The University of Wuppertal (Universität Wuppertal) is a German scientific institution, located in Wuppertal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The university's official name in German is Bergische Universität Wuppertal, or BUW. It was founded in 1972. In 2014/15, approx. 20,000 students were enrolled in a wide range of subjects with many interdisciplinary linkages between a total of 7 faculties.
Organization
Division A: Humanities and Cultural Studies
Division B: Schumpeter School of Business and Economics
Division C: Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Division D: Architecture, Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering, Safety
Division E: Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Media Technology
Division F: Design and Art
Division G: Education and Social Sciences
Campus
The main building of the University of Wuppertal is located in the suburb of Elberfeld on Grifflenberg. The university now has 3 campuses: Campus Grifflenberg (main campus) in Elberfeld, Wuppertal Campus Freudenberg in Elberfeld, Wuppertal Campus Haspel in Unterbarmen, Wuppertal
All three campuses house specific parts of the University Library of Wuppertal, the main library at Campus Grifflenberg holds five specific libraries.
From 2004 until 2010, the University of Wuppertal was home to the second supercomputer at a German university. ALiCEnext, the supercomputer, was designed as a cluster and consisted of 512 so-called Blades. ALiCEnext was used in the field of elementary particle physics, applied computer science, astro-particle physics and experimental high energy physics.
Notable professors
The university employs more than 250 professors (as of 2014). Notable people who have taught in Wuppertal are:
Bazon Brock, art theorist
Gerd Faltings, mathematician
Lev Kopelev, writer and historian of literature
Karl-Heinz Petzinka, architect
Dieter Vieweger, archaeologist
Paul J. J. Welfens, economist (current)
Notable alumni
Christian Boros (born 1964), German advertising agency founder and art collector
Godela Habel, abstract painter
Walter Heidenfels, industrial designer
Awards and rankings
Rankings
According to the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the institution falls within the 501–600 range globally, placing it between 42nd and 45th nationally. The 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) situates the university in the 801–900 bracket on a global scale, corresponding to a national rank between 43rd and 45th.
In 2016, CWUR ranked University of Wuppertal as the 909th best university overall within its list of top 1000 international universities. In 2017 its place raised to 844th in the same list.
National rankings
At the CHE ranking, which evaluated more than 300 universities in the German-speaking world on the basis of the judgments of more than 250,000 students, University of Wuppertal was awarded three times. In 2011 the university reached the top group in eleven of the 13 categories. With a total score of 1.9, the Faculty of Economics was above the nationwide average of 2.6.