iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Lund University

Lund University
Lunds universitet
Latin: Universitas Lundensis or Universitas Gothorum Carolina. Also the older Academia Carolina lundensis, or Academia Carolina conciliatrix.
Motto Ad utrumque (Prepared for both)[1]
Established 1666
Type Public
Rector magnificus Prof. Göran Bexell
Staff 6 000
Students 42,500
Undergraduates 30,800
Doctoral students 3,200
Location Lund, Scania, Sweden
Campus Urban
Affiliations Universitas 21
LERU
EUA
ASAIHL
Website [1]
Lund University (Swedish: Lunds universitet), located in Lund in southernmost Sweden, is one of Sweden's most prestigious universities[2] and Scandinavia's largest institution for education and research[3], frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities[4][5]. The university was founded in 1666 and is the second oldest within Sweden's present borders, but can arguably trace its roots back to 1438, when a studium generale was founded in Lund[6]. Lund University has 7 faculties, with additional campuses in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg, with a total of over 42,500 people studying in 50 different programmes and 800 separate courses. It belongs to the League of European Research Universities as well as the global Universitas 21 network.

The university traditionally centers on the Lundagård park adjacent to the Lund Cathedral, with various departments spread in different locations in town, but mostly concentrated in a belt stretching north from the park connecting to the university hospital area and continuing out to the northeastern periphery of the town, where one finds the large campus of the Lund Institute of Technology.

History

Enlarge picture
Lund University main building, built in 1882 by Helgo Zettervall.
The city of Lund has a long history as a center for learning and was the ecclesiastical centre and seat of the archbishop of Denmark. A cathedral school (the Katedralskolan) for the training of clergy was established in 1085 and is today one of Scandinavia's oldest schools.

A studium generale (a medieval university education) was founded in 1425, but had to close in 1536 in connection with the Danish reformation.

After the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, the Scanian lands came under the possession of the Swedish Crown, which quickly founded the Lund University in 1666 as the means of Swedification. It was the fifth university under the Swedish king, after Uppsala University 1477, the Academia Gustaviana 1632, now in Estonia; the Academy of Åbo 1640, now in Finland; and the University of Greifswald, 1648, now in Germany.

The university was named Academia Carolina after Charles X Gustav of Sweden. The name was in some formal use until the late 19th century, when Lund University became the widespread denomination.

The university was at its founding granted four faculties: law, theological, medicine and philosophy. They were the corner stones, and for more than 200 years this system was in effect. Towards the end of the 17th century, the number of students hovered around 100. Some notable professors in the early days were Samuel Pufendorf, a juridical historian; and Canutus Hahn and Kristian Papke in philosophy.

The Scanian War in 1676 led to a shut-down, which lasted until 1682. The university was re-opened largely due to regional patriots, but the university was not to enjoy a high status until well into the 19th century. Lecturing rooms were few, and lectures were held in the Lund Cathedral and its adjacent chapel. The professors were underpaid.

In 1713, Charles XII of Sweden entered Lund. He stayed in Lund for three years, in between his warlike expeditions. The town of Lund and the university attracted a temporary attention boost. The most notable lecturer during this time was Andreas Rydelius.

Peace was finally restored with the death of Charles XII in 1718, and during the first half of the 18th century the university was granted added funds. The number of students was now well around 500. Despite not being on par with Uppsala University, it had still built a solid reputation and managed to attract prominent professors.

Around 1760 the university reputation dropped as the number of students fell below 200, most of whom hailed from around the province. However, by 1780 its reputation was largely restored, and continued to rise through the 1820s. This was largely owing to popular and well-educated lecturers particularly in philology; the prominent professor Esaias Tegnér was a particularly notable character with widespread authority. He, in turn, attracted others towards Lund. One of these was the young theological student C. G. Brunius, who studied ancient languages under Tegnér and were later to become professor of Greek. With time he was to devote himself to architectures and he redesigned several of Lund's buildings, as well as churches of the province.

Women at the university

Enlarge picture
Lunds Universitetsbibliotek (LUB), the main university library.
Lund University showed a more conservative attitude in the early discussions on admitting and was later to attract female students than the university in Uppsala. The first woman to study in Lund was the medical student Hedda Andersson who entered the university in 1880 (two years before the next woman to do so). It also took longer before any woman finished a doctorate at Lund University than at Uppsala. While Ellen Fries had received a Ph.D. in history in Uppsala in 1883, it took until 1910 before Hilma Borelius as the first woman would finish a doctorate in Lund. Another pioneer was Louise Petrén, who in 1911 finished a doctoral dissertation in Mathematics - it would take 50 years before the next dissertation in Mathematics authored by a woman would be presented at any Swedish university.

