Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading research institutions in Germany. It is a comprehensive university with 12 academic departments and 3 interdisciplinary central institutes offering over 150 degree programs across a wide range of subjects. 

 

Take a small tour of FUB by watching our video introduction!

 

Research at FUB is focused on the diversity of its academic network as well as by the interdisciplinary fields of research that establish research foci and set future research trends. 

FUB’s research activities include the broad variety of global academic and scientific cooperation arrangements that are in place as part of research alliance projects and networks with other entities active in research. The areas of focus are organized into diversified structures, including interdisciplinary focus areas, excellence clusters, collaborative research centers, and research centers: FUB's research profile. These are embedded into the university’s innovative support concepts for junior scholars and scientists and the scope of the external funding the university raises. 

Internationalization is a fundamental orientation guiding all activities in teaching and research at FUB.  It maintains a broad range of cooperative arrangements all over the world and works together with international, national and regional partners in academia, the business sector, politics, arts and culture, and society at large.

It is an International Network University - with more than 400 mobility partnerships -that thrives on a broad variety of its many contacts with higher education institutions and organizations not just in Germany. One way that demonstrates FUB’s international interest are the seven international liaison offices – in Cairo, Moscow, New Delhi, São Paulo, New York, Beijing, and Brussels.

 

The principles of freedom and internationality have guided the university’s development ever since and since its founding, in December of 1948, the academic ethos of Freie Universität Berlin has always been defined by three values: truth, justice, and freedom.  

After its founding, the years 1968, 1990 mark turning points in the history of FUB. FUB was one of the central sites in Germany for the student protests of the 1960s, a movement that sparked a trend toward greater openness, equality, and democracy. Then, after the German reunification in 1990, FUB shifted its emphasis, increasing its research activities and with it the number of graduates, successful doctoral candidates, and publications.