Free University of Berlin

The Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin, German: Freie Universität Berlin) is the second largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on humanities and social sciences and on health and natural sciences. In October 2007, it was awarded "elite university" status by the German Science Foundation for the quality of its research through the Initiative for Excellence of the German government, which will translate into additional funding.

Freie Universität Berlin is a leading research institution. It is one of nine German universities that met with success in all three funding lines in the federal and state Excellence Initiative, thereby receiving additional funding for its institutional future development strategy. Freie Universität can thus take its place as an “International Network university” in the global competition among universities. Its future development strategy is focused around three strategic centers: for cluster development, for international exchange, and for graduate studies. Development and assessment of research projects takes place within three major focus areas – area studies, humanities, and life sciences. Freie Universität has various offices abroad, e.g., in New York, Beijing, and Moscow, that provide a platform for international cooperation. The university’s performance in the Excellence Initiative has provided funding for several new graduate schools and transdisciplinary research clusters.

The Times Higher Education Supplement world rankings in Arts and Humanities of 2008 place the FU Berlin 3rd best in Europe, and 24th in the world.

History

It was founded in 1948 by students and staff who were relegated because of their political views from Humboldt University of Berlin, formerly the traditional Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität of Berlin, and at that time controlled by the authorities in the Soviet sector. In 1968, it was the center of the left-wing German student movement in parallel to that in Paris, London, and Berkeley. Activists of that time included the SDS and Rudi Dutschke. By the 1980s, it had become the largest German university with 66,000 students. With the restructuring of the Humboldt University after the German reunification, the Freie Universität Berlin was downsized to about 38,000 students in the 1990s.

• Departments
  
  The university has 12 departments, three interdisciplinary central institutes and other central service institutions:
  Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy
  Business and Economics
  Earth Sciences
  History and Cultural Studies
  Law
  Mathematics and Computer Science
  Medicine (Charité - University Medicine Berlin)
  Pedagogy and Psychology
  Philosophy and Humanities
  Physics
  Political and Social Science
  Veterinary Medicine
  
  

• Interdisciplinary Central Institutes
  John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies
  Institute for Eastern European Studies
  Institute for Latin American Studies
  Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
  
  

• Central Service Institutions
  Botanical Garden Berlin and Botanical Museum Berlin
  Center for Academic Advising, Career and Counseling Services
  Center for Continuing Studies
  Center for Recreational Sports
  Center for the Promotion of Woman's and Gender Studies
  Computer Center
  Language Center
  University Library

Free University of Berlin ranked 146th in the 2007 THES-QS World University Ranking

Free University of Berlin ranked 137th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking

Free University of Berlin ranked 94th in the 2009 THES-QS World University Ranking

Free University of Berlin ranked 70th in the 2010 QS World University Ranking

Free University of Berlin ranked 66th in the 2011 QS World University Ranking