Lunds kvinnliga studentförening (LKS), the Lund Association of Female Students, was established in 1900, when there were fourteen women enrolled in the university, and just as with the corresponding society in Uppsala a few years earlier, it appears to have helped the women to assert themselves in the predominantly male environment. This included starting to use the student cap in public, which was an important symbolic manifestation at the time.

By the time Hilma Borelius finshed her doctorate in Lund, thirteen women had already finished doctorates in Uppsala and two in the new college in Stockholm (which did not gain full university status until 1960). The reason for the relative lateness of Lund to attract and graduate female students and doctors has not yet been clarified. Hanna Markusson Winkvist, who has studied the early careers of women in Swedish academia, speculates that it may have had something to do with the conservative attitudes from the university or a difference in the general basis of recruitment between the universities (Markusson Winkvist p 125-132).

The first woman to be appointed to a professor's chair was the historian Birgitta Odén (1965). In 1992 Boel Flodgren, Professor of Business Law, was appointed rector magnificus (or, strictly speaking, rectrix magnifica) of Lund University. As such, she was the first woman to be a head of a European university.

Academics

Lund University is internationally known as Scandinavia's largest research university. The university has eight faculties and many research centres and specialized institutes. Approximately 42,500 students study within each of the 100 educational programs, the eighteen international masters programmes or the 1,400 courses. Almost three hundred courses are, or can be, held in English for the benefit of our international exchange students. There are several programs allowing foreign students to study abroad at the University. Notable exchangees include United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who spent time at Lund University in the 1960s conducting research.[7]

Faculties

Enlarge picture
Kungshuset, the oldest university building (completed 1584), currently houses the Department of Philosophy.
There are also departments located in Malmö, including Malmö Academy of Music, and Helsingborg.

Student life

Lund is known for its particularly active student life, revolving around three central structures: Student Nations, Akademiska Föreningen, and student Unions.

Student Nations

Main article: List of Lund University Nations
The nations in Lund are a central part of the university's history, initially serving as residential colleges for students, organized by geographic origin. Östgöta Nation, the oldest nation, was established in 1668, two years after the university was founded. While the nations still offer limited housing, today they are best described as student societies. It is required to enroll in a nation to receive grades at the university.

Today students may enroll in any nation, although the nations still preserve their geographic names. In most cases it does not matter what nation one enrolls in, but different nations offer different activities for interested students. The fee of around 350 Swedish krona per semester (which also includes student union membership fees), is the closest thing to a tuition requirement found in Sweden.

Each nation has student housing, but the accommodations in no way meet demand, and they are usually appointed according to a queue system. Each nation has at least one pub evening per week, with a following night club. The solemn peak event in the course of an activity year is the organization of student balls once a year. The large nations - e.g. Lunds Nation[2], Göteborgs Nation[3] and Malmö Nation[4] - each organize student balls on their own, whereas other nations seemingly are too small to organize such events on their own. Smaller nations organize joint balls for two or three nations at a time. Most well known of the nation balls (as opposed to balls organized by fraternities or student unions) is the ball hosted by Göteborgs Nation - called the "Gustaf II Adolf Ball" (also known as the "GA-Ball"). Most nations also host at least one banquet per week, where a three course dinner is served. Each nation also has different activities for students interested in sports, arts, or partying. All activities within the nations are voluntary, and most students are not active in them.

Enlarge picture
AF-Borgen, the student-run complex at the heart of student life in Lund, May 2002.

Akademiska Föreningen (AF)

In 1830, Professor Carl Adolph Agardh formed Akademiska Föreningen (The Academic Society), commonly referred to as AF, with the goal of "developing and cultivating the academic life" by bringing students and faculty from all departments and student nations together in one organization. Prince Oscar I, then Sweden's Chancellor of Education, donated 2000 Kronor to help found the society. In 1848, construction began on AF-Borgen (the AF Fortress), which is located opposite the Main Building in Lundagård. To this day, AF is the center of student life in Lund, featuring many theater companies, a prize-winning student radio (Radio AF), and organizing the enormous Lundakarnevalen (the Lund Carnival) every four years.

Student Unions

Currently each faculty has its own student union. Since 1995, a central organization known as LUS (Lund University's Student Unions [5]) negotiates with the university administration, while most work is done at the faculty level. The student unions that are members of LUS are: The student unions that have chosen not to belong to LUS are:

Notable people connected to Lund University

Main article: List of Lund University people
The following is a select list of some of the most notable people who have been affiliated with Lund University as students or academics, please refer to the main article for more information.

