Aarhus University

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Aarhus University
logo
motto Solidum petit in profundis
founding 1928
Sponsorship state
place Aarhus , Denmark
Rector Brian Bech Nielsen
Students approx. 45,000 ( FTE , 2013)
Employee 6800
including professors 740
Networks CG
Website au.dk

The University of Aarhus ( Danish Aarhus Universitet , Latin Universitas Arhusiensis ) is the largest university in Denmark with almost 45,000 students and is based in the city of Aarhus . It was founded as a private university in 1928 and became a state university in 1970.

Alongside the University of Copenhagen , it is the most prestigious university in Denmark and is at the top of numerous rankings. In the Thebestschools ranking, it is one of the 100 best universities worldwide and is classified as a top university . It is also strongly represented in international cooperation and in the EU's Socrates program .

Her list of professors and graduates includes some famous names. In 1997 Jens Christian Skou received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry . Long-time visiting professor Dale Mortensen received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2010 . Well-known graduates are u. a. Bjarne Stroustrup , the developer of the C ++ programming language , and the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen .

The university operates the research ship Aurora .

history

On September 11, 1928, Universitetsundervisningen i Jylland (German: Universitätsausbildung in Jutland ) was founded - the first university on the Danish mainland. Before that, school leavers in Jutland only had the choice of going to study in Copenhagen or Germany. That is why the municipality of Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, and the Universitets-Samvirket initiative ( university cooperation ) had fought for the establishment of a second university in the country since 1921. When the time came in 1928, five professors (for philosophy as well as German , Danish , English and French ) began teaching and 60 students began studying, initially in premises rented from the local technical school.

The initially purely humanistic education was gradually expanded to include further courses: 1933 medicine , 1936 economics and law , 1942 theology , 1954 mathematics and natural sciences , 1958 political science and 1968 psychology .

A new higher education law passed in the Folketing in 1970 brought the Aarhus Universitet, which until then was still organized by the city and the Samvirket , under state control. Incidentally, Aarhus University continued to spell itself with the double-A, although its hometown spelled itself with Å since the spelling reform of 1948 until December 31, 2010 . Even after the nationalization, the “AU”, as the students mostly abbreviate it, works closely with the city when it comes to building new infrastructure.

On January 1st 2007 the Aarhus School of Business , the Danish Institute for Environmental Research (Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser) and the Danish Institute for Agricultural Research (Danmarks Jordbrugsforskning) became faculties of Aarhus University.

The science museum founded by Olaf Pedersen (Aarhus 1983) and the Steno-Museum (1993) are also connected to the university .

building

main building
Campus lake

After the AU had initially started operations in rented restaurants, the city soon decided to make its own area available to it with a park to the north of the city. The architects CF Møller and Kay Fisker won a competition in 1931 and then designed the university buildings that are still in use today around a natural lake. The uniform construction of yellow bricks is still used today during construction work, most recently in 2004 for the new Søauditoriet (lake lecture hall), a multi -faculty lecture hall building at the southern end of the university lake. Most of the university buildings are connected by pedestrian tunnels , so it is possible to get to most of the buildings without getting your feet wet, although this is rarely used.

Even today, three quarters of the faculty buildings are located in this university park, which is particularly appreciated by students and lecturers because of the lake and the extensive green areas. Due to the enormous growth in urban development, it has now moved to the center of Aarhus and is located north of the city center. Only the lectures in computer science (in the so-called IT city, which is about a kilometer west of the park), archeology and ethnography (in Moesgård manor ten kilometers south of the city) do not take place on the main campus.

Students at the annual boat race in the university park

The university administration building at the north end of the park is particularly well-known: it served as the Gestapo's headquarters during the German occupation in World War II and was devastated by a British air raid on October 31, 1944 . Even today, the architecture of this building, which also houses the largest lecture hall, the store Aula (the large auditorium) , is visibly different from the otherwise uniform construction. According to legend, the construction workers delayed its completion for years by adding new arcades and terraces to hinder the work of the German occupiers. The air raid is now considered to be one of the worst in the history of Denmark, which was otherwise largely spared from the war.

University is also on the peninsula Sundewitt lying Sandbjerg that serves as a conference center.

Nobel parking
Cafeteria of the School of Business & Social Sciences

Rankings

In recent years, the young university has steadily advanced in international rankings.

Students and faculty

In 1999, more than 20,000 students were registered for the first time. With the most recent merger in 2007, the number of students rose to around 29,000, and the staff now includes around 5,580 academic staff. It is particularly popular with foreign students: more than 500 exchange students come here every semester, many of them through the Socrates-Erasmus exchange program .

