2015

In a circular dated 5 January, the Rector and Chancellor thank all members of the university for their commitment, which resulted in two balanced annual financial statements. The modified, more equitable allocation criteria mean that the BUW is granted a budget increase of EUR 1.8 million from Performance-Oriented Funding Allocation (LOM), the highest increase of all NRW universities with a performance 23% above the target.

The German Physics Association (DPG) holds a conference at the BUW from 9 - 13 March, attracting approximately 1,500 participants from the fields of particle physics, astrophysics, medical physics, didactics in physics and accelerator physics.

“40 Years of Wuppertal Safety Engineering”: on 27 and 28 May, around 200 participants from Germany and abroad come to Wuppertal to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the BUW’s safety engineering programme; almost 2,000 graduates have completed this course since 1975.

As of 16 June, all important information about the BUW can be downloaded directly onto mobile phones. This app was developed by the Centre for Information and Media Processing in cooperation with University Communications.

Students and employees at the BUW join forces to implement an initiative for refugees seeking asylum or new homes in Wuppertal. When lectures commence on 19 October, the BUW welcomed around 20 guest students who came to Wuppertal as refugees and are meeting their volunteer coaches (students and academic staff at the BUW) for the first time. As part of the programme “IN TOUCH Wuppertal”, the BUW is offering refugees with an academic background the opportunity to participate in lectures as guest students.

Improving teacher training is the goal of the national programme “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”. After the project “Coherence in Teacher Training” is deemed eligible for funding in March 2015, the BUW receives official approval on 6 August: the Federal Ministry of Education is to grant the Wuppertal-based project initial funding amounting to 4.8 million Euro up to the end of 2018.

On 30 August, javelin thrower Katharina Molitor (studying sports and social sciences at the BUW) wins gold at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing with the best distance of the year (67.69 metres).

On 26 November, the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Prof. Dr. Stefan Hell, gives a lecture to an audience of around 700 at the BUW with the title “Bright Spots in the Nano World”; his STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion) method facilitated a breakthrough into the nano range of high-resolution light microscopy.

2016

On 20 January – four days after the 85th birthday of Johannes Rau (1931-2006) – the foundation stone of the Johannes Rau Centre at the BUW is laid in the presence of Christina Rau and Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft. The focal point of this Centre will be Rau’s former personal library, including approx. 20,000 volumes compiled by Rau himself.

On 1 February, Dr. Roland Kischkel is elected spokesperson for the chancellors of all the universities in NRW.

The BUW’s former Rector Professor Emeritus Dr. Dr. h.c. Siegfried Maser dies on 10 March aged 77.

On 1 April 2016, the German Research Foundation (DFG) establishes the PhD programme “Document – Text – Edition” at the BUW.

During a visit to the university on 23 August, Minister of Science Svenja Schulze announces a state investment in institutes of higher education in Wuppertal (University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Johannes Rau Centre/Library and University Social Services): nearly EUR 157 million for building projects, another EUR 6 million for large appliances and structural support, EUR 20 million for University Social Services and EUR 6 million for the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.

The new FMM building on the Freudenberg campus opens on 27 September, providing 1,500 m2 of usable space for the Institute for Educational Research (IfB); FMM offers workplaces for new professors and facilities for courses on special education.

On 4 October, the TU Košice awards an honorary doctorate to Prof. Dr. Lambert T. Koch, Rector of the BUW.

During their visit to the university on 24 October, Minister of Science Schulze and Minister of Education Löhrmann announce that funding for the Wuppertal model of cooperative teacher training in industrial and technical subjects at vocational colleges is still assured. The occasion for the visit was the successful development of the “Dual Master of Education” study model qualifying teachers to teach at vocational colleges; this course was launched in 2015 for graduates of universities of applied sciences with Bachelor’s degrees in technical subjects to qualify as teachers while working part-time (50%) as teachers at vocational colleges.

The “Hochschulvereinbarung [Higher Education Agreement] NRW 2021”, signed on 26 October, regulates the state funding provided for institutions of higher education for a period of five years: programme subsidies previously granted for limited periods, e.g. for teacher training and special education, now flow into regular university funding.

26 October 2016: around 21,700 students register for the 2016/17 semester; this means that the BUW has created 10,000 additional study places since 2011.