The University of Potsdam }); is a German public university in the Berlin-Brandenburg region of Germany. It is situated across four campuses in Potsdam, Brandenburg, including the New Palace of Sanssouci and Babelsberg Park.
The University of Potsdam is Brandenburg's largest university and with its numerous extramural institutes, the Potsdam and Berlin area is known as one of the most densely settled research landscapes in Germany. As for the University of Potsdam, more than 8,000 people are working in scholarship and science. As a winner in the competition "Excellence in Teaching" of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (the business community's innovation agency for the German science system) and the standing conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz), the University of Potsdam is rigorously implementing its plan to further improve teaching.
Campuses
Being
today the largest university in Brandenburg, the University of Potsdam
stretches across four campuses:
- New Palace, Sanssouci: Faculties of Philosophy, Institutes of Mathematics and Sports. The university's main campus, which includes the Auditorium Maximum, is situated in the immediate proximity of Park Sanssouci. The Communs - the prestigious annexes of the New Palace are home to some of the institutes of the Faculty of Arts. The eighteenth century baroque buildings, which disguise their former purpose as the Palace's offices and service rooms with staircases, porticos, cupolas, and rich ornamentation, are currently home to the university's presidential office and administration. The Institutes of Sports Science and Sports Medicine as well as the Institute for Mathematics can be found on the Campus Am Neuen Palais.
- Golm: Faculties of Humanities, Mathematics and Science. Most institutes of the Faculty of Science as well as the Human Sciences Faculty are located in Potsdam-Golm, where state-of-the-art research facilities and architecturally intriguing buildings form one of the largest science parks in the region. Three Max Planck Institutes and two Fraunhofer Institutes as well as the start-up center GO IN have already settled here.
- Potsdam-Babelsberg/Griebnitzsee: Faculties of Law, Economics and Social Studies, Institutes of Computer Science, the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering. Campus Griebnitzsee is situated along the city border with Berlin, not far from the famous Babelsberg film studios, and houses the Law Faculty and the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. The Institute of Computer Sciences is also located here and benefits greatly from its proximity to the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering, a completely privately funded co-institute of the University of Potsdam.
- Other small institutes and departments exist in the City of Potsdam.
Faculties
As is common in Germany, the University of Potsdam's teaching and research programmes are carried out along the lines of faculties. The university contains the following faculties:Faculty of Law
The Law Faculty's curriculum offers the basic and required courses necessary to become a fully qualified lawyer. This training includes civil law, criminal law, and public law. At Potsdam, the areas of concentration in research and teaching comprise the fundamentals of law, civil judicature, business law, international law, public administration as well as business, tax, and environmental criminal law. All these areas offer ample opportunity for specialized study. Additional events for training and continuing education for practitioners in the municipal realm are offered by the Institute for Local Government Studies and in international relations by the Human Rights Centre. Furthermore, a German-French law program exists in cooperation with University Paris Ouest-Nanterre/La Défense.Faculty of Philosophy
In recent years, the University of Potsdam's Philosophical Faculty has redefined itself in the spirit of cross-disciplinary cultural studies. Research and teaching at the Institutes for Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, History, Classical Philology, German Studies, English and American Studies, Romance Studies, Slavic Studies as well as Art and Media are devoted to a broad understanding of culture that is defined by including all aspects of human life.Drawing from the broad range of faculty specialties, the thematic concentrations of "Cultures in/of Mobility," "Forms of Life and the Know How of Living" as well as "Region and Identity in Europe" were created. This emphasis in regard to content encourages interdisciplinary cooperation, but it also incorporates perspectives that are outside the Philosophical Faculty's traditional subject canon. The Focus Area Unsettled Cultures, for example, investigates among others the history and cultural practice of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and thereby combines different areas of study, such as theology, literature, ethics, medicine, and cosmology.
In the spirit of research-based teaching, new academic programs such as Mobility Studies are being developed to complement the already existing interdisciplinary Master's programs in Jewish Studies, Communications Linguistics, Military Studies, European Media Studies as well as others. Furthermore, the faculty highly values the intensive support of young scholars. The graduate colleges, graduate schools, and externally funded projects under the auspices of the Philosophical Faculty offer young scholars the opportunity for interdisciplinary and international cooperation.
