Dusseldorf University......................................

Heinrich Heine University of Dusseldorf
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

Established	1966
Provost	Hans Michael Piper
Students	ca 17,000 (September 2010)
Location	Dusseldorf, Germany
Website	www.uni-duesseldorf.de

Heinrich Heine University located in Dusseldorf, Germany, is named after German poet and political thinker Heinrich Heine, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1797. It became a full-fledged university in 1965 and currently comprises faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences, and economics. Its current enrollment slightly exceeds 16,000 students. The rector is Prof. Dr. Hans Michael Piper.

History

In 1806, Joachim Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother-in-law, who had been put in charge of the Duchy of Berg, wanted to found a university in Düsseldorf. At the time, there existed only a few college-like institutions, which had developed between the 16th and 18th centuries.

On 12 December 1811, Napoleon issued a decree calling for a university to be chartered in the duchy. It was to support five faculties. The French invasion of Russia, however, impeded its establishment.

In 1907, a medical academy was founded in Düsseldorf. It began training students in 1923. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia assumed responsibility for the academy from the city of Düsseldorf in 1962.

In 1965, the state government decided to transform the medical academy into a university. On 1 January 1966, the university constituted itself with a faculty of medicine and a combined faculty for natural sciences and philosophy. There was an opening ceremony on 14 February of the same year. The central campus' buildings, located south of Düsseldorf, were completed in the 1970s, a fact evinced by the architectural style prevailing on campus. Due to decades-long controversies, the university was not yet named after Heinrich Heine at this time. Heine was not considered an appropriate figurehead, first for pragmatic then for political reasons. The university's senate did not decide to name the university after Düsseldorf's most famous son until 20 December 1988.

Faculties

With currently around 20,000 students Heinrich Heine University is a medium-sized university divided up into five faculties which are all located on one campus. The oldest one and core of the university is the Faculty of Medicine, followed by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities – these three are the largest. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Law were then launched.

One of our foci today, linking all faculties, are the Life Sciences. Thanks to our “campus of short distances”, cross-departmental, joint study programmes (such as Business Chemistry) are one of our major strengths. In addition we can boast excellent research and dedicated teaching in all faculties – as numerous evaluations have shown.

Subjects

Medicine
Dental Medicine
Law
Philosophy
Social Sciences, Politics, and Communication
Cultural and Media Studies
German Language and Literature
Latin and Ancient Greek
English Language and Literature
Romanic Languages and Literature (French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan)
Modern Japan
Jewish Studies
Linguistics and Computer Linguistics
Information Science
History
Middle Ages and Renaissance Studies
History of Arts
Sports
Mathematics
Physics
Medical physics
Chemistry
Geography
Biology
Biochemistry
Computer Sciences
Pharmacy
Psychology
Economics
Chemistry with Applications in Economy
European Studies

Courses

Course of study	Degree	Application
Yiddish Studies	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Ancient Culture	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Unrestricted admision
Art History	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Local admission restrictions Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Biochemistry	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Biology	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Biology International	Master of Science	Aptitude assessment
Business Administration	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Business Chemistry	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Chemistry	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Communication and Media Science	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Local admission restrictions
Comparative Studies in English and American Language, Literature and Culture	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Dentistry	State Examination	Nationwide admission restrictions
Economics	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
English and American Studies	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Local admission restrictions Unrestricted admission
European Studies	Master Programme	Aptitude assessment
German Studies	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Local admission restrictions Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
History	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Unrestricted admission Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Informatics	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Informations Science	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Unrestricted admission
Information Science and Technology	Bachelor of Arts	Unrestricted admission
Information Science and Language Technology	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Japanese Studies	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Local admission restrictions Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Italian: Language, Media, Translation	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Jewish Studies	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Unrestricted admission Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Law	State Examination	Local admission restrictions
Linguistics	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Local admission restrictions
Linguistics (integrative)	Bachelor of Arts	Local admission restrictions
Linguistics	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Literary Translation	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Mathematics and Applied Fields	Bachelor of Science	Unrestricted admission
Mathematics	Master of Science	Aptitude assessment
Media and Culture Science	Bachelor of Arts	Local admission restrictions
Media Culture Analysis	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Media Culture Analysis / Analyse des Pratiques Culturelles	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Medical Physics	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Medicine	State Examination	Nationwide admission restrictions
Musicology	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Unrestricted admission
Pharmacy	State Examination	Nationwide admission restrictions
Philosophy	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor Master of Arts	Unrestricted admission Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Physics	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Unrestricted admission Aptitude assessment
Political Science	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Local admission restrictions
Political Communication	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Psychology	Bachelor of Science Master of Science	Local admission restrictions Aptitude assessment
Romance Studies	Bachelor of Arts/Major Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Unrestricted admission Unrestricted admission
Romance Studies: Cultural Contacts and Communication	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Social Sciences – Media, Politics, Society	Bachelor of Arts	Local admission restrictions
Social Sciences – Social Structures and Democratic Governance	Master of Arts	Aptitude assessment
Sociology	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Local admission restrictions
Toxicology	Master of Science	Aptitude assessment
Yiddish Culture, Language, and Literature	Bachelor of Arts/Minor	Unrestricted admission

