Its establishment sanctioned by Pope Sixtus IV, the University of Copenhagen was founded by Christian I of Denmark as a Catholic teaching institution with a predominantly theological focus. After 1537, it became a Lutheran seminary under King Christian III. Up until the 18th century, the university was primarily concerned with educating clergymen. Through various reforms in the 18th and 19th century, the University of Copenhagen was transformed into a modern, secular university, with science and the humanities replacing theology as the main subjects studied and taught.[9]
The University of Copenhagen was founded in 1479 and is the oldest university in Denmark. In 1474, Christian I of Denmark journeyed to Rome to visit Pope Sixtus IV, whom Christian I hoped to persuade into issuing a papal bull permitting the establishment of university in Denmark. Christian I failed to persuade the pope to issue the bull, however, and the king returned to Denmark the same year, empty-handed. In 1475, Christian I's wife, Dorothea of Brandenburg, Queen of Denmark, made the same journey to Rome as her husband did a year before. Unlike Christian I, Dorothea managed to persuade Pope Sixtus IV into issuing the papal bull. On the 19th of June, 1475, Pope Sixtus IV issued an official papal bull permitting the establishment of what was to become the University of Copenhagen.[21]
On the 4th of October, 1478, Christian I of Denmark issued a royal decree by which he officially established the University of Copenhagen. In this decree, Christian I set down the rules and laws governing the university. The royal decree elected magistar Peder Albertsen as vice chancellor of the university, and the task was his to employ various learned scholars at the new university and thereby establish its first four faculties: theology, law, medicine and philosophy. The royal decree made the University of Copenhagen enjoy royal patronage from its very beginning. Furthermore, the university was explicitly established as an autonomous institution, giving it a great degree of juridical freedom. As such, the University of Copenhagen was to be administered without royal interference, and it was not subject to the usual laws governing the Danish people.[21]
The University of Copenhagen was closed by the Church in 1531 to stop the spread of Protestantism, and re-established in 1537 by King Christian III after the Lutheran Reformation and transformed into an evangelical-Lutheranseminary. Between 1675 and 1788, the university introduced the concept of degree examinations. An examination for theology was added in 1675, followed by law in 1736. By 1788, all faculties required an examination before they would issue a degree.
The first female student was enrolled at the university in 1877. The university underwent explosive growth between 1960 and 1980. The number of students rose from around 6,000 in 1960 to about 26,000 in 1980, with a correspondingly large growth in the number of employees. Buildings built during this time period include the new Zoological Museum, the Hans Christian Ørsted and August Krogh Institutes, the campus centre on Amager Island, and the Panum Institute.
The Geological Museum.
The new university statute instituted in 1970 involved democratisation of the management of the university. It was modified in 1973 and subsequently applied to all higher education institutions in Denmark. The democratisation was later reversed with the 2003 university reforms. Further change in the structure of the university from 1990 to 1993 made a Bachelor's degree programme mandatory in virtually all subjects.
Also in 1993, the law departments broke off from the Faculty of Social Sciences to form a separate Faculty of Law. In 1994, the University of Copenhagen designated environmental studies, north–south relations, and biotechnology as areas of special priority according to its new long-term plan. Starting in 1996 and continuing to the present, the university planned new buildings, including for the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Humanities at Amager (Ørestaden), along with a Biotechnology Centre. By 1999, the student population had grown to exceed 35,000, resulting in the university appointing additional professors and other personnel.
South Campus.
In 2003, the revised Danish university law removed faculty, staff and students from the university decision process, creating a top-down control structure that has been described as absolute monarchy, since leaders are granted extensive powers while being appointed exclusively by higher levels in the organization.[23]
In 2005, the Center for Health and Society (Center for Sundhed og Samfund– CSS) opened in central Copenhagen, housing the Faculty of Social Sciences and Institute of Public Health, which until then had been located in various places throughout the city. In May 2006, the university announced further plans to leave many of its old buildings in the inner city of Copenhagen, an area that has been home to the university for more than 500 years. The purpose of this has been to gather the university's many departments and faculties on three larger campuses in order to create a bigger, more concentrated and modern student environment with better teaching facilities, as well as to save money on rent and maintenance of the old buildings. The concentration of facilities on larger campuses also allows for more inter-disciplinary cooperation; for example, the Departments of Political Science and Sociology are now located in the same facilities at CSS and can pool resources more easily.
