Local Partner Universities

Northwest Alliance

The Northwest Alliance brings together two reform-oriented universities with decades of experience in research, teaching, and knowledge transfer. Together, with approximately 580 professorships, 6,400 staff members, 2,700 doctoral candidates, and 34,000 students, the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg form the heart of a high-performing research hub in the Northwest. The alliance’s goal is to combine excellent research with social responsibility and to find innovative solutions to regional and global challenges. A central role in this is played by the numerous academic and non-academic institutions in the Northwest, with which both universities are already affiliated, as well as the HWK – Institute for Advanced Study, which has served as a link between the universities for more than 25 years. The alliance also sees itself as part of the international community, in close partnership particularly with the University of Groningen (Netherlands), with which both universities have been cooperating for decades.

Hanse University Alliance

The Hanse University Alliance is an association of universities in northern Germany—specifically in the Federal States of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein—as well as the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The universities of Bremen, Hamburg, Greifswald, Rostock, Lüneburg, Oldenburg, Kiel, Lübeck, and Groningen collaborate with one another, particularly in the area of quality assurance for teaching and academic programs. Under the umbrella of the Hanse University Alliance, the member universities support and promote a wide range of collaborative initiatives. In this way, they aim to jointly address demographic and societal challenges and serve as a consistent dialogue partner for science and education policy in northern Germany.

Universities in the State of Bremen

Bremen’s four universities – the University of Bremen, the City University of Applied Sciences, the University of the Arts, and the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven – are connected by much more than their geographic location. The coordination of degree programs in the frame of the Bremen Science Plan and diverse cooperation agreements strengthen Bremen as a scientific hub.

The Languages Centre of the Universities in the State of Bremen (SZHB) is a joint institution of the four universities. In the field of musicology, the curriculum of the University of Bremen is closely linked to that of the University of the Arts.

In the field of media studies, the joint “Digital Media” bachelor’s and master’s degree programs combine the focus on Media Informatics (University of Bremen) and Media Design (University of the Arts).

Constructor University

In the Social Sciences, the University of Bremen and the private Constructor University in the North of Bremen cooperate successfully in the joint Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS).

The inter-university cooperation makes it possible to offer an internationally competitive academic program. PhD candidates benefit from the two universities’ different institutional cultures and their wide range of research activities in Political Science, Sociology and Socio-Psychology.