University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (Dutch: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen or RUG) is a university in Groningen, Netherlands.
It is one of the oldest research universities in Europe, boasting more than 100,000 graduates since its inception in 1614.
More than 20,000 students are currently enrolled in more than 160 bachelor's degree and master's degree programmes, and some 775 students are studying for their PhD. Every year, about 2,500 students graduate from the university, and some 250 PhD students defend their doctorate thesis.
As the university's students and staff come from the Netherlands and from at least 90 other countries, the University of Groningen is truly international. The university has 5,000 employees and an annual budget of €445 million. It is one of the largest employers in the north of the Netherlands, generating 31,000 jobs in the region; 10.6% of the total of 12+ hours/week jobs
is generated by the university.
The large number of students reduces the average age of the population of the city of Groningen; partly for this reason the city has a lively and dynamic character.
Groningen University People
- Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt studied here and obtained his PhD on the economics of disarmament
- Pim Fortuyn, lecturer, later politician (and assassinated)
- Willem Frederik Hermans, lecturer and writer
- Wubbo Ockels, the first Dutch astronaut, received a doctor of philosophy degree in physics and mathematics, 1973
- Willem de Sitter, astronomer
- Frits Zernike, professor of theoretical physics, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the phase contrast optical microscope in 1953