In January 2007, the University of Copenhagen merged with the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Science. The two universities were converted into faculties under the University of Copenhagen, and were renamed as the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In January 2012, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the veterinary third of the Faculty of Life Sciences merged with the Faculty of Health Sciences forming the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences– and the other two thirds of the Faculty of Life Sciences were merged into the Faculty of Science.
Campuses
The university has four main campus areas that are located in the Capital Region (three in Copenhagen and one in Frederiksberg):[24]
City Campus– home to the Faculty of Social Sciences and Central Administration as well as parts of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science.
Frederiksberg Campus– home to sections of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Science also use the Taastrup Campus, which is located in Taastrup on the western outskirts of Copenhagen.[24] The Faculty of Science also has facilities in Helsingør, Hørsholm and Nødebo.[24]
Organisation and administration
The university is governed by a board consisting of 11 members: 6 members recruited outside the university form the majority of the board, 2 members are appointed by the scientific staff, 1 member is appointed by the administrative staff, and 2 members are appointed by the university students. The rector, the prorector and the director of the university are appointed by the university board. The rector in turn appoints directors of the different parts of the central administration and deans of the different faculties. The deans appoint heads of 50 departments. There is no faculty senate and faculty is not involved in the appointment of rector, deans, or department heads. Hence the university has no faculty governance, although there are elected Academic Boards at faculty level who advise the deans.[25]As of 2018[update], the governing body manages an annual budget of about DKK 8.9 billion.[2]
The University is organized into six faculties and about 100 departments and research centres. The University employs about 5,600 academic staff and 4,400 technical and administrative staff. The six faculties are:
The total number of enrolled students is about 40,000, including about 23,000 undergraduate students and 17,000 graduate students. UCPH has established an international graduate talent program which provides grants for international Ph. D, students and a tenure track carrier system. UCPH operates about fifty master's programmes taught in English, and has arranged about 150 exchange agreements with other institutions and 800 Erasmus agreements. Each year there are about 1,700 incoming exchange students, 2,000 outbound exchange students and 4,000 international degree-seeking students. About 3,000 PhD students study there each year.
Contrary to the tradition of most American dormitories, Danish dormitories in general, and the old dormitories in particular, only offer single rooms for rent, meaning no student has to share their room with others.
The University of Copenhagen Housing Foundation is a separate commercial entity[26] which provides housing for the University's international students and guest researchers.[27]
Seal
The university's oldest known seal dates from a 1531 letter, it depicts Saint Peter with a key and a book. In a circle around him is the text
Sigillum Universitatis Hafniensis A Christiano III Rege Restauravit
(i.e. Seal of the University of Copenhagen, reestablished by King Christian III).
The 1537 seal is very similar to the current seal, which was made in 2000 and is shown at the top of this page. The text is different and the crowned shield shows the coat of arms of Denmark (as has been the case since 1820, when the heraldic reference to Norway was removed). The text is
Sigillum Universitatis Hafniensis
Fundatæ 1479
Reformatæ 1537
Seal of the University of Copenhagen
Founded 1479
Reformed 1537
In addition to the university seal, each of the university's six faculties carry seals of their own.
The seal of 1531 (left) and the seal of 1537 (right)
Over the course of its history, a sizeable number of University of Copenhagen alumni have become notable in their fields, both academic, and in the wider world.[37]
Thomas Fincke (1561–1656), Danish mathematician and physicist.
Caspar Bartholin (1585–1629), professor in medicine and theology. Author of textbooks on anatomy and the discoverer of the workings of the olfactory nerve.
Olaus Wormius (1588–1655), Danish physician and antiquarian.
