Trier University (Universität Trier in German) was founded in the German city of Trier 1473 by the Archbishop of Trier, Jakob I. von Sierck.
It struggled financially for decades and was acquired by the Jesuits in 1560, who emphasised the philosophical and theological faculties, at the expense of medicine and law.
Following the French occupation of the Rhineland, the French administration ordered the closure of the universities of Cologne, Mainz, Bonn and Trier in 1798. Trier University was re-established in 1970 after a 172-year hiatus. It now has 15,000 students (including more than 10 per cent international students), making it internationally oriented and regionally rooted on the geographic edge of Germany, but in the heart of Europe.
The campus is situated on top of the Tarforst Heights, an urban district on the outskirts of the city. A second campus (named Campus II) was acquired in the 1990s, taking over a former French military hospital dating back to World War II. Both campuses are set in a sprawling park, with numerous works of modern art, beautiful lawns, streams and ponds.
It has six faculties: the faculty of pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, the faculty of linguistics, literature and media, the faculty of egyptology, papyrology, history, archeology, art history and politics, the faculty of economics, business, sociology, mathematics and computer science, the faculty of law and the faculty of geography and geosciences.
There are three MA programmes that are taught completely in English.
There is particularly strong collaboration with university partners in neighbouring France, Belgium and Luxembourg, with a renowned research focusing on European history and present-day Europe.
