IUB Leader Examines School’s Start at Scientia Talk

IUB Leader Examines School’s Start at Scientia Talk

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

In a relatively short period of time, an international, private research university was developed and born, said Raymond Wells, professor of mathematics and education.

Wells told the story of Rice’s role in the creation and organization of the International University Bremen (IUB), in Bremen, Germany, as part of the Scientia lecture series. His Dec. 9 talk was titled, “Rice in International Perspective: the Bremen Initiative.”

Rice University and two other key founders—the city-state of Bremen and its local public university, the University of Bremen—have played significant roles, Wells said.
In November 1997, a Rice University delegation, led by David Auston, then provost at Rice and current president of Case Western Reserve University, visited Bremen at the invitation of the city-state government to investigate the possibility of an international educational cooperation, Wells said. As a result of that initial visit and many other contacts, International University Bremen was founded in Bremen in February 1999, with the first student body to arrive in fall 2001.

Along the way, a Bremen delegation visited Houston in February 1998, and Rice University and the city-state of Bremen drafted a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum provided the basic framework for the institutions to establish a private university in Bremen. The agreement also established a joint bilateral planning committee for the initial planning of the new university.

In September 1998, the IUB Planning Corp. Inc., a private, nonprofit corporation, was founded and the city-state of Bremen passed legislation authorizing establishment of an international university. Shortly thereafter, IUB received its first major gift, from Conrad Naber, a businessman in Bremen.

Feb. 11, 1999, marked the official founding of the university, with the first meeting of its board of governors, which includes Rice President Malcolm Gillis and is chaired by Reimar Lust, former president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, former president of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and former director of the European Space Agency. The board also appointed a university president, Fritz Schaumann. Schaumann was the former deputy minister in the German Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology.

Councilors to IUB are James A. Baker, III, the 61st secretary of the United States and honorary chair of Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy; Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former German minister of foreign affairs; Hilmar Kopper, chairman of the boards of Deutsche Bank AG and DaimlerChrysler AG; and Lust.

In May 1999 a contract between Bremen and IUB awarded the new university approximately $115 million in start-up funds, Wells said, and in September 1999 Bremen recognized IUB with accreditation.

Independent of state influence and with its international orientation, IUB will be the first of its kind in continental Europe and will be modeled in many ways on contemporary American research universities, including many facets of Rice University, such as residential colleges and research centers, Wells said.

IUB’s mission, he said, is the “advancement of education, research, international leadership and global citizenship.”

With international faculty who are involved in both teaching and research, IUB will offer bachelor, master and Ph.D. programs in the school of science and engineering and in the school of humanities and social sciences.

In the process of hiring deans and staff, IUB plans to begin academic work in the fall of this year, and the first undergraduate students will begin classes in fall 2001. Wells said IUB plans to have 1,200 students by 2005, with about 800 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. The highly selective institution will also feature student and faculty exchange programs, as well as programs for advanced students to serve as mentors to younger students.

More information about IUB can be found on the Internet at http://www.iu-bremen.de.