Ruhr University Bochum

The Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) is a public university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area in Bochum. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. With 43.000 students from over 130 countries, it is one of the largest universities in Germany and part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the most important German research funding organization. RUB was very successful in the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments, a competition between Germany’s most prestigious universities. It was one of the few institutions left competing for the title of an “elite university”, but did not succeed in the last round of the competition. There are currently nine universities in Germany that hold this title.