University of Hagen

University of Hagen   (University)
Formation	1974
Headquarters	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Primary focused on remote learning

Count of students from 1976 to 2017

One of FU Hagen's main buildings located in Hagen

The University of Hagen (FernUniversität in Hagen, informally often referred to as FU Hagen) is a public research university that is primarily focused on distance teaching. While its main campus is located in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the university maintains more than 50 study and research centers in Germany and throughout Europe. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, it is Germany's largest university. The university was founded in 1974 as a public research university by the state Nordrhein-Westfalen and began its research and teaching activities in 1975. It was founded following the idea of UK's Open University to provide higher and continuing education opportunities through a distance education system in Germany.

The university awards the same qualifications as other German on-campus universities and maintains the same high requirements. Initially, the university had only three faculties with 1,304 full and part-time students, but today the university has developed into Germany's leading institution for distance education and is the only full university in that field with a student body of 83,536 students in the summer term of 2013 and 86,889 students in the winter term 2013/14. Besides the substantial number of off-campus students, a considerable number of full-time postgraduate research students as well as more than 1,800 members of academic and research staff are based on the University of Hagen's main campus in Hagen.

The faculties of the University of Hagen award undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral degrees (bachelor's, master's, doctorate degrees (Ph.Ds) and enable habilitation). All the degrees awarded by the University of Hagen are equivalent to those awarded by traditional German universities and uphold rigorous academic standards. The University of Hagen is awarding degrees and is doing research in the fields of Business Administration and Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Law, Psychology, Cultural Sciences and Political Science.

The University of Hagen is a member of the European University Association (EUA), European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) and it is accredited by ACQUIN, FIBAA (Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation) as well as AQAS (Agentur für Qualitätssicherung durch Akkreditierung von Studiengängen).

History

Lifelong learning, further education concurrent with work, along with the necessity to relieve the overcrowded on-campus universities have been important topics in the early seventies of the last century. All this inspired the then minister of Higher Education and Research of the state North Rhine Westphalia to establish a public research university at Hagen dedicated to distance teaching. Under the NRW-Foundation Law of 1 December 1974 the "pioneers" from academia and administration had only ten months for preparing the new university, so that 1,300 students could embark on their studies from winter academic term 1975/76. The two academic departments of economics and mathematics were soon joined by business administration, education, cultural sciences, social sciences and humanities, as well as electrical engineering, information technology, law and computer science. After some restructuring these subject areas are organised in four faculties today. Simultaneously with the FernUniversität, the first study centres in North Rhine - Westphalia started operating.

According to the Bologna Process every course offered by the university has been transformed to bachelor's and master's degrees. The transformation was finished in 2010. Due to the transformation a sharp rise in the number of students was observable, e.g. 3,400 new students seeking a bachelor's degree in psychology enrolled in 2009.

Notable alumni

The University has produced many notable alumni in the fields of law, economics, business and politics, among them two Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners, 1 Gossen Prize laureate, at least 25 university professors and numerous members of the German parliament and the former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany, Guido Westerwelle.

Guido Westerwelle, Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009–2011

Oliver Bierhoff, Manager of the German Soccer team

• Oliver Bierhoff, retired German football striker and general manager of the German soccer team
• Ijad Madisch, physician and co-founder of ResearchGate
• Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and holder of an honorary doctorate from FU Hagen
• Heinz-Willi Mölders, Board Member of RWE (2005-today)
• Bernd Lucke, German economist and Founder of the German party AfD
• Roman Inderst, German economist
• Stefan Kirsten, CFO of Deutsche Annington (2011-today)
• Patrick Dahmen, Board member of AXA, Germany (2007-today)
• Michael Klug, CFO of Sony Music Entertainment, Germany (2011-today)
• Jens Spahn, Member of the German Bundestag
• Oliver Kahn, German football goalkeeper
• Richard Nagorny, CFO of AstraZeneca, Germany (2005–2010)
• Theo Lieven, Founder of Vobis Data Computer
• Anne Schäfer, tennis player
• Ulla Schmidt, German politician
• Stefan Schulz, Member of the supervisory board of SAP (2002–2017)
• Dirk Mausbeck, Board member of EnBW
• Guido Westerwelle, former German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011

 

Alumni on Wikispooks

Person	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
Jens Spahn	16 May 1980		Germany	Politician Deep state functionary Big pharma/Lobbyist	Single Bilderberger German Minister of Health, Pharma lobbyist & suspected deep state tool
Guido Westerwelle	27 December 1961	18 March 2016	Germany	Politician	Atlantik-Brücke, Bilderberg 2007, ousted after a media campaign. Died aged 54 of acute myeloid leukemia.

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