Viadrina European University, hence its frequent appearance as European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in English) is a university located at Frankfurt (Oder) in Brandenburg, Germany. It is also known as the University of Frankfurt (Oder). The city is on the Oder River, which marks the border between Germany and Poland. With 5,200 students — around 1,000 of whom come from Poland — and some 160 teaching staff, the Viadrina is one of Germany's smallest universities (only the University of Erfurt and Jacobs University Bremen have fewer students).
Only a few years have passed since its establishment, and European University Viadrina has already achieved a remarkable reputation.
This can be seen as well in the constantly increasing numbers of students and the expanding interest on the part of scholars with well-known names to teach and to do research at this university. Students and instructors find here not only a good technical framework for their work, but also an environment which promotes intellectual exchange and, as such, is both influenced and characterized by international contacts.
The opportunity to study together with classmates from Poland as well as other nations of Europe and the rest of the world is a special attraction: many in fact regard it as a great enrichment of both their academic and personal lives, as it leads to the development of close contacts, frequently deepening into friendships across European borders that are, in turn, often maintained in later life following the years at university. This human potential represents a great treasure, one that we wish to cultivate and preserve. It represents a pledge of high value for a continuation of their peaceful and successful coexistence in Europe.
Viadrina will make every effort to promote and to expand this international character in the future as well. It is an important basic thought, in fact a principle of constitutuent significance for this university. In their daily work here, these efforts are not limited to the intensive support of instruction in foreign languages alone - they are extended to include the entire range of learning opportunities offered by the three faculties.
The Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences as well as the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration direct themselves to the fulfillment of this demand by means of their varied courses and research projects. In addition, the close partnership with the Polish Adam Mickiewicz University in the city of Poznan, which finds very visible expression in the cooperation embodied by the Collegium Polonicum in Slubice, is a pillar in the architecture of their internationality.
European University Viadrina will continue its development on this positive basis, having as its aim the further improvement of conditions for education and research and as its wish the promotion of a greater coherence of their united Europe. In the future as well, this university is to open up new perspectives to take us above and beyond traditional borders.
