University of Konstanz

Overview

The University of Konstanz is a top public university in Baden-Württemberg, Germany founded in 1966. Situated approximately two and a half miles from the Germany-Swiss border, on the shores of Lake Constance, the institution is the southernmost university in Germany. The institution may not be the biggest in the country, but it has built a reputation that rivals those of larger and more well-known universities.

The journey to its current status began in 1965 when the founding committee developed the idea to start a unique institution. A year later, the idea was actualized and the University of Konstanz was launched as a compact, reform institution on the Geissberg. Since it opened its doors to students, the university has lived by its modernization efforts and research-oriented reform principles characterized by high-quality, creativity, and innovation in all performance dimensions.

At present, The University of Konstanz is one of 11 institutions in the German Excellence Initiative. Even better, it’s one of the only six institutions to consistently succeed in all the funding lines of the German Excellence Initiative since 2007. The success is attributed to the university’s top research and excellent teaching strategies, which have stood out since its inception.

The university, in keeping its spirit as a reform university, doesn’t have institutes or chairs. Instead, it is organized around 13 departments. This is then categorized into different faculties, namely the Faculty of Sciences, the Faculty of Politics, Law, and Economics, and the Faculty of Humanities.

The flat structures and hierarchies in the main campus support the interdisciplinary cooperation and flexibility between and within these departments. Beyond its departments, the university has numerous science-supporting services in Germany, which it uses to support its research and teaching. In addition, the University of Konstanz offers scientific cooperation and student exchange partnerships with more than 70 research-intensive universities in the world.

The institution offers more than 100 courses in the aforementioned sections. Many of the courses are interdisciplinary, while others are international, such as a master’s degree in Quantitative Economics and Public Administration and Europe Governance. In 2007, it added the Graduate School of Chemical Biology to strengthen its position in cutting-edge research.

The university has over 11,400 students taking courses in the above-mentioned disciplines. And for excellent research and teaching, it has a total of more than 1,800 personnel, including over 200 professors, more than 800 knowledge staff, and more than 800 scientific support staff.

In conformity with its visionary concepts, the university is at the forefront of promoting young scientists in Europe. The Zukunftskolleg—an Institute for Advanced Study, for instance, is one of its programs that aims to support early career researchers. Through this initiative, it offers two-year and five-year fellowship programs to promote top-level research.