With around 32,000 students from over 120 nations, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is one of Germany's largest and most diverse universities. JGU unites almost all academic disciplines under one roof with its University Medical Center, its Academy of Arts and School of Music, and the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies in Germersheim. In over 150 institutes and clinics, 4,400 academics, 560 of whom are professors, teach and carry out research. JGU offers 75 subjects and numerous combinations, meaning students can obtain degrees in more than 260 disciplines.
As the only German university of its size, nearly all of the institutions of JGU are located on one single campus near the city center, which is also home to four partner institutes involved in top-level non-university research: the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPI-C), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB). The campus of the University Medical Center is only about a kilometer away, and both Mainz Leibniz Association institutions – the Institute of European History (IEG) and the Roman-Germanic Central Museum (RGZM) – are located slightly further away in the inner city. In addition to this, many local businesses also carry out research, making Mainz a uniquely dynamic research hub.
JGU enjoys global eminence as a research-driven university. Its central core research areas are particle and hadron physics, the materials sciences, and translational medicine. Its most outstanding research achievements in the humanities have been attained in American studies and historical, cultural studies. Successes in the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments have confirmed JGU's academic status. In 2012, the research network Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter (PRISMA) were recognized as a cluster of excellence, and the financing of the Materials Science in Mainz (MAINZ) Graduate School of Excellence was extended. Moreover, excellent placings in national and international rankings and numerous other honors and awards demonstrate how successful Mainz-based researchers and academics are.
Another attribute of JGU is its research-oriented teaching – which incorporates research-based topics in the curricula early on. A similar emphasis is placed on promoting and mentoring young research talents. JGU also considers the exchange of knowledge with society as one of its essential duties. As an open university, JGU offers the populace a unique portfolio of information dissemination concepts that extend far beyond the scope of standard popular academic formats. Through its university governance system, JGU makes sure that its members participate in the strategic planning and that outstanding academics get involved.
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz was initially founded in 1477 and today still strives to emulate its namesake's innovational spirit. The promotion and introduction of new ideas, the use of knowledge to improve people's lives and encourage them to overcome the many boundaries they encounter daily are the underlying ambitions of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Making people fit for the future" this motto defines what Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has in mind for its students. Ensuring they have the necessary qualifications to be generally employable and able to compete in the international marketplace while also making sure they develop personally – these are the aspects on which JGU places its emphasis. Among other things, this is achieved by focusing as much as possible on research-oriented courses that give students the chance to participate in research. The aspect of research-oriented teaching is one of the unique selling points of JGU.
In line with these principles, JGU has created a differentiated course structure that targets academic and non-academic careers' various demands. In all three phases – Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral studies – the university makes sure its students become familiar with working on a wide range of research topics of differing sizes and difficulty levels. JGU also places significant emphasis on teaching what exactly constitutes good academic practice.
Global networking is vital for Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and is one of the primary requirements for competitiveness. As an international research and teaching hub, the university feels obliged to remove barriers between nations and cultures in its mission statement and strategic concept. JGU sees internationalization as a task for all university sections – including all the academic and administrative institutions – and views it as something that needs to be promoted at all levels. The university's researchers and academics' international work is backed by some 150 partnership agreements with other universities on all continents. There are nearly 700 cooperation projects with European universities within the ERASMUS program that organize students, teaching staff, and other employees. For many years, JGU has played a leading role in this program. Collaborative research and student exchange projects in Europe mainly occur in France and Poland. Outside Europe, the USA, South Korea, and China are the most important.
Every degree program at JGU gives students the chance to spend one or two semesters abroad. JGU also has special degree programs and modules that are on offer in collaboration with foreign universities. With over 650 courses taught in languages other than German and numerous foreign language learning courses, JGU prepares students for the international job market.
The Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies is a unique feature of JGU due to its international character. Not only is it one of the leading European educational institutions for interpreters and translators, but it also focuses more broadly on interculturality as a general subject for research. This is also the case at the Center for Intercultural Studies – an interdisciplinary research platform of JGU that provides an academic framework for the intercultural dialog on campus.
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