University of Aarhus

Aarhus Universitet or the University of Aarhus is a university based in Århus, Denmark.

History

It was founded in 1928 as Universitetsundervisningen i Jylland ("University Teaching in Jutland") in classrooms rented from the Technical College and a teaching corps consisting of one professor of philosophy and four Readers of Danish, English, German and French. Until then the University of Copenhagen was the only university in Denmark. The use of the name Aarhus Universitet began in 1933. Even though the name of the city, Århus' has been spelled with Å since the reform of Danish orthography in 1948, the name of the university insists on the old spelling with Aa. The official English translation of the name is The University of Aarhus.

The entire campus was designed by the late C.F. Møller, whose architectural practice C.F. Møller Architects has been in charge of its further development up until its most recent addition; 5 new auditoria, which was completed in 2001.

The university is organised in five faculties:

The Faculty of Arts, recently renamed the Faculty of Humanities (in accordance with the Danish equivalent Det Humanistiske Fakultet), has offered courses right from the beginning in 1928.

In 1933 the Faculty of Medicine began its courses in basic medical subjects. When the dental school was included in 1992 the name was changed to the Faculty of Health Sciences.

The Faculty of Economics and Law was established in 1936. The name was changed to the Faculty of Social Sciences when Political Science and Psychology were added.

From 1938 - 1940 Theodor Geiger was professor of sociology at the university -- Denmark's first ever professor of sociology.

The Faculty of Theology was established in 1942. Courses in theology had been offered from 1932, being previously taught at the Faculty of Arts.

The Faculty of Science was established in 1954 by moving Physics and Chemistry from the Faculty of Medicine and Geography from the Faculty of Arts. Mathematics was established as a new subject, followed by Biology and Geology.

In 1997 professor Jens Christian Skou received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of the sodium-potassium pump.

Enrollment

In 1999 the number of students passed 20,000 students and is still growing. Enrollment as of October 1 2004 was 20,547. Each year more than 500 international exchange students come to the University of Aarhus to study for one or two semesters.

Student council

The Student Council (or "Studenterrådet" in Danish) at Aarhus University is the largest student organization in Aarhus, Denmark, and has existed since 1932, working to improve the university's environment and opportunities for its students. The Student Council represents the students in the Academic councils, the board of the university etc. The Student Council arranges annual concerts and seminars and publishes the student magazine "Delfinen" (The Dolphin).^*

Courses

It has both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the following subjects:

Aesthetic Subjects
Archaeology
Biology
Chemistry
Chinese
Classical Philology
Comparative Religion
Computer Science
Dentistry
Economics
Ethnography
Geology
Greek
History
History of Ideas
Information Studies
Japanese
Latin
Law
Linguistics
Management
Mathematical Economics
Mathematics
Media Studies
Medicine
Modern Languages
Molecular Biology
Nanotechnology
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Scandinavian Studies
Semitic Philology
Sports Science
Statistics
The Study of Religion
Theology

Partner Universities

Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
member of the Coimbra Group

External link

University of Aarhus

Universities and colleges in Denmark | Aarhus