Over the years, many famous people have studied or taught at the AU. These are (alphabetically):

  • Lars Bak (* 1965), computer scientist, inventor of virtual machines, studied and worked here
  • Thorkild Bjørnvig (1918–2004), poet, writer and translator of German poetry, studied here
  • Bruno Blume (* 1972), Swiss author, director and publisher, studied art and history here
  • Tim Bollerslev (* 1958), Danish economist and developer of the GARCH model , student
  • Ole Crumlin-Pedersen (1935–2011), archaeologist, salvage of medieval ships, founder of the Viking Museum in Roskilde
  • Rudi Dutschke (1940–1979), lecturer until 1979
  • Crown Prince Frederik (* 1968), heir to the throne , graduated in 1995
  • Theodor Geiger (1891–1952), first professor of sociology in Denmark
  • Finn Olav Gundelach (1925–1981), diplomat and Vice-President of the EC Commission, student (economics)
  • Matthias Heymann (* 1961), physicist and historian, associate professor
  • Louis Hjelmslev (1899–1965), founder of the Copenhagen School of Structuralist Linguistics, 1934–1937 lecturer in comparative linguistics and 1935/36 dean of the Faculty of Humanities
  • Naser Khader (* 1963), politician, student (rhetoric)
  • Itō Kiyoshi (1915–2008), Japanese mathematician, founder of stochastic analysis, university professor 1966–1969
  • Holger Friis Johansen (1927–1996), classical philologist, university professor 1961–1996, deputy rector 1973/4
  • Linda Maria Koldau (* 1971), Professor of Musicology and Cultural History (also myth and women research )
  • Bjørn Lomborg (* 1965) student until 1991 and professor 1994–2002, since 1997 as professor at the Institut for Statskundskab ( Institute for Political Science ) mostly statistics after his doctorate in Copenhagen in 1994
  • Knud Ejler Løgstrup (1905–1981), philosopher and theologian (4-volume metaphysics, intuitionalism), pastor in the resistance movement, multiple honorary doctorates
  • Svend Åge Madsen (* 1939), writer and multiple award winner, studied mathematics
  • Margrethe II. (* 1940), Queen of Denmark, student 1961–1963 (political science)
  • Robin Milner (1934–2010), English computer scientist and Turing Prize winner, 1979-80 professor in Aarhus
  • Dale Mortensen (1939–2014), American economist, visiting professor, received the Nobel Prize in 2010 during his time in Aarhus
  • Christina Nielsen (* 1992), racing car driver, first woman in the Porsche Cup, Design Media Art Car, studied management in Aarhus
  • Poul Nielson (* 1943), politician and EU commissioner, student
  • Kristen Nygaard (1926–2002), computer scientist, Turing Prize winner, 1975/76 professor in Aarhus
  • Jens Olesen (* 1950), professor for Nordic history at the University of Greifswald, student
  • Artis Pabriks (* 1966), Latvian political scientist and politician, Minister of Defense, studied here
  • Olaf Pedersen (1920–1997) founded the Institute for the History of Science and the Steno Museum
  • Bernd Raffelhüschen (* 1957), finance scientist at the University of Freiburg and member of the Rürup Commission, student
  • Anders Fogh Rasmussen (* 1953), politician, Danish Prime Minister 2001–2009, Secretary General of NATO, graduated here in 1978 with a degree in economics
  • Finn Reske-Nielsen (* 1950), Danish UN diplomat, multiple special envoy
  • Jens Christian Skou (1918–2018), biophysicist, won the first Nobel Prize for the AU in 1997
  • Max Sørensen (1913–1981), longtime judge at the boarding school. and European Court of Justice, Council of Europe, etc., Prof. for international and constitutional law
  • Bjarne Stroustrup (* 1950), inventor of the programming language C ++ , obtained degrees in computer science and mathematics here in 1975
  • Vygaudas Ušackas (* 1964), Lithuanian diplomat, politician, former foreign minister, studied politics here

See also

Web links

Commons : Aarhus University  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Profile. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
  2. Persons (directory). Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
  3. Data on Aarhus University (PDF)
  4. ^ The 100 Best Universities in the World Today , TBS: The Best Schools, last viewed the 21st of January 2016.
  5. WHY CHOOSE AARHUS UNIVERSITY? , Aarhus University. last seen on January 21, 2015.
  6. Archived copy ( Memento from August 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. Bjarne Stroustrup Biography ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Computer History Museum, last viewed January the 21st of 2016.
  8. Æresalumne ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), AU, sidst set January 21, 2016.
  9. http://www.au.dk/en/about/profile/rankings/

Coordinates: 56 ° 10 ′ 1 ″  N , 10 ° 12 ′ 7 ″  E