University of Konstanz

The University of Konstanz (German: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is situated on the shore of Lake Constance just four kilometres from the Swiss border. It has been successful in the Excellence Initiative.

The University of Konstanz cooperates with a number of institutions, such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, University of Zurich, and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

In addition to having approximately 11,500 students from around 100 countries, the university maintains over 220 partnerships with European universities as well as numerous international exchange programmes, thereby facilitating global networking. Students may choose from more than 100 degree programmes. Its library is open 24 hours a day and has more than two million books.

History

Origins

A university was briefly located in Konstanz during the 17th and 18th century. As a branch of the University of Freiburg, it was located in the Lanzenhof (today a building housing the administration of justice at the Untere Laube street) and existed from 1686 to 1698 as well as from 1713 to 1715.

The University of Konstanz was founded in 1966 as a reform university. In its early years it was located in various buildings in the inner city until 1972, when the campus was established on the Giessberg. The university logo was designed by Otl Aicher in 1980, one of the most well-known graphic designers of the 20th century.

Instead of creating institutes, the university was designed with (smaller than usual) departments and working groups, with a focus on developing teaching through research. In order to more easily transcend the boundaries between academic subjects and infrastructure, the Anglo-Saxon concept of the campus university was adapted, through which the administration and service providers such as the canteen and library have become easily accessible and centralised locations. The reform measures included the transformation of traditional learning and instructional mediums such as lectures to seminars or tutorials. The use of course-related performance assessments developed out of the implementation of these new measures.

Transitions

The single-stage legal education and training was adapted by the university in the context of a pilot programme in the 1970s and 1980s, in which the practical phase and university study were closely interlinked. At the beginning, the university also offered basic studies in social science through which students of administrative science, economics and law completed their studies together.

After many of these projects expired, the university "reinvented" itself in accordance with the recommendations from the Mittelstraßcommission: To promote even more intense collaboration within the university, it was divided into three faculties with a total of 13 departments in 1999. The departments replaced the previous schools and working groups and the tasks and responsibilities of these schools have since been carried out and fulfilled by the faculties in accordance with the Landeshochschulgesetz LHG (state law on higher education). The university's consistent use of centralised service providers has not changed. The 24-hour library, which provides easy access to all of its books, is a well-known feature of the university.

University of Excellence

The institutional strategy of the university, "Modell Konstanz – Towards a Culture of Creativity", was adopted on 19 October 2007 in the context of the German Excellence Initiative, which administered jointly by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Council of Science and Humanities. Additionally, four Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) funded by the DFG are currently operating at the University of Konstanz. The "Zentrum für den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs" (ZWN) or Centre for Young Researchers was recognized in this third funding line of the German Excellence Initiative and stirred great interest across Germany, leading the press to refer to the university as the "mini Harvard at Lake Constance".

Campus

Geography

The university comprises approximately 90,000 square metres and lies on the Gießberg within the Mainauwald (Mainau forest). It belongs to Konstanz's Egg district, with the old village of Egg located a distance of 200 metres from campus on the far side of the Mainaustrasse (Mainau street). Two pedestrian and bike bridges connect the university grounds to the village and lakeside. Just like the village, the university's sports grounds are located on the lakeside of the street, north of Egg. The university's botanical garden is located to the north-west of the north parking lot and is open on weekdays. Before the independent village of Allmannsdorf was merged with the city of Konstanz on 1 January 1915, all of the land that the university now occupies belonged to this former community.

Architecture

The university was designed as a customised space to facilitate social interaction between researchers, teachers and students, thereby departing from traditional university building layouts. Instead of a scattered array of individual buildings, architect Horst Linde drafted a compact university complex with interlinked buildings. The idea was to adapt the architecture to the hillside location, similar to a mountain village. Designer Wilhelm von Wolff's idea was that "people should be able to stroll through the university as if it were an old city centre with squares and alleyways that provide opportunities for casual encounters, perhaps with something mysterious here and there to rouse expectations". In order to shorten the routes to the centrally located Agora, the planners made it a requirement that the radius of the university area should not exceed 500 to 700 metres. Construction started in 1970 and lasted until 1983. Since then, the university has made several additions, all of which followed the original plans. In 2012, major university building sections were identified as historic monuments and provided official monument protection in recognition of their collective design and construction.

Percent for art

The following artworks have been constructed as part of Percent for art projects on university grounds: The glass roof (1972) consisting of 227 coloured pyramids in the main entrance area of the university, designed by Otto Piene; the pipe sculptures (1969–1974) by Friedrich Gräsel in the Hockgrabental; the gate structures (1984) by Georg Karl Pfahler; the spool sculpture (1972) by Gottfried Bechtold; and the wooden head sculptures (1993) by Stephan Balkenhols.

Organization

Faculties and Departments

The 13 departments of the university are divided into three faculties:

Faculty of Sciences

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer and Information Science
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Physics
• Psychology

Faculty of Humanities

• History and Sociology
• Literary Studies
• Linguistics
• Philosophy

Faculty of Politics, Law and Economics

• Economics
• Law
• Politics and Public Administration

Central institutions

The university comprises several central institutions:

The Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM) is the university's primary service provider for IT and library services. KIM was created in 2014 by combining the library, IT Service Centre and administrative IT. It supports teaching, research and study at the University of Konstanz.

The library of the University of Konstanz is the central service provider for all literature and information needs at the University of Konstanz. It provides access to approximately two million freely accessible and systematically organised print media and 1,600 work stations in an area of 25,000 square metres at the heart of the university. The library was conceptually redesigned, adapted to current requirements and thoroughly renovated between 2011 and 2017 as part of a pollutant remediation project. The library services are responsible for making printed and electronic media accessible and answer all questions that are related to their service spectrum. The KonSearch literature search engine provides access to over 400 million digital and printed media items.

