Universität Würzburg

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With over 600 years of tradtion, the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg is today one of Germany's mid-sized universities. 400 professors in 12 faculties here teach roughly 20,000 students.

The University of Würzburg is among the leading institutions of higher education in Germany; this has been confirmed by rankings carried out by national and international research organizations, international external assessment committees as well as by the German Federal and State Excellence Initiatives (founded in 2006). Internationally, the University of Würzburg is also one of the top-ranking academic institutions in many fields of research and study.

As early as the early 1990s, the university had already begun establishing interdisciplinary research centers, in which new topics of research could be addressed and innovative courses of study created. These interdisciplinary centers have become the international trademark of the University of Würzburg. Numerous external assessment committees confirm this.

Most recently, the university's priorities have been focused on theInternational Graduate School, established in 2004. The school's intention is to provide all doctoral students structured learning opportunities to accompany their first professional academic pursuits. The University of Würzburg is particularly devoted to supporting the next generation of young academics.

The creation of new centers has acquired incredible momentum and has established Würzburg as one of the top institutions of higher learning in Germany. Currently, the nine Collaborative Research Centers and ten graduate research training groups are an indication of this momentum. The Collaborative Research Centers and graduate research training groups were established with grants from the German Research Institue (DFG). Underpinning the competitive nature of applying for DFG research grants, Axel Haase, President of the University of Würzburg, remarks: "the chances of being awarded a DFG grant are generally around 20 percent."

Today, the quality of the scientific research is measured by the number of research projects funded by goverment initiatives, private foundations, and industry. The number of publications in internationally-respected journals like Nature or Science is also a gauge of excellence in research.

Although the number of professors, assistants, and instructors has remained constant over the past few years, the two parameters of success described above have increased at a nearly explosive rate since the mid-1990s. The foundation of this success was the establishment of new research centers and their integration into the larger structures of the university.

The "International Graduate School - University of Würzburg" (IGS) was founded in 2003 and initially started with interdsiciplinary programs in biology and medicine. Since then, the concept of structuring doctoral training in the context of Graduate Schools comprising several faculties each was extended throughout the whole university. As a consequence, the IGS is now organized as a central scientific institution of the university, currently comprising three individual and self-governed Graduate Schools.

The "Graduate School of Life Sciences" (GSLS) is fully active and has successfully competed for funding by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments in 2006. The Graduate School for the "Humanities" has started operation in 2007. "Science and Technology" is in the process of being set up.

The common goal is to train excellent early stage researchers on their way to a doctoral degree within the international research environment of the University of Würzburg.

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