Further education

Course of study	Degree	Application
Endodontology	Master of Science	Aptitude assessment
Intellectual Property Law	Master of Laws	Aptitude assessment
Information Law	Master of Laws	Aptitude assessment
Medical Law	Master of Law	Aptitude assessment
Public Health	Master of Science	Aptitude assessment

Library

The ULB Düsseldorf as one of the central facilities of Heinrich Heine University offers students and researchers tailored access to knowledge and information. Furthermore, it is one of the three regional libraries of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the other two being located in Bonn and Münster.

The ULB Düsseldorf provides you with a wide range of services containing comprehensive multimedia services. Flexibility and availability of information and material are key principles. The opening hours span the evenings and weekends.

The ULB consists of a central library and four subsidiaries. Catalogues, databases, e-books and e-journals are accessible via the library network both on and off campus. The central library is located in the heart of the campus and is home to about half of the more than 2.4 million media units of the ULB. The four subsidiaries are located subjectwise in the relevant buildings which also house the research and teaching facilities of each faculty.

University Hospital

The main research areas of the University Hospital Dusseldorf are:

Cardiology and vascular medicine, Diabetes mellitus, Environmental Medicine, Hepatology, Infection biology, Molecular biology of aging, Neurosciences. With its 30 clinics and 31 institutes – more than 190000 patients are treated annually. The close integration between patient care, research and medical training in one place present decisive advantages for the patient – as well as for the students.Medical research at a university is fundamental, disease-oriented and patient-oriented research, and is a result of the university clinic and the medical faculty of Heinrich Heine University working closely together towards constant improvement in our understanding of illness. This is the basis for new methods in diagnostics and therapy that are regularly tested in supraregional clinical studies and are made available to the patient as rapidly as possible.

Student self-administration

Those students enrolled at the university comprise the “student body” in terms of the Higher Education Acts. They manage their affairs themselves and have access to all kinds of media.

The student associations at university contribute towards the formation of opinions on political issues. These associations include the student parliament, the students’ union (or AStA) and the student representatives (Fachschaften).

Student parliament

The student parliament (SP) is the students’ supreme deciding body according to Higher Education Acts. It is elected once a year by all students.

The current student parliament at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf was constituted on 15 July 2010.

The Students' union (AStA)

The Students’ Union or AStA is elected by the student parliament (SP) for one year and is the students’ supreme implementing body.

It represents all students within the limits of its legal and statutory authority and is also responsible for supporting each and every individual student.

The Students’ Union is involved in providing financial assistance and scholarships to students, offers social self-help and safeguards the students’ interests concerning current government university policy. It also maintains international student relations, organises cultural events and provides a sport programme.

Research

The open structure of our university creates an excellent basis for knowledge transfer and cluster development: several Leibniz prize winners bear testament to this. Life sciences incorporating the interdisciplinary interaction of medicine and natural sciences are a core research area. There are six Collaborative Research Centres for outstanding achievement in biology, medicine and physics as well as many co-operations on a national (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and international level. Five Research Training Groups provide excellent training for young scientists and scholars. Moreover, the university has strong ties to the regional economy.

