50 years of Paderborn University. A University in the Region.

In August 1972, the social-liberal government of North Rhine-Westphalia, led by the then-SPD Minister of Science Johannes Rau, opened the five newly created comprehensive universities in Duisburg, Essen, Siegen, Paderborn, and Wuppertal during a week-long celebratory marathon. The university reform projects were supposed to offer practice-oriented, integrated degree programs and establish social equality of opportunity through improved access to the resource of education. Moreover, they were considered a forward-looking location factor for regions that had been structurally disadvantaged up to that point.

The lecture addressed the institutional history of Paderborn University and its anchorage in the city and region from different perspectives. At the same time, it took stock of the recent higher education policy developments in the Federal Republic. More information about the event can be found here.