Heidelberg University (German: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Founded in 1386, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest university and one of the world's oldest surviving universities.

It was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire.

 

The university consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programmes at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. Heidelberg comprises three major campuses: the humanities are predominantly located in Heidelberg's Old Town, the natural sciences and medicine in the Neuenheimer Feld quarter, and the social sciences within the inner-city suburb Bergheim.

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As of 2017, 56 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university. Modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology, psychiatric genetics, environmental physics, and modern sociology were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Approximately 1,000 doctorates are completed every year, with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International students from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body.

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Internationally renowned and consistently ranked among Europe's top universities, Heidelberg is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, a German Excellence University, part of the U15, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group.