The IT services provide all the services required for the operation and further development of a university. In this way, both researchers and students can benefit from essential services such as the email system, the e-learning platform, campus management, IT security and central storage services.

The International Office is responsible for advancing and sustaining international relations with other universities. It also provides support and guidance to visiting students and advises students interested in studying abroad.

The Career Service is a university service provider established as a joint initiative between the university, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Hochrhein-Bodensee and the Agentur für Arbeit Konstanz-Ravensburg (employment agency). It helps students prepare to enter the job market and assists employers in their search for new employees.

The Language Institute (SLI) coordinates all foreign language training activities.

Since 2010, the Student Service Centre (SSZ) has been providing one-stop service to students who need to complete bureaucratic procedures (enrol, pay fees, receive certificates).

Rankings

The University of Konstanz has been ranked in several prominent university rankings. In the 2024 QS World University Rankings, it was placed 478th globally, marking it within the top 30 in Germany. Meanwhile, the institution was ranked between 251-300 worldwide in the 2024 edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, positioning it approximately within the top 25-31 universities in Germany. The ARWU for 2022 assigned the University of Konstanz to a global band of 501-600, which correspondingly falls into the 32-36 range among German higher education institutions.

The university is ranked in top 100 worldwide in the field of social policy and administration in the 2020 QS World University Rankings, and ranked 51 in Political Science according to the 2020 ShanghaiRanking.

In the "Times Higher Education 150 Under 50 University Rankings", the University of Konstanz achieved 7th position globally in 2016. This position makes Konstanz the best German university amongst those assessed, all of which are under 50 years old. This assessment was underscored by the 2014 edition of the global ranking "QS Top 50 under 50", which also concentrates on universities under the age of 50. In this case Konstanz came 21st in the global comparison.

Regional and international collaboration

Regional collaboration

Experts from the University of Konstanz, in collaboration with experienced consultants from schools, universities and employment agencies, have conceptualised the two-day Entscheidungstraining BEST (career and study orientation training programme). Additionally, the University of Konstanz was also involved in the development of an orientation test by the universities in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Through the collaboration with the HSG Konstanz handball team, the university supports elite sport activities by offering young and ambitious student-athletes exclusive scholarships.

International collaboration

The University of Konstanz maintains an extensive cooperation network with regional, national and international partner institutions from the areas of science, economics, politics and the public sector. On the regional level, the university cooperates closely with Kanton Thurgau. This allows us to offer, among others, joint study programmes with the Thurgau University of Teacher Education (PHTG). Other German-Swiss collaborations include the Biotechnology Institute Thurgau (BITg) and the Thurgau Institute of Economics (TWI). Through the Internationale Bodensee-Hochschule, the University of Konstanz is connected to 30 other universities in the tri-border area Germany – Austria – Switzerland. On the international level, the University of Konstanz cooperates with around 220 partner universities in the context of the Erasmus Programme. Furthermore, the University of Konstanz maintains connections to around 100 strategically important and select international institutions.

The university's International Office implements and promotes internationality in all areas of the university including research, teaching, study and administration. It enables and supports a wide range of international activities: from short visits by guest lecturers and doctoral students to summer schools, international workshops and start-up financing for new collaborations. Established networks between the university's organisational units make it possible to successfully address and complete tasks together.

For this reason, the International Office is not only the first stop for international and Konstanz students, but also for the university's departments. The Welcome Center, on the other hand, supports and guides all international guest researchers at all stages of their careers (doctoral students, post-docs and professors).

The Konstanz Science Forum

Since 2006, the University of Konstanz has hosted the Konstanz Science Forum, which is conceived as a "platform for knowledge transfer and science communication for the University of Konstanz". The forum will serve as an interface for "economy, politics and society" and deal with topics related to research and higher education during conferences. The founding members of the forum were Gerhart von Graevenitz as rector of the university, Renate Köcher from the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (IfD Allensbach), the biologist and science manager Hubert Markl, the philosopher Jürgen Mittelstraß and the economist Horst Siebert. Since 2008, the forum has published a series of books to commemorate its conferences. These books address topics such as creativity, "Project Europe", networks and clusters. The most recent book (2013) on "Macht und Wissenschaft" (power and science), was published by the Universitätsverlag Konstanz (university publishing house).

Student body

After a forty-year absence, the organised student body (Verfasste Studierendenschaft) was reintroduced on 13 July 2012 through the organised student body law (Verfasste Studierendenschaft-Gesetz). This allowed students to not only organise as a status group within the university, but also as an official student body or a legally binding constituent entity governed by public law (Teilkörperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) of the University of Konstanz. The Rectorate carries out the legal supervision of this body, but not the technical supervision according to § 65b para. 6 LHG (state law on higher education).

According to § 65a para. 8 LHG, the organised student body is by law a member of the student representative body of the state of Baden-Württemberg (Landesstudierendenvertretung Baden-Württemberg). By resolution of the StuPa (student parliament) and through the approval of the LEO (legislative organ) in January 2014, it also replaced the former u-AStA (university student union) in the fzs (national union of students).

Responsibilities

According to § 65 para. 2 LHG, the organised student body manages its own affairs within the framework of the legal provisions. Without infringing upon the responsibilities of the university and the Studentenwerk (state-run non-profit organisation for student services), it carries out the following tasks:

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