Radboud University Nijmegen

Radboud University Nijmegen

Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Latin: Universitas Radbodiana Noviomagensis
Motto	In Dei nomine feliciter
Motto in English	Happily in God's name
Type	private (publicly funded)
Established	17 October 1923
Affiliation	Roman Catholic[1][2]
Rector	Han van Krieken
Academic staff	2,915[3]
Students	19,904[3]
Location	Nijmegen , Netherlands
Campus	Urban
Colors	Carmine Red[4]      White
Affiliations	EUA FIUC/FUCE (IFCU) Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities
Website	www.ru.nl/english

Radboud University Nijmegen (abbreviated as RU, Dutch: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, formerly Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen) is a public university with a strong focus on research located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It was established on 17 October 1923 and is situated in the oldest city of the Netherlands; the RU has seven faculties and enrolls over 19,900 students. The university features many student associations which encourage participation in extracurricular activities.

History[edit]

Coat of arms according to the description.

Heyendaal castle (now serving as the Faculty Club of the university) is of old the center of Heyendaal estate, where later on most Radboud University buildings have been established.

The first Nijmegen University was founded in 1655 and terminated around 1680; the Radboud University Nijmegen was established in 1923 as the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (Catholic University of Nijmegen) and started out with 27 professors and 189 students. It was founded because the Roman Catholic community wanted its own university. At the time, Roman Catholics in the Netherlands were disadvantaged and occupied almost no higher posts in government. After fierce competition with the cities of Den Bosch, Tilburg, The Hague, and Maastricht, Nijmegen was chosen to house the university; the subsequent Second World War hit the university hard. Many prominent members were lost, among them professors Robert Regout [nl] and Titus Brandsma. They were deported to Dachau concentration camp. In 1943, rector Hermesdorf refused to cooperate with the Germans. On 22 February 1944, the university lost many buildings in a bombardment. Classes resumed in March 1945. Since then, student numbers rose steadily from 3,000 in 1960 to 15,000 in 1980.

In 2004, the university changed its name to Radboud University Nijmegen, after Saint Radboud of Utrecht, a bishop who lived around 900.^[5]

Campus[edit]

A view of the Radboud University law faculty in the summer.

Featured prominently on the west side of the university's Heyendaal campus is the Heyendaal castle, it borders the Radboud University Medical Center, a large teaching hospital located on the campus, which is linked to the university's medical department. Bordering the university hospital is the Huygens Building, which houses the Faculty of Natural Sciences; the Erasmus Tower, which contain the Faculty of Arts, are situated at the south end of the campus next to the Radboud Sports Centre (RSC). The Erasmus Tower and the RSC border the Elinor Ostrom building, which is home to the Faculty of Management Sciences, which also encompasses the political sciences and economics faculty staff. On the other side of the Erasmus Tower, a number of general lectures halls are located along with the campus pub and bookshop. Beyond this area, the Faculty of Social Sciences is currently being built; when completed, it will border the Law Faculty.

Radboud University is noted for its green campus, often listed among the most attractive in the Netherlands.^[6][7]

The university is currently undertaking major efforts to renew and refresh its campus:

• The new law faculty was completed in 2014.
• A refurbishment of the Faculty of Dentistry building was completed in 2016.^[8]
• The nearby Jesuit Berchmanianum monastery was purchased by the university in 2013. In 2018, it was connected to the rest of the campus, it now houses the university's general services staff and will serve as its auditorium.^[9]
• The main Erasmus tower housing the Faculty of Arts and the university restaurant is currently being refurbished. That project is set for completion later in 2019.^[10]
• The High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML) and Free Electron Lasers for Infrared eXperiments (FELIX) laboratory are set to be physically connected later in 2019.^[11]
• Finally, a new Social Sciences Faculty building, to be named after Maria Montessori, is expected to be finished in 2020 on the site of the Thomas van Aquinostraat. This street used to collectively house the Faculties of Management Sciences, Social Sciences, and Law.^[12]

In 2017, a SPAR minimarket was opened in the Erasmus building which provides students with snacks and accessories;^[13] the university campus borders the campus of the HAN vocational university, which in turn is located next to Heyendaal train station. Frequent shuttle buses connect the university to Nijmegen Central Station and the city centre.

Academics[edit]

Education[edit]

An aerial view of the Huygens buildings of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, with the Erasmus Tower in the back

Radboud University has seven faculties and enrols over 19.900 students in 112 study programs (37 bachelor's and 75 master's programs).^[14]

As of September 2013, the university offers 36 international master's programs taught in English and several more taught in Dutch. There are nine bachelor's programs taught fully in English: American Studies, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Chemistry, Computing Science, International Economics & Business, International Business Administration, English Language and Culture, and Molecular Life Sciences. International Business Communication, Psychology and Arts and Culture Studies offer English-language tracks. All other bachelors are in Dutch, although most of the required literature is in English; some exams, papers and even classes may be in English as well, despite the programs being Dutch-taught. All master's programs have been internationally accredited by the Accreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO).

