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Aarhus Universitet or the University of Aarhus is the second largest university in Denmark (after the University of Copenhagen), based in Århus.

Ranking

Ranking number 81 in the 2008 THE-QS World University Rankings and ranking 3 in nordic countries in the same list.

The university is ranked 93 in the 2008 Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities among 17,000 universities in the world, and 126 in the world by THES- World University Ranking 2007.

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 firm, C.F. Møller Architects, has been in charge of its further development up until its most recent addition: five new auditoria, which was completed in 2001.

The university is organised in eight faculties:

1. 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.
2. 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. In 1997 professor Jens Christian Skou received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of the sodium-potassium pump.
3. 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.
4. The Faculty of Theology was established in 1942. Courses in theology had been offered from 1932, being previously taught at the Faculty of Arts.
5. 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.
6. The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, the former Danmarks JordbrugsForskning (DJF), was amalgamated with the university in 2007.
7. Aarhus School of Business was founded in 1939 and amalgamated with the university in 2007.
8. The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) was amalgamated with the university in 2007.

Enrollment

As of 2007, the number of students is c. 35,000. Each year more than 900 international exchange students come to the University of Aarhus to study for one or two semesters.

Student unions

There are five student organizations at the University of Aarhus. The largests of the unions are the Student Council (Studenterrådet) and (Studenterlauget) which are also non-partisan. (Studenterrådet) is the organization for students from the old faculties at the University of Aarhus while (Studenterlauget) is the student organization at Aarhus School of Business. Partisan organizations are Social-Democratic Students (Frit Forum), Conservative Students (Konservative Studenter), and Liberal Students (Liberale Studerende).

All of the student organizations work to improve the university's environment and opportunities for its students.

The organizations represent the students in the various councils and committees. However, the Student Council is the only organization represented on the Board of the University. The Student Council arranges annual concerts and seminars and publishes the student magazine Delfinen (The Dolphin). Conservative students publish the student magazine Critique. Liberal Students publish the leaflet Minerva.

Courses

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

• Aesthetic Subjects
• Biology
• Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
• Chemistry
• Chinese
• Classical Archaeology
• Classical Philology
• Cognitive Semiotics (EliteUddannelse)
• Comparative Religion
• Computer Science Daimi
• Czech
• Dentistry
• Economics
• Ethnography
• European Studies
• Geology
• Greek
• History
• History of Ideas
• Hungarian
• Information Studies
• Japanese
• Latin
• Law
• Linguistics
• Management
• Mathematical Economics
• Mathematics
• Media Studies
• Medicine
• Medieaval and Renaissancea Archaeology
• Modern Languages
• Molecular Biology
• Nanotechnology
• Norse Language and Literature
• Philosophy
• Physics and Astronomy
• Political Science
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Psychology
• Russian
• Scandinavian Studies
• Semitic Philology
• Sports Science
• Statistics
• Theology

Partner Universities

• University of Greifswald, Germany
• member of the Coimbra Group,
• member of the Utrecht Network.

Campus

The campus master plan competition was won in 1931 by the collaborative scheme of famous Danish architects, Kay Fisker, C.F. Møller, and Poul Stegmann with landscape architect C. Th. Sørensen. The design hosts a wide variety of buildings over a large space, but each building is composed of the same yellow brick and roofing tile, giving the whole campus a unified look. Construction commenced in 1932 and has continued into the 21st century. It was one of the first Danish, functionalist, public buildings and has been included in the Ministry of Culture's canon of Danish architecture. C.F. Møller and his company continued alone on the campus after 1942.

Notable Alumni and Staff

• Queen Margrethe II, Queen regnant of Denmark since 1972.
• Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.
• Svend Auken, Danish politician. Chairman of the Danish Social Democrats 1987-1992.
• Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish journalist, author, politician and Member of the European Parliament 1979-2008.
• Lene Espersen, Danish politician, Secretary of state and chairman of Det Konservative Folkeparti since 2008.
• John Frandsen, Danish composer, organist and conductor.
• Aage Frandsen, Danish politician, Member of the Danish Parliament 1971-1975, 1987-1990 and 1994-2005.
• Søren Gade, Danish politician, Minister of Defence and Member of the Danish Parliament.
• David Gress, Danish-American historian.
• Lene Hau, Danish physicist.
• Bertel Haarder, Danish politician, Minister and Member of the Danish Parliament.
• Dan Jørgensen, Danish politician. Member of the European Parliament since 2004.
• Naser Khader, Danish-Syrian politician and Member of the Danish Parliament. Chairman of the New Alliance since 2007.
• Johannes Lebech, Danish politician.
• Bjørn Lomborg, Danish author, academic, and environmentalist.
• Helmuth Nyborg, Danish professor of developmental psychology.
• Kjeld Philip, Danish economist and politician.
• Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark since 2001.
• Tøger Seidenfaden, Danish journalist. Since 1993 editor-in-chief at Politiken.
• Jens Christian Skou, Danish chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry 1997.
• Johannes Sløk, Danish philosopher and theologian.
• Frederik Stjernfelt, Danish author. Member of the Danish Academy since 2001.
• Bjarne Stroustrup, Danish inventor, designer and original implementor of the C++ programming language.
• Torben M. Andersen, professor, former Chairman of the Welfare Commission

External links

• University of Aarhus
• Aarhus University, Institute of Business and Technology
• Aarhus School of Business

References

1. STCL - Study Abroad Program
2. http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/fullrankings/
3. http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
4. universityportal.net - World University Ranking 2007
5. http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/fullrankings/
6. ARWU 2008
7. Mines Paristech - Professional Ranking Of World Universities
8. QS Top Universities: Top 400 universities
9. European Universities' ranking on the Web: Top 500 European Universities

56°10′N 10°12′E / 56.167°N 10.200°E / 56.167; 10.200

• Universities and colleges in Denmark
• Coimbra Group
• University of Aarhus