Notes from the university
- In co-operation with the University of Bremen, the first Collaborative Research Centre of the German Research Foundation has been established at the university. An interdisciplinary research group is working on the large-scale project "Neurocognition", which is funded to the tune of 2.5 million marks. President Prof. Dr Michael Daxner saw the establishment of the Collaborative Research Centre as a further step towards developing the University's distinctive profile.
- High honours for the Karl Jaspers Lectures on Contemporary Issues. They were declared a German contribution to the "World Decade for Cultural Development" by UNESCO. Past guests of the lecture series, which was founded in 1990, have included Lev Kopelev, Richard von Weizäcker and Ivan Illich. In future, the series, which is funded by the Lower Saxony Foundation, is to be continued with lesser-known but very promising young academics.
- Friedhelm Hachmeister, Board Member of Oldenburg Botterbloom Milch e.G., is the Chair of an association founded by the Department 4 of Business, Economics and Law to build bridges of co-operation between business and economics. In addition to the economics department, the employers' association, the DGB and the city of Oldenburg were also involved in the foundation.
- The first scholarships from the newly established Heinz Neumüller Foundation have been awarded to five doctoral candidates in Economics, Natural Sciences and Law. With monthly funding of 800 marks, the scholarships run for one year.
- Dr Thea Dückert, head of the Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation, has been appointed head of the newly founded "Work and Science" college. From the summer semester of 1996, the college will offer full-time and voluntary trade unionists the opportunity to participate in research and teaching at the University of Oldenburg for two semesters as guest students. The founding charter was signed by Heinz-Hermann Witte, Chair of the DGB Lower Saxony, and Prof Dr Michael Daxner.
- The Jewish Studies degree programme was officially opened in the presence of Lower Saxony's Science Minister Helga Schuchardt. Other guests included Prof. Dr Aron Bodenheimer, honorary doctor of the university, the Heidelberg theologian Prof. Dr Rolf Rendtorff and the Oldenburg rabbi Bea Wyler. The Jewish Studies degree programme has existed since the summer semester of 1995 as a minor subject in the Master's degree.
- He had always refused to declare a state of emergency in the event of budget cuts, explained President Prof. Dr Michael Daxner on the occasion of a new decree by the Ministry of Science to cut further funds from the university's already prescribed austerity budget. However, there is a point at which one cannot simply adjust to the "new coordinates".
