University of Hanover


The Leibniz University Hannover, long form in German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831, it is one of the largest and oldest science and technology universities in Germany. In the 2014/15 school year it enrolled 25,688 students, of which 2,121 were from foreign countries. It has nine faculties which offer 190 full and part degree programmes in 38 fields of study. It was named University of Hannover in 1978. In 2006, it was named after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the 18th century mathematician and philosopher. In 2018, Leibniz University Hannover was adopted as the official English name.
Leibniz University Hannover is a member of TU9, an association of the nine leading Institutes of Technology in Germany. It is also a member of the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research, a non-profit association of leading engineering universities in Europe. The university sponsors the German National Library of Science and Technology, the largest science and technology library in the world.

History

The roots of the University begin in the Higher Vocational College/Polytechnic Institute, founded on May 2, 1831. In 1879 the Higher Vocational School moved into the historic Guelph Palace, the Welfenschloss, which was specially converted for the purpose. On April 1, 1879, the Higher Vocational School became the Royal College of Technology. In 1899 Kaiser Wilhelm II granted the College of Technology a status equal to that of universities and the right to confer doctorates. The College was reconstructed in 1921 with the financial support of the College Patrons’ Association. As of July 1, 1922, there were three faculties: Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.
In 1968 the Faculty of Humanities and Political Science were founded and the "Technische Hochschule" became the "Technische Universität Hannover".
Between 1973 and 1980 the faculties of Law, Business and Economics, and the formerly independent Teachers Training College were added to the University and in 1978 the "Technische Universität Hannover" was renamed "Universität Hannover". Student numbers exceeded 30,000 for the first time in 1991. On the 175th anniversary of the institution in 2006, the "University of Hannover" was given the name "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover", or "Leibniz Universität Hannover" for short. The University adopted an official English name, "Leibniz University Hannover", in 2018. While 64 students first attended the Vocational School, today the university has around 25.700 students, more than 2.900 academics and scientists, and 160 departments and institutes.

Namesake

The Senate of the University voted in April 2006 to rename the University of Hannover to "Leibniz Universität Hannover". Following agreement by the Leibniz Academy on the use of the name, the "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover" received its name on the 360th anniversary of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's birth. The brand of the university is "Leibniz Universität Hannover".
The old logo of the University was inspired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The current logo, adopted in 2008, is a stylised excerpt from a letter to Duke Rudolf August of Wolfenbüttel, in which Leibniz presented binary numbers for the first time.

Faculties and staff

Nine faculties with more than 190 first-degree full-time and part-time degree courses make the university the second-largest institution of higher education in Lower Saxony. The university staff comprises 2930 research and teaching staff, of whom 321 are professors. It has 1810 additional employees in administrative functions, 90 apprentices and some 1400 staff funded by third parties.
The campus of the university is spread over 160 buildings occupying 322,700 m2 of floor space.

Budget

The University's overall budget was approximately 441.8 million euros in 2013, broken down as follows:
Measured by the number of top managers in the German economy, Leibniz University Hannover ranked 7th in 2019.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 ranked Leibniz University Hannover between 301-400 worldwide in the fields of engineering & technology, computer science, and physical sciences.

University library and TIB

The library was established on the founding of the Höhere Gewerbeschule/Polytechnische Schule in 1831. It expanded into an important collection as the institution evolved from a vocational/technical college into the full University. The removal of the books into storage during the Second World War secured valuable old stocks that became a unique national collection of scientific and technical literature in postwar Germany. This was the basis on which the library of the Institute of Technology was established in 1959. Today the collection forms the heart of the German National Library of Science and Technology, which is the largest institution of its kind in the world.

GISMA School of Business

in Hannover, Germany, was launched in 1999 as a joint initiative by the state of Lower Saxony and visionary private-sector enterprises. The school was closely affiliated with the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University until 2011 when the Leibniz University Hannover briefly became its parent. In 2013 the association with Leibniz ended, and GISMA became part the for-profit education company Global University Systems.

Notable people

Faculty