The University of Cologne () is a public research university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 43,594 students. The University of Cologne is a member of the German U15 association of major research-intensive universities and was a university of excellence as part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative from 2012 to 2019. It is consistently ranked among the top 20 German universities in the world rankings.
The University of Cologne has 5 Clusters of Excellence: CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research, Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy, CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence for Plant Sciences, ML4Q Cluster of Excellence Matter and Light for Quantum Information and DYNAVERSE Cluster of Excellence. As of 2025, among its notable alumni, faculty and researchers are 5 Nobel Laureates, 11 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners, 8 Humboldt Professorship winners, and 2 Humboldt Research Awards winners.
History
1388–1798 The University of Cologne was established in 1388 as the fourth university in the Holy Roman Empire, after the Charles University of Prague (1348), the University of Vienna (1365) and the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (1386). The charter was signed by Pope Urban VI. The university began teaching on 6 January 1389, and operated for several hundred years.
In 1798, the university was abolished by the French First Republic, which had invaded Cologne in 1794, as many universities across France were abolished under the new French constitution. The last rector Ferdinand Franz Wallraf was able to preserve the university's Great Seal, which is now in use again.
1919–today
In 1919, the Prussian government endorsed a decision by the Cologne City Council to re-establish the university. This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the University of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine, which contemporaneously reverted to France with the rest of Alsace. On 29 May 1919, the Cologne mayor Konrad Adenauer signed the charter of the new university.
At that point, the new university was located in Neustadt-Süd, but relocated to its current campus in Lindenthal on 2 November 1934. The old premises are now being used by the TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences.
Initially, the university was composed of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (successor to the Institutes of Commerce and of Communal and Social Administration) and the Faculty of Medicine (successor to the Academy of Medicine). In 1920, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts were added, from which the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was separated in 1955 to form an independent Faculty. In 1980, the two Cologne departments of the Rhineland School of Education were attached to the university as the Faculties of Education and of Special Education. In 1988, the university became a founding member of the Community of European Management Schools and International Companies (CEMS), today's Global Alliance in Management Education.
The university is regularly ranked at the top of national and international law and business rankings (see Rankings).
Organization
The University of Cologne is a statutory corporation (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), operated by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Faculties The university is divided into six Faculties, which together offer 137 degree programmes. The Faculties are those of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Law, Medicine (with the affiliated University Hospital Cologne), Arts and Humanities, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Human Sciences.
Faculty (WS 23/24)Students Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences 7,142 Faculty of Law 5,576 Faculty of Medicine with University Hospital of Cologne 4,135 Faculty of Arts and Humanities 11,570 Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences 9,195 Faculty of Human Sciences 7,538
Rectors
On 10 May 2023, Joybrato Mukherjee was elected as Rector of the University.
Profile The University of Cologne is a member of the association German U15 e.V., an association of fifteen major research-intensive and leading medical universities in Germany with a full disciplinary spectrum.
Especially the Faculties of law and economics are renowned and leading in Germany. Leading researchers are affiliated to Cologne, including Angelika Nußberger, Thomas von Danwitz, Claus Kreß, Martin Henssler, Ulrich Preis, Heinz-Peter Mansel.
Apart from these, affiliated persons with the university have won various awards, including the Max Planck Research Award, the Cologne Innovation Prize (City of Cologne), the Postbank Finance Award (Deutsche Postbank), the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine (Jung Foundation), the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, the Wilhelm Vaillant Prize (Wilhlem Vaillant Foundation), the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize (DFG), the Alfried Krupp Prize for the Advancement of Young Professors, the Innovation Prize of the State of NRW, and the Karl Arnold Prize (North Rhine-Westphalia Academy of Sciences and Arts).
Name The university did not have a name for a long time, except for the medieval name universitas studii s[an]c[ta]e civitatis coloniensis (see the university's seal) or the newer description Universität Köln (loosely, Cologne University). Both names emphasized that the university was an institution of the city of Cologne. Josef Kroll proposed the official name Universität zu Köln (loosely, University in Cologne) while he was rector of the university in the early 1930s, and introduced it during his second term of office (1945–1950). The university, which gives some courses in English, is also branded University of Cologne.
Organization and faculties The rectorate is responsible for the governance and management of the university. It consists of the rector as chairperson (Joybrato Mukherjee), six Vice-Rectors and the Chancellor (Karsten Gerlof). The rectorate is elected by the University Election Assembly, in which the Senate and the University Council exercise equal voting power; the first term of office is at least six years and subsequent terms of office at least four years. The rector is chairperson of the rectorate and the Senate of the university.