Faculty of Human Science
With the Cognitive Sciences and the Educational Sciences, the Faculty of Human Sciences includes two of the interdisciplinary focus areas of the University of Potsdam that operate beyond faculty boundaries. The Cognitive Sciences' excellence is based predominantly on the Collaborative Research Centre "Information Structure: The Linguistic Means for Structuring Utterances, Sentences and Texts." Empirical research is currently being expanded in the educational sciences, and it is closely linked to teaching. In the education and training of aspiring teachers in all faculties, the Faculty of Human Sciences occupies a central role.The "Area of Excellence Cognitive Sciences" and the "Focus Area Educational Sciences" are divided into further research clusters and teaching units. Instruction in the departments of psychology, linguistics, sports, and health science is organized into educational science and teacher training. The research emphases are language, action and behavior, health, professional and popular sports, school and classroom as well as teaching across the life span.
In the future, the existing potentials in the area of health sciences and prevention will be developed into another focus area. The research area in health is currently already well connected with the support systems for professional sports. The Faculty of Human Sciences mediates between theory and real life in a variety of ways. It is a service provider for the city of Potsdam and the federal state of Brandenburg. It maintains several consultation centers for psychotherapy and speech therapy as well as a university clinic. The university clinic is currently licensed as an examination center of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. Ultimately, a regional health network will be developed in cooperation with other service providers.
Furthermore, the faculty is actively striving for more quality in training students by establishing national and international Master's and graduate programs and by developing a system of quality assurance in teaching.
Faculty of Economic and Social Studies
With business administration and economics, political and administrative sciences, and sociology as fields of study, the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences has continuously renewed itself and created its own unique and independent brand label. Research and teaching are closely intertwined. The faculty is considered one of the most important German institutes for research, training, and consulting in the areas of policy research and administrative sciences. Another concentration in the field of innovation and technology is currently being developed.Following a multi-theoretical approach, researchers are investigating the interactive relationship between politics, economy, and institutions at different levels and in different fields of activity. The interdisciplinary approach allows for a study of the interplay between the economy, public and private institutions, and policy-making. Problems of governance between state, economy, and civil society are just as much a concern as problems of governance within the very differentiated public sector. Political and administrative scientists, sociologists, and economists are working on collaborative projects. The interplay of different research approaches and methods creates empirical and theoretical knowledge that transmits a complex and differentiated picture of socioeconomic, cultural, and political developmental processes in modern societies—domestically as well as internationally.
The Faculty is very engaged in linking research and teaching to practice. Therefore, the outcomes of research in the areas start-up, consulting, and innovation directly benefit the faculty's Institute for Start-up and Innovation (BIEM CEIP), a central service institution for aspiring entrepreneurs. The Institute for Local Government Studies (KWI) conducts collaborative research with the Law Faculty in examining issues faced by municipalities in the new Länder and offers continuing education to its elected officials. Furthermore, the faculty's Potsdam Center for Public Policy and Management (PCPM) ensures active national and international knowledge transfer with its research and consulting projects as well as opportunities for academically-focused continuing education. The German Center for Higher Education Development considers the Master’s and Ph.D. programs offered through the PCPM to be among the very best in Europe. Among these are the EAPAA-accredited international postgraduate Program in Public Policy and Management for public sector professionals in English language with the (MPM) Master of Public Management and its three streams: Public Policy and Administration (PPA), Global Public Policy (GPP) and GeoGovernance (GG), the German-French Master of European Governance and Administration European Governance and Administration (MEGA) and the Executive Master of Public Management (EMPM) Program with the Hertie School of Governance.
Faculty of Mathematics and Science
Under its roof, the Faculty of Science at the University of Potsdam contains the Institutes for Biochemistry and Biology, Chemistry, Nutrition Sciences, Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Computer Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy as well as the University of Potsdam Botanical Garden. Especially the study programs in Geoecology, Geoscience, Nutrition Science, Polymer Science, and Software Systems Engineering are in high demand.The faculty has been strong in gaining external funding and has established future-oriented concentrations and productive core areas in research and teaching. Five of the university's eight focus areas are part of the Faculty of Science: Earth Sciences, Functional Soft Matter, Functional Ecology and Evolution, Complex Systems, and Plant Genomics/Systems Biology. The faculty's own concentrations, such as teacher training in mathematics and natural sciences, sensibly complement the focus areas by supporting their interconnectedness and contribute to their continuous advancement and renewal.