International Master's programs[edit]

All English-taught Master's programmes are research-based programmes, they are taught within the Faculties of Arts, Law, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, Sciences and Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, besides the Interfaculty Research school and the Nijmegen School of Management.^[15]

Research[edit]

Radboud University is home to several research institutions, including the Business & Law Research Centre, Institute for Management Research, NanoLab Nijmegen, the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, the High Field Magnet Laboratory, and the FELIX laboratory. Faculty members Anne Cutler (1999), Henk Barendregt (2002), Peter Hagoort (2005), Theo Rasing (2008), Heino Falcke (2011), Mike Jetten (2012), Ieke Moerdijk (2012), and Mikhail Katsnelson (2013) won the Spinoza Prize. Visiting professor Sir Andre Geim and former Ph.D. student Sir Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

University ranking[edit]

Radboud University has been named best broad university in the Netherlands for the past seven consecutive years;^[16] the physics department is considered top tier. A recent accomplishment is its contribution to the first picture of a black hole;^[17] the Faculty of Law is nationally unrivaled in its research in business and law,^[18] and retains strong international ties with other prominent research institutions, such as Bologna, Nice and Oxford. The Faculty of Law's European Law School and Notarial Law departments are considered best in class in the Netherlands,^{[19] [20]} just as Political Sciences, Sociology and Theology programmes in their respective fields.^[16]

The QS World University Rankings ranked the university 177th in the world in 2015;^[21] the university scored 45th in a 2012 ranking of European research universities.^{[nb 1]}

In 2019, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings put the university in 123th place worldwide.^[23]

Radboud Excellence Initiative[edit]

The Radboud Excellence Initiative was created with the dual purposes of attracting talents from every academic field to Radboud University while strengthening international bonds between universities worldwide; the initiative is a joint enterprise of both Radboud University and Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center. It provides two routes by which a researcher may come to Radboud University. Promising researchers who have completed their doctorate between two and eight years earlier at the time of nomination may be nominated for a fellowship whereas those researchers who are more established in their discipline may be nominated for a professorship.^[28]

Once selected, fellows may come to Radboud University to undertake research for a maximum of two years. Professors may come to Radboud University for a maximum period of six months.^[28]

Coat of arms[edit]

The coat of arms was designed at the time of the founding of the university by the goldsmith workshop of the Brom family in Utrecht; the lower part is the coat of arms of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit; the shield is surmounted by the crown of Charlemagne. Underneath is the motto "In Dei Nomine Feliciter."^[29]

Notable alumni[edit]

O'42 [nl] (after its address Oranjesingel 42) of old has played a significant role in the history of the Radboud University, especially of the social and administrative aspects of studying there.

• Dries van Agt, 1955 (LLM), former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• Anna Akhmanova, 1999, cell biologist and winner of the 2018 Spinoza Prize
• Louis Beel, 1928 (LLM), former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• Jo Cals, 1940 (LLM), former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• Wim Crusio, 1984 (PhD), neurobehavioural geneticist
• Marijn Dekkers, Chairman of Unilever
• Jos Engelen, 1973, physicist
• Thom de Graaf, 1981 (LLM), former mayor of Nijmegen
• Jolanda Jetten, social psychologist
• Agnes Kant, 1989 (MSc), 1997 (PhD), former leader of the Socialist Party
• Björn Kuipers, 2001 (Msc), football referee
• Louis van de Laar, 1921, state secretary and mayor of Bergen op Zoom
• Jos van der Lans, 1981 (MA), former member of the House of Representatives
• Gerd Leers, 1976 (MSc), former mayor of Maastricht, former Minister for Immigration and Asylum Affairs
• Victor Marijnen, 1941 (LLM), former Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• Hans van Mierlo, 1960 (LLM), former Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Henri Nouwen, 1964, Catholic priest and writer
• Sir Konstantin Novoselov (PhD), awarded 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Harald E.L. Prins, 1976, anthropologist, ethnohistorian, documentary filmmaker, and expert witness on indigenous rights in U.S. and Canadian courts, etc.
• Louis Reijtenbagh, 1975, Chief Executive Officer of The Plaza Group
• Frans Timmermans, 1985 (MA,) Dutch politician and diplomat who currently serves as the First Vice-President of the European Commission and the European Commissioner for the portfolio of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Juncker Commission.
• Rita Verdonk, 1983 (MA), former Minister for Immigration and Asylum Affairs, former member of the House of Representatives
• Frans de Waal, 1970, biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates.

Notable faculty[edit]

• Hans van Abeelen, first Dutch behaviour geneticist
• Titus Brandsma, co-founder, Nazi opponent murdered in Dachau concentration camp, beatified by the Roman Catholic Church as a martyr of the faith.
• Carlos Gussenhoven, professor of linguistics, specializes in phonetics and phonology
• Catharina Halkes, first feminist theologian to be a professor in the Netherlands
• Ton Lemaire, cultural philosopher and cultural anthropologist, also alumnus, now residing in France
• Marc David Lewis, developmental neuroscientist and author of “Memoirs of an Addicted Brain” and “The Biology of Desire : Why Addiction Is Not a Disease”
• Renate Loll, physicist
• Jos van der Meer, professor of general internal medicine
• Ieke Moerdijk, mathematician
• Cristina Pumplun, missionary vicar of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam
• Kees Versteegh, professor emeritus of Middle Eastern studies, also alumnus
• Jan van der Watt, expert in Johannine literature, General editor of Review of Biblical Literature

See also[edit]

• Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, a University of Applied Sciences located in Nijmegen and Arnhem.
• List of early modern universities in Europe
• N.S.V. Carolus Magnus [nl]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to Radboud University Nijmegen at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website