Marie-Louise Nosch (born 1970), archaeologist; Professor in the university's Saxo Institute
Eskild Ebbesen (born 1972), Danish world-class lightweight rower.
Høgni Reistrup (born 1984), MA in Media Studies 2010 from the University of Copenhagen,[39] co-writer of the book Exit Føroyar which created much debate in Denmark and the Faroe Islands about the decreasing population in the Faroe Islands.[40]
Aage Niels Bohr was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". Starting from Rainwater's concept of an irregular-shaped liquid drop model of the nucleus, Bohr and Mottelson developed a detailed theory that was in close agreement with experiments. Since his father, Niels Bohr, had won the prize in 1922, he and his father were one of the six pairs of fathers and sons who have both won the Nobel Prize and one of the four pairs who have both won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.
The University of Oslo, until 1939 named the Royal Frederick University, is the oldest university in Norway, located in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Until 1 January 2016 it was the largest Norwegian institution of higher education in terms of size, now surpassed only by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked it the 58th best university in the world and the third best in the Nordic countries. In 2015, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it the 135th best university in the world and the seventh best in the Nordics. While in its 2016, Top 200 Rankings of European universities, the Times Higher Education listed the University of Oslo at 63rd, making it the highest ranked Norwegian university.
The Jagiellonian University is a public research university in Kraków, Poland.
The Niels Bohr Institute is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics.
The Technical University of Denmark, often simply referred to as DTU, is a university in the town Kongens Lyngby, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions.
Bohr most often refers to:
Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr (1855–1911) was a Danish physician, father of the physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, as well as the mathematician and football player Harald Bohr and grandfather of another physicist and Nobel laureate Aage Bohr. He married Ellen Adler in 1881.
Leipzig University, in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Elector of Saxony and his brother William II, Margrave of Meissen, and originally comprised the four scholastic faculties. Since its inception, the university has engaged in teaching and research for over 600 years without interruption.
The Université libre de Bruxelles, abbreviated ULB, is a French-speaking private research university in Brussels, Belgium.
Aarhus University is the largest and second oldest research university in Denmark. The university belongs to the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Utrecht Network of European universities and is a member of the European University Association.
Goethe University is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt. The original name was Universität Frankfurt am Main. In 1932, the university's name was extended in honour of one of the most famous native sons of Frankfurt, the poet, philosopher and writer/dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The university currently has around 45,000 students, distributed across four major campuses within the city.
The University of Bucharest, commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded on 4 July 1864 by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy into the current University of Bucharest, making it the second oldest modern Romanian university. It is one of the five members of the Universitaria Consortium.
The University of Rostock is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest and largest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area, and 8th oldest in Central Europe. It was the 5th university established in the Holy Roman Empire.
Eötvös Loránd University is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hungary. The 28,000 students at ELTE are organized into eight faculties, and into research institutes located throughout Budapest and on the scenic banks of the Danube. ELTE is affiliated with 5 Nobel laureates, as well as winners of the Wolf Prize, Fulkerson Prize and Abel Prize, the latest of which was Abel Prize winner László Lovász in 2021.
The Gustmeyer House is a historic property on Ved Stranden, opposite Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen, in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built in 1797 to a Neoclassical design by Johan Martin Quist. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr was born in the building. McKinsey & Company is now based in the building.
The Bohr family is a Danish family of scientists, scholars and amateur sportsmen.
Anja Cetti Andersen is an astronomer and astrophysicist from Hørsholm, Denmark.
The North Campus is one of the University of Copenhagen's four campuses in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is situated just north of the city centre, across from Copenhagen's largest park, Fælledparken, and between the Østerbro and Nørrebro districts. It is home to the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
1 2 "Økonomi". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
↑ "Rector". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
1 2 "Employees". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
1 2 3 "Students". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
↑ "Forskning og formidling"[Research and circulation] (in Danish). University of Copenhagen. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
↑ Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore (1905). The new international encyclopaedia. Dodd, Mead. p.386. In 1807, the British fleet bombarded Copenhagen during the Bombardment of Copenhagen, destroying most of the university's buildings.
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