In 1386, the year when the University of Heidelberg was founded, Heidelberg was a small village situated on the banks of the Neckar River. Rupert I, Count Palatine of the Rhine, acquired a Papal Bull from Pope Urban VI to set up the university. It was modeled after the University of Paris, a school founded in 1200. The University of Heidelberg is Germany’s oldest university, third oldest Germanophone university, and one of the twenty oldest universities in the world. The city of Heidelberg has grown along