Key research areas

Research, teaching and further education are mutually dependent. As the youngest and to date smallest university to be established in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Heinrich Heine University has been keen to forge links with Düsseldorf, a growth region of the future, and is committed to key fields of activity which are sustained by internal and external cooperative efforts. Internal competition drives existing innovative potential towards new key specialist areas of expertise.

The four key fields of research currently are:

Life sciences: Medicine (molecular and clinical hepatology, cardiovascular research, environmental medicine/gerontology, molecular and clinical neurosciences, infectiology), biotechnology, structural biology, cell biology, psychology
Natural sciences: plasma physics, soft matter, chemistry
Humanities, cultural studies and social sciences: Practical philosophy, linguistics, media science and social sciences
Law and economics with links to Düsseldorf

Young scientists and scholars

Promoting young scientists and scholars is one of the most important tasks for Heinrich Heine University.

At HHU, young scientists and scholars are offered clearly structured options for their academic careers. In addition to conventional postdoctoral lecturing qualifications, junior professorships and the independent junior research group leader position offer the opportunity to qualify as a university professor.

For PhD students, there are various ways of gaining a doctorate. In addition to gaining an individual PhD, students can also be integrated in a structured way into one of the Research Training Groups or one of the research schools at HHU. In addition to scientific and academic work, particular emphasis is placed on the supervision and ongoing professional development of PhD students.

Doctoral research

Doctoral researchers at HHU are supported in a wide variety of ways in order to help their careers as young academics develop and progress in a targeted manner.

1. Conditions
2. Enrolment
3. Other information which might interest you

1. Conditions

Your doctoral research at HHU is conditional upon your Faculty's Doctorate regulation.

Faculty of Law

All information about doctoral research in the Faculty of Law at the HHU is available from the Doctoral Research Office of the faculty. Upon completion of the doctoral degree, the academic title of Dr. jur. is awarded.

Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

The Doctoral Research Office of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, supported by the Interdisciplinary Graduate and Research Academy is responsible for doctoral researchers. Graduates are awarded the title either of Dr. rer. nat. or PhD.

Faculty of Medicine

Undertaking a doctorate in the Faculty of Medicine is conditional upon membership of the Medical Research School Düsseldorf . Qualifications as Dr. med., Dr. med. dent., Dr. rer. san. are awarded.

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Candidates for doctoral research in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities register at the Doctoral Research Office of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The doctorate is concluded with the academic grad of Dr. phil. .

Faculty of Business and Economics

All information about doctoral research at the Faculty of Business and Economics at HHU is available from the Dean's Office of the faculty. Doctoral research lead to the academic grade of Dr. rer. pol. .

2. Enrolment

You may then enrol as a:

Doctoral researcher

By enrolling as a doctoral researcher, you

have student status
have accident insurance coverage
are eligible for the NRW Term Ticket, with which you can use free-of-charge all local transport busses, trams and trains in NRW
receive an identifier with which to access the HHU’s IT services (email account, literature databases etc.)
may use the specialized libraries, and
are entitled to reduced student prices in the canteen.

Under specific circumstances, as a doctoral researcher you might be eligible for cheaper health insurance. The enrolment fee is about 230 € per term.

Doctoral auditor

As a doctoral auditor, you

do not have student status
are not eligible for a NRW Term Ticket or
student prices in the canteen,
are however given an identifier with which to access the HHU’s IT services (email account, literature databases etc.) and
may use the specialized libraries.

The enrolment fee is 100 €.

How you must enrol varies between the faculties. Please enquire at the Doctoral Research Office of your faculty about which rules apply for you.

Then please proceed as follows:

Please complete the relevant form (print out the PDF files) and bring or send them together with the documents stated on the form to the Student Secretariat of the HHU.

Enrolment as Doctoral Researcher at the Student Service Centre (in German)
Enrolment as Doctoral Auditor at the Student Service Centre (in German)

3. Other information you might find useful

Research institutions

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf cooperates with a number of research institutions beyond the faculties' borders.

As the main scientific HHU institution, the Biological-Medical Research Centre (BMFZ) aims to further link medical research with basic scientific disciplines.

In particular, the affiliated institutes of the HHU function as the connecting link to the economy. As independent institutions, they maintain close contacts with researchers in the faculties and are involved in the training of new scientists.