Welcome to the

Heidelberg University Association

Heidelberg University’s U.S. presence

Heidelberg University is one of the top-ranked institutions in the world of international science and scholarship. Throughout its history of over six centuries of higher education and innovative research, Germany’s oldest university has become an international symbol of outstanding academic excellence. Recently, Heidelberg University achieved top-level status in Germany’s Excellence Initiative competition. As one of the nine universities chosen by a jury of international experts, Heidelberg University has been awarded additional funding to further advance its outstanding research programs.

    Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg – the University’s official name - is proud to welcome its approximately 5,200 international students from 130 countries. It is one of the most popular German universities among foreign students. About 20 percent of graduates and undergraduates and some 35 percent of the doctoral students come from abroad. In 2007, the university appointed a third of its professors from outside Germany.
Heidelberg University enjoys strong and long standing ties with the United States. The first U.S. student enrolled in Heidelberg in 1793 from St. Louis. Its longest running student exchange program with the U.S., the American Junior Year at Heidelberg University, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008.

    Research on both sides of the Atlantic has enjoyed advances from a wide variety of collaborative efforts and partnerships between scientists from Heidelberg University and its counterparts in the U.S. and Canada.
Heidelberg University’s U.S. presence, the Heidelberg University Association, supports the University’s strong transatlantic academic co-operative endeavors, and student and faculty exchanges, as well as the close ties between Heidelberg and its Alumni in North America.  Heidelberg University Association is a non-profit organization based in New York City.