies. The Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences conducts research in biology, medicine, chemistry, and agriculture. An added perspective is to be supplied by expanding bioinformatics research as an area of research emphasis. Similarly, the European Neuroscience Institute (ENI) unites several disciplines in the neurosciences with industry in interdisciplinary and cross-boundary cooperation. Göttingen coordinates the network on the genetics of bacteria: 22 work groups from 14 research institutions work with five industrial partners. Furthermore, a group of Göttingen medical researchers are part of the genetics project 'Heart/Circulation'.
The research activities are substantially funded by public funding agencies and private foundations. In the past year, the University and the University Hospital were awarded grants to the amount of € 56 million. The German Research Foundation (DFG) alone financed nine special research groups (Sonderforschungsbereiche). Doing innovative research by making use of the extensive spectrum of subject areas and by fostering interdisciplinarity is one of the foremost concerns in shaping the University's future plans. At the same time, the University is redoubling its efforts to internationalise. Worldwide research networks are being expanded and particular emphasis is laid on hiring international top researchers for the University. Agreements have been signed with institutions of higher education and research institutions in more than 79 countries in the world. Rounding out this international context, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is sponsoring two 'International Quality Networks' (IQN) as well as the export of Göttingen modules and courses to other countries: Modules within the course on tropical and subtropical agriculture is made available to universities abroad.
Research within the University is enriched by the context of other scientific networks in Göttingen: four Max-Planck Institutes, the German Primate Center, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) join many smaller independent institutes as well as the 250-year-old Academy of Sciences: a truly sterling research alliance.
The University and the hospital employ more than 13,400 employees, making it the largest employer in the region. It contributes greatly to the region's economic health by transferring knowledge into enterprises. It has joined the ranks of enterprises by becoming a shareholder in InnoCap, an associated company, which provides capital for innovation to new entrepreneurs. Its capital base of € 7.5 million mainly provides funding for biotechnology-based work.
Fostering Excellence
Curriculum reform, further internationalisation of the courses on offer, assuring quality and developing innovative new subjects: those are the measures with which Göttingen continues to increase its attractiveness to students. At the moment, more than 24,000 students are enrolled at the University. About 11% are international students, living proof of Göttingen's power to attract. Institutions like the X-LAB, an experimental laboratory for high school students, allow young people to gain an impression of University life - especially within the natural sciences. The University makes 130 different courses of study available to students, 16 of which have been newly established recently.
An extensive framework has been established which is geared toward supporting students' successful completion of their study courses: class modules, class-specific instead of cumulative exams, Bachelor and Master degree options and intensive courses, supported by computer-based learning and teaching, online grade management systems and improved academic advising and counselling throughout, as well as a Career Services Office add up to an impressive array of measures taken. At the same time, courses are more internationally compatible, following B.A. and M.A. structures, integrating study abroad periods and English-language instruction as well as making sure that international scholars are involved in teaching. Degree course in International Economics, International Agriculture, International Mathematics or Euroculture respond to a globalized world's changed demands.
The Georg-August University takes particular pains to be in the vanguard of training an international scientific elite as well as making sure that its graduates enter the market fit to take up its changed challenges. One of Göttingen's responses to the marketplace is a Master' course in media and communication studies which provides students with practical experience as well as with scientific depth in the subject. Similarly, the course in Economic Law and the intensive course in School Pedagogy and Didactics provide entry to a career as a teacher for graduates.
The University fosters excellence in its varied Master and Ph.D. programs. The Graduate School of Physics, for example, which emphasizes scientific research in its teaching, appeals to highly qualified students and graduates from around the world. 14 DFG-sponsored graduate research groups are located at Göttingen. Four doctoral programs are International Max-Planck-Research Schools at the same time: Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Molecular Biology, Neurosciences, and Physics. Eleven sponsored young researchers' groups, scholarships for 'Habilitations' and the new junior professorships position the University well at the interface of university and career. Providing support for women scientists is particularly important to the University: in 2000 almost one third of all newly filled positions were taken by women scholars.
Tools for Steering a Globalized Budget
The renewal of administration within the Faculties is considered a central issue by the University of Göttingen. A reform project 'Feed-back Autonomy' (Rückgekoppelte Autonomie) was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation within their program 'Achievement through Responsibility'. Five pilot Faculties established reform councils and Faculty developers who were supported by a council of external reform experts. They ensured continued improvement and quality assurance in research and teaching.
Meanwhile a yearly goals statement is one of the tools by which the University leadership and the Faculties streamline the direction in which they want to proceed. The entire University has implemented globalized budgets since 2001; responsibility for finances and personnel is handed over to the Faculties (Heracles Project) and in the long term a new report and controlling system will be implemented (Merlin Project). By optimising its structures and administration, the University of Göttingen provides a model in the landscape of higher education in Germany.
Press and Public Relations
February 2002