History
Trier has a long university tradition. From 275 - 390 A.D. when the city was the imperial seat of the Western Roman Empire, there was a university for Rhetoric, Grammar, Latin and Greek. In 1454, Pope Nicholas V granted the establishment of a university in Trier. In 1473 the new university was opened, offering, in accordance with the tradition of that time theology, philosophy, jurisprudence and medicine. After the occupation of Trier in the Napoleonic Wars the University of Trier was closed in 1798.

Almost 170 years later, in the year 1970, the University of Trier was re-opened and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2010. The wide selection of disciplines and the opportunities for combining related and complementary subjects prevent excessive specialization and provide professionally orientated course of studies. At present more than 40 different fields of study at the University of Trier are divided into six faculties.

University Services

The language laboratory

The language laboratory offers students at Trier University the opportunity to acquire additional foreign language qualifications free of charge alongside their degree programme.

Our courses focus on the practical use of foreign languages in academic and professional contexts, providing students with the best possible preparation for a semester abroad, an internship, a Master’s degree application or starting their career.

The UNIcert® language certificates, which are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), ensure a high level of recognition both nationally and internationally.

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College sports
 

Trier University offers all students a diverse sports programme with more than 30 different sports. Information about the sports programme is available in the semester sports guide and on the notice boards around campus.

The programme includes sports such as basketball, football, handball, rugby, hockey, badminton, tennis, squash, golf, aerobics, jazz dance, judo, rowing, sailing and horse riding, among others.

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General ideas

Requirements for the functioning of a university are quality development and quality assurance. This holds for research, science and further education in equal measure.

All faculties are asked to take up planning of structure and development for themselves. For the most part this has already happened. For that reason the respective remarks are not repeated here. In addition the university aims to develop general ideas concerning multidisciplinarity and internationalisation as well as service and organisation.

1. Multidisciplinarity

A characteristic feature of the University of Trier is multidisciplinarity. Although rather pragmatic planning was necessary, the university's management acted on the assumption that even a restricted spectrum of subjects has to form a unit in order to achieve a prolific interplay between the individual disciplines. This should particularly be assured by appointment to the professorships, i.e. people who are able to take effect on other subjects.

In the planning of development in the years 1989 and 1996 multidisciplinary fields of science were defined which have emerged in the course of time and obtained a high reputation on a national and international level. Special fields of research and courses of lectures for postgraduates as well as the exercised multidisciplinary cooperation in research and science.

Due to the location of the campus the ways between subjects, disciplines and people are shortened and the scientific and personal communication is promoted (see also section IV).

2. Internationalisation

The University of Trier is internationally orientated. This is proved by:

• the great number of foreign students, coming from more than 100 countries,
• numerous research cooperations,
• bilateral contracts with universities in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Korea, Latin America and the
• Middle East (Israel, Palestine) within the scope of student's exchange (bilateral programs, ERASMUS/SOKRATES et al.),
• 22 official partnerships at university level as well as many partnerships on faculty level with foreign universities,
• a comprehensive general and subject specific offer for language training,
• numerous international summerschools by universities from abroad at the University of Trier,
• visiting professors/visitor's professorships
• the International Holiday Course, taking place for more than 30 years,
• the "International Centre at the University of Trier"
• This Internationalisation shall be extended.

3. Organisation and Service

The development of a university lives on innovations in the fields of research, science, further education as well as transfer concerning organisation and service. This also concerns the internal relation between faculties, central service facilities and admininstration. Possible is a complete reorientation, a gradual adjustment to new conditions or stabilisation of the established.

Classical science, based on necessary personal communication is supplemented by new information technologies, multimedia concepts and E-learning; the last also depends on the use of according offers of the Virtual Campus Rheinland-Pfalz (VCRP) or comparable utilities.

Despite the tight budgetary position it is essential in the field of service to advance all services user-friendly, in particular the central services of the library, the computer centre and language centre. By intensifying the cooperation with the schools of higher education in the Trier region, the work in the student's office and in the BAföG-office the constant improvement of course guidance will be effected.

In science and administration, even concerning aspects like the cutback of bureaucracy and the establishment of flat hierarchies, deciding structures have to become more efficient. Leadership skills should be strengthened, more personnel is still needed. For this, comprehensive concepts shall be developed.