Partner universities

See also

References

1. ^ Prepared for both the book and the sword - to study and to defend the country in times of war. The lion in Lund University's seal holds a book in one hand, and a sword in the other.
2. ^ New Partnership with Swedish University: Lund University
3. ^ Welcome to Lund University
4. ^ Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2007, 2006, 2005
5. ^ The Complete List: The Top 100 Global Universities
6. ^ Historik - Lunds universitet
7. ^ Linda, Bayer "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000), 46.

External links

 •  • [ e]
Universitas 21
 •  • [ e]
League of European Research Universities
Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
..... Click the link for more information.
Coat of arms elements
A motto (from Italian) is a phrase or a short list of words meant formally to describe the general motivation or intention of an entity, social group, or organization.
..... Click the link for more information.
The date of establishment or date of founding of an institution is the date on which that institution chooses to claim as its starting point. Often the criteria that define a date of establishment or founding are ill-defined—or more specifically, are ill-defined in
..... Click the link for more information.
8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
The word rector ("ruler," from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate someone who is in charge of something.

The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as Dutch and Spanish.
..... Click the link for more information.
In some educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree. In the United States, students of higher degrees are known as graduates.
..... Click the link for more information.
doctorate is an academic degree of, in many countries, the highest level, second only to the habilitation in those (primarily Central and Eastern European) countries that grant the latter. The term doctorate comes from the Latin doctor, meaning "teacher.
..... Click the link for more information.

Lund
Lund Cathedral in Lund

Coat of arms
Location of Lund in northern Europe
Coordinates:
Country  Sweden
Municipality
..... Click the link for more information.
Scania ( Skåne   (help info ) in Swedish) is a geographical region of Sweden on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, a historical province (landskap)
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
(Royal) "För Sverige - I tiden" 1
"For Sweden – With the Times" ²
Anthem
Du gamla, Du fria
..... Click the link for more information.
Universitas 21 is an international network of research-intensive universities, established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance.
..... Click the link for more information.
The European University Association (EUA) is the main voice of the higher education community in Europe. As of 15 April 2005, EUA has 760 members in 45 countries across Europe.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1956 to assist higher learning institutions in strengthening themselves through a mutual self help and to achieve international distinction in teaching,
..... Click the link for more information.
A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN.
..... Click the link for more information.
Swedish}}} 
Official status
Official language of:  European Union
 European Union (in Noarootsi along with Estonian) [1]
 Finland
 Sweden (de facto)
Nordic Council
..... Click the link for more information.

Lund
Lund Cathedral in Lund

Coat of arms
Location of Lund in northern Europe
Coordinates:
Country  Sweden
Municipality
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
(Royal) "För Sverige - I tiden" 1
"For Sweden – With the Times" ²
Anthem
Du gamla, Du fria
..... Click the link for more information.
university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education.
..... Click the link for more information.
Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centred on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
..... Click the link for more information.
8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
14th century - 15th century - 16th century
1400s  1410s  1420s  - 1430s -  1440s  1450s  1460s
1435 1436 1437 - 1438 - 1439 1440 1441

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
Studium Generale is the old name for a medieval university which was registered as an institution of international excellence by the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the early Studia Generalia were found in Italy, France, England, and Spain, and these were considered the most prestigious
..... Click the link for more information.
A faculty is a division within a university. The medieval University of Paris, which served as a model for most of the later medieval universities in Europe, had four faculties: the Faculties of Theology, Law, Medicine, and finally the Faculty of Arts, which every student had to
..... Click the link for more information.
City of Malmö
Malmö stad
HSB Turning Torso in Malmö

Coat of arms
Motto: Från arbetarstad till kunskapsstad
(eng: From industrial city to knowledge city)
..... Click the link for more information.
Helsingborg

Coat of arms

..... Click the link for more information.
According to its mission statement, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) is "a group of European research-intensive universities committed to the values of high quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research.
..... Click the link for more information.
Universitas 21 is an international network of research-intensive universities, established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lundagård may refer to:
  • Lundagård (park), a park in central Lund, Sweden
  • Lundagård (newspaper), the oldest Swedish student newspaper still in circulation, published by the Lund University Student Union (LUS)

..... Click the link for more information.
The Lund Cathedral, Swedish: Lunds Domkyrka, Danish: Lund Domkirke, is the Lutheran cathedral in Lund, Scania, Sweden. It is the seat of the bishop of Lund of the Church of Sweden.
..... Click the link for more information.
Lund Institute of Technology or Lunds Tekniska Högskola (LTH) refers to the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University in Lund, Sweden. Originally established separate from the university in 1961, it was incorporated in 1969.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter