Ruhr University Bochum

RUB excels in original interdisciplinary research and innovation across traditional boundaries with two Clusters of Excellence in IT-Security (CASA) and Solvation Science (RESOLV), state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and further profile-shaping research areas in Neuroscience and Cognition, Plasma Research, Protein Research, Materials Science, Closed Carbon Cycle Economy, Subsurface Modelling and Engineering, as well as Religious Studies. Thereby RUB benefits from hosting the full spectrum of academic disciplines on its campus – the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, engineering, law and medicine.

RUB´s technology and transfer campus serves as a catalyst to stimulate innovation and provides new impetus to cooperative arrangements and structures between business and RUB´s research and teaching. It includes our innovation center Worldfactory that promotes transfer and start-ups and was recently awarded a substantial grant in the ‘Excellence Start Up Center NRW` competition. Moreover, a unique ecosystem related to IT-Security has evolved with RUB´s Excellence Cluster CASA and the IT security incubator Cube 5 at its core. The IT-Security network extends from RUB to a range of non-university research institutions, including a new Max Planck Institute for Cybersecurity and Privacy; the Center for Advanced Internet Studies, an interdisciplinary research center that focuses on the social opportunities and challenges of digital transformation; and the new R&D center of the Robert Bosch GmbH, one of the world´s leading technology companies.

RUB is strongly committed to the promotion of research talents at all career stages. Innovative and research-based teaching is the backbone of our curricula to foster early independence, exploratory learning and teamwork. RUB students are well prepared to become active, responsible citizens and critical, well-informed participants in the global knowledge society. The university-wide, award-winning RUB Research School is internationally regarded as a best-practice model for early researcher career development. Thus, RUB has become a magnet for creative minds at all career stages and from all over the world, who study, conduct research and work together in a truly international and inclusive environment.

At RUB, we match scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility. In knowledge networks, we bring together individuals and teams across organizational, spatial and disciplinary boundaries to develop, distribute and apply knowledge. Building on the extraordinary breadth of academic disciplines at our university, this approach enables us to respond flexibly to current and future societal challenges both locally as well as globally. The Institute for Development Research and Policy, the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, and the Institute for Diaspora Research teach and research at the forefront of development studies and policy. As a member of the Global Campus of Human Rights and the Scholars at Risk Network, we are active in a range of further global engagement activities that support the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular by our flagship Capacity Building programmes in South Africa, Afghanistan, and Vietnam.

All these dimensions make up our institutional strategy: Creating Knowledge Networks. Knowledge networks across the whole spectrum of academic disciplines characterise RUB’s distinct institutional profile – not only on campus but also locally, regionally and internationally.

Currently 43,500 students (including doctoral students), over 6,300 of them international, study at RUB. Our students, and around 600 international exchange students per year, study in 57 Bachelor´s programs and in 130 Master´s programs, 18 double and joint degree programs, 17 study programs taught in English, and three transnational study programs taught abroad. More than 500 international visiting scholars per year and an excellent positioning in the ranking of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation prove that RUB is also a sought-after host for internationally renowned researchers from around the world. To support internationalization, we run international liaison offices in New York, Moscow and Sao Paulo together with our neighbouring partner universities in the University Alliance Ruhr.

From RUB´s opening in 1965 until today, Japan has been playing a pivotal role in our internationalization strategy. This was recently highlighted by the RUB Japan Science Days 2018, when we welcomed over 40 renowned scientists from our Japanese partner institutions on campus – especially from the University of Tokyo, Osaka University, and the University of Tsukuba. Altogether, RUB has signed 17 agreements with Japanese universities or their departments and maintains close relationships with further Japanese universities and research institutions. Next to collaborations in various fields of the natural sciences, engineering, and the social sciences, Japanese studies has been a focus of the co-operation. Here, the Faculty of East Asian Studies, the Language Center and the Japonicum – RUB´s institutes for teaching the Japanese language and culture – have been playing a key role. New vistas of co-operation have been opened by the newly founded Alliance for Research on East Asia Ruhr, one of Europe’s largest interdisciplinary research and teaching hubs in the field of East Asian Studies.

As an associated supporter of the DWIH Tokyo, RUB is very much looking forward to creating further knowledge networks with and in Japan.