| University of Passau | |
|---|---|
| Universität Passau | |
| Latin: Universitas Pataviensis | |
| Established | 1978 |
| Type | Public |
| President | Burkhard Freitag |
| Admin. staff | 564 |
| Students | 9,177 (October 2010) [1] |
| Location | Passau, Germany |
| Campus | Urban |
| Colors | Orange and Gray |
| Website | http://www.uni-passau.de/ |
| Data as of 2008[update] | |
The University of Passau (German Universität Passau) is a public research university located in Passau, Lower Bavaria, Germany. Founded in 1978, it is the youngest university in Bavaria and has therefore the most modern campus in the state. Nevertheless, it is the extension of the centuries old Institute for Catholic Studies.
Today it consists of five faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in 22 courses.[2]
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The university was founded on August 1, 1978 at the behest of the Bayerischer Landtag (Bavarian State Congress).[3] However its history goes back to 1622 when an Institute for Catholic Studies was incorporated to the Gymnasium founded by Fürst Leopold in 1612. In 1773 the University was renamed to fürstbischöfliche Akademie, a name that highlighted its relationship to the bishop. Nevertheless, in 1803 it was degraded to merely a kurfürstliches Lyzeum and lost hence its status as a university. After some years of abandonment, it was refounded 1803 as Passauer Lyzeum. This Lyzeum grew over the years until it became a Philosophy-Theology University in 1923. During the Nazi Era the University was forced to change its logo, but in 1950 a new seal with the "Maria vom Siege" was introduced. The new logo represented Mary with The Child as she defeated the evil. While this was appropriate for a religious College, it was regarded as not appropriate for the new university, and substituted by the current neutral logo. The city council had already begun the necessary negotiations to found a university as a development of the old Faculty as early as 1969.
The campus of the University of Passau is probably unique in Germany. Except for the Department of Catholic Theology, which is in the city centre, all faculties are situated on one street on a single campus. This is very advantageous for internal communication of students and staff because Passau offers many interdisciplinary courses. Hence it is possible that law courses take place in the philosophy faculty and vice versa. The campus lies on the riverside of the Inn River, which makes it an idyllic place to study. Furthermore there are many gardens and meadows that are popular with students in the summer.
The Nikolakloster is the only exemption to the college's modern architecture. Today, this old convent is home to the languages department but it was here that the university was born. Only in 2006 was the ITZ International House building completed. It is the last building in the row and is home to many international staff offices, students clubs and language classes.
The sport facilities include a soccer and athletics field, a gym and 4 sport halls, which are available to staff and students alike.
A wide range of coached sports is available for free for students, among them soccer, volleyball, basketball, rowing and aerobics.[4]
The University of Passau has a refectory with a capacity of 560 places. The refectory has won several awards for excellence. There are also four cafeterias on campus which offer sandwiches, confectionery, coffee, soft drinks and beer.
The university's kindergarten is open to children of students and staff. It is unusual in Germany for universities to have day care, but the reasonably priced service is well used by students with young children.
The library was founded together with the university in 1978 and opened its doors for students and citizens of Passau in the same year with one reading room. The University Library is the main library of the university, and constitutes together with the 5 libraries of the faculties and institutes, the integral university library system, headed by the director of the University Library, Dr. Steffen Wawra. The University Library's stocks exceeds today two million books and 3050 journals.[5] There is a total of 1000 work places for students in the reading rooms, which are open 16 hours a day.
The Rectorate is the 'executive body' of the university, headed by president Walter Schweitzer. The rectorate consists of the chancellor, Ludwig Bloch, who is the head of the central administration and responsible for the university's budgeting, and three vice-presidents, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Burkhard Freitag, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrich Manthe and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ernst Struck.[6]
The Senate is the 'legislative branch' of the university. The president and vice-presidents are senators ex officio, as are also the deans of the faculties, and the university's equal opportunities officer.
The University of Passau has five schools: Humanities, Law, Catholic Theology, Informatics and Economics.
The catholic theology school and the Chair for Philosophy are planned to be inactive for the next 15 years beginning 2009/2010, a process that's been very controversial because its lecturers have been awarded many times in recognition to its research achievements. The school only offers Catholic theology education for students enrolled in a teaching training program and a graduate program in Caritas management and applied Catholic theology.
The university employs as 2008 more than 500 academic staff, of which 107 hold a chair "Lehrstuhl". The rest are research assistants and postgraduate students.[7]
Passau enrolls a total of 8,058 students; 91% of these are German. There are 681 international students, representing 71 different countries. The largest group of foreign students come from Austria, with 103 students, which is due to Passau's location on the German-Austrian border. There are a total of 64 Bulgarians, 52 Russians, 48 Czechs, 46 students from Ukraine and 38 from China. There are also students from Latin America, Southeast Asia (mainly in the MA and Ph.D. Programmes), Africa and the Middle East. Passau's international students rate is above the German average.
The University of Passau is known beyond the borders of Bavaria and Germany for its international orientation and atmosphere. The college holds cooperation agreements with 160 foreign universities[8] in Latin America, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia that allow its students to study abroad during its academic career. Among the partner universities are King's College and Cardiff University in the UK, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, Lund University in Sweden, Texas A&M University in the United States, the Universidad del Salvador in Argentina, the University of Santiago, Chile, the Université Laval in Canada, Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan, Thammasat University and University Chiang Mai in Thailand, Universitas Indonesia in Indonesia as well as the National University of Vietnam and the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan.
The university supports a number of student groups in various fields of interest.[9] Among them are eight political groups, two drama clubs, three university orchestras, two choirs, several NGO’s groups such as Amnesty International, Unicef and AIESEC, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines like AEGEE and ELSA, five clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, several subject orientated groups, an association of cultural studies students, a debate society, one student management consulting groups, and two religious student groups.
Despite of the wide range of sports offered in the Sports Center of the university, there are only two teams that play at a competitive level. Here it is important to say that in Germany, unlike in the USA, university sport competitions have no tradition.
Fraternities have a long-standing tradition in Germany's students life, although having a very different meaning as in the United States. Students who are member of fraternities often have a very conservative political attitude and sometimes a traditional religious point of view. For this reason they are not accepted by everyone and many students even mock their members. There are five fraternities in Passau:
A nice welcome tradition for first year students in Passau, who usually are not from the Bavaria or even are for the first time there, is a welcome reception on the city hall with typical Bavarian food. Leberkäse and Bavarian Pretzels (which are different from the American ones) and beer are served. The welcome speech is held by the rector and the city's mayor.
Also a traditional part of Passau's students life is the O-Woche, an integration week for all first year students. During the O-Woche the students have the possibility to take guided tours through college, libraries, the city and of course, the bars and discos.