The close cooperation between the natural sciences and extramural research institutions in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, already intended in the University of Potsdam's founding concept, was praised very early on by the German Council of Science and Humanities. The collaboration with several institutes of the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association, and the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering exemplify this extensive networking. Currently, there are more than 40 joint professorships with these institutions.
Tuition fees and scholarships
Tuition fees at University of Potsdam vary, depending on nationality and programme of study. For German and EU/EEA students there is currently no tuition fee, however, several additional fees such as for the students union as well as mandatory public transportation tickets for students have to be paid. For non-EU/EEA students tuition fees may apply.For both EU/EEA students as well as non-EU/EEA students a variety of financial assistance and scholarships is available. The University of Potsdam does not provide scholarships directly. Among others, the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) offers a very extensive scholarship programme. Students or post-graduates can apply for a wide variety of scholarships, but the conditions and opportunities vary according to the country of origin and field of study. Other scholarship providers also have varying prerequisites regarding country of origin, field of study, prior academic performance, the duration of the scholarship, etc.
The prerequisites and the weighting of the various criteria for stipends are determined by the individual profiles of the foundation providing for the scholarships. For example, one’s previous marks or grades are weighted differently by the various foundations. For some foundations, previous marks are weighted as the main criteria, and the social situation of the applicant is given significantly less weight. For other scholarships, good marks are important in order to receive a scholarship, but this does not mean that an applicant qualifies for one. Many foundations give significant weight to financial need, engagement in the civil society, or a developed personal profile. Willingness to participate in the respective foundation's programme is also important to some foundations. Information is available at University of Potsdam for students wishing to apply.
English programs
The
following are English-language programs of study. These are programmes of study
in which all courses and coursework is carried out in English:
- Executive Master of Public Management (EMPM)
- Master of Public Management (MPM)
- Anglophone Modernities in Literature and Culture (M.A.)
- European Master in Clinical Linguistics (EMCL)
- Master in Polymer Science
- International M.Sc. /Ph.D. Program for Experimental and Clinical Linguistics (IECL)
- International Master/Ph.D. Program Clinical Exercise Science (CES)
Executive Master Programs
Several
executive masters are offered and have reached a high popularity, offered
entirely or partly in English.
- Executive Master of Public Management (in cooperation with Hertie School of Governance)
- Master of Economics and Business
- Master of European Governance and Administration
- Master of Global Public Policy
- Master of Public Management
- MBA InfoTech
- MBA BioMedTech
- MBA InnoTech
International doctoral studies
University
of Potsdam offers international students the completion of a doctoral thesis. Doctoral students in Germany generally
pursue their doctorates in the context of individual research projects, rather
than in structured programmes as in many other countries. Upon completion of a
dissertation project, one receives a doctoral degree for individual scholarly
achievements.
The
prerequisite for doctoral studies is an above average graduate degree, Master's
of Arts, Master's of Science, Diploma, Staatsexamen or another equivalent
degree. The doctoral examination board (Promotionsausschuss) of your institute
of interest, or the Dean of the Law Faculty respectively, is responsible for
determining questions of equivalency. Writing a dissertation should take no
longer than three years. After submitting a dissertation and receiving a
positive assessment, doctoral students are required to take part in a
disputation.
Website: www.uni-potsdam.de
For more information about other Tuition Free Universities
in Europe visit
For Membership Based
Scholarship opportunity that will stand the test of time, please visit
Disclaimer:
This pieces of information provided herein are based on
research across the internet. Despite strong effort to avail you with accurate
information, the university and authorities concern can alter, update, and
remove information at any time so I suggest you always contact relevant
authorities and individual institutions concerned for latest and more specific
information. Therefore I shall not be held liable for misuse, misapplication
and misinterpretation of information contained herein.