The university is divided into the following six Faculties: Faculty (WS 23/24)Students(New) Founding YearFaculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences7,1421919Faculty of Medicine4,1351919Faculty of Law5,5761920Faculty of Arts and Humanities11,5701920Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences9,1951955Faculty of Human Sciences7,5382007Total45,187 WS 2023/24, according to the university publication 'Zahlen Daten Fakten 2023 (as of March 2025), main and part-time students, excluding doctoral students, incl. short-term students
On 20 July 2005, the University Senate approved a concept for the reorganization of the Faculties. The concept led to the dissolution of the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Curative Education and the founding of a new 'sixth' Faculty, the Faculty of Human Sciences. The representatives of the didactic subjects, who had previously worked mainly at the Faculty of Education, were assigned to the Faculties corresponding to their subject as a separate subject group for didactics (for example "Biology and its didactics", "Chemistry and its didactics" as a new didactic subject group at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences), while the new Faculty of Human Sciences mainly retained the pedagogical, curative education and psychology subjects or transferred them from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Education. The reorganization of the Faculties was officially implemented on 1 January 2007 with the establishment of the corresponding committees. In 2010, the Center for Teacher Education was founded, which was given extensive responsibilities in the organization and coordination of teacher training degree programmes as part of the restructuring of teacher training in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Special funding for researchClusters of Excellence / Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments: CECAD Cologne Excellence Cluster for Aging and Aging-Associated Diseases CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences DYNAVERSE Our Dynamic Universe (from 1 January 2026) ECONtribute: Märkte & Public Policy ML4Q Matter and Light for Quantum ComputingAdenauer School of Government:On 5 June 2025, the University of Cologne and the non-profit Alfred Landecker Foundation, founded by the Reimann family, signed a cooperation agreement to establish the Adenauer School of Government (ASG)'''. The aim of the ASG is to establish itself as a leading, non-partisan center for public policy, governance and administrative sciences that helps to shape relevant developments in economics and other research fields. The school will be funded in long term, with an initial budget of ten million euros per year.
DFG 18 DFG Collaborative Research Centres and 10 participations in Collaborative Research Centres at other universities (as of October 2024) CRC 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit CRC 1218: Mitochondrial Regulation of Cellular Function CRC 1238: Control and Dynamics of Quantum Materials CRC 1252: Prominence in Language CRC 1310: Predictability in Evolution CRC 1399: Mechanisms of Drug Sensitivity and Resistance in Small Cell Lung Cancer CRC 1403: Cell Death in Immunity, Inflammation and Disease CRC 1451: Key Mechanisms of Motor Control in Health and Disease CRC 1530: Elucidation and Targeting of Pathogenic Mechanisms in B Cell Malignancies CRC 1601: Habitats of Massive Stars Across Cosmic Time CRC 1607: Towards immunomodulatory and Anti(lymph)angiogenic Therapies for Age-Related Blinding Eye Diseases CRC 1678: Systems-Level Consequences of Fidelity Changes in mRNA and Protein Biosynthesis CRC TRR 183: Entangled States of Matter CRC TRR 228: Future Rural Africa: Future-making and Social-Ecological Transformation CRC TRR 341: Plant Ecological Genetics
6 DFG Research Training Groups (see Graduate Programmes) a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities (Faculty of Arts and Humanities) Department-wide Graduate School (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS) (Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences) Graduate School Managing Diversity & Transition (Faculty of Human Sciences) Graduate School of the Faculty of Medicine Graduate School of the Faculty of Law
EU EUniWell ERC Grants
Central graduate schools a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Graduate School for Biological Sciences Cologne Graduate School Chemistry (CGSC) Graduate School of Geosciences (GSGS) Graduate School of Mathematics Bonn-Cologne Graduate School of Physics and Astronomy (BCGS) Interdisciplinary Program Health Sciences (IPHS) Graduate School of Human Medicine and Dentistry (GSHZ) Interdisciplinary Program Molecular Medicine (IPMM) Graduate School of the Faculty of Law Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS) Graduate School of the Faculty of Human Sciences Graduate School for Teacher Education
Cooperation with major research institutions Some University of Cologne professors are also members of major research institutions:
German Aerospace Centre (DLR) Forschungszentrum Jülich in the Helmholtz Association DZNE – German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Helmholtz)'' ZB Med – German National Library of Medicine GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research (MPINF)
University Award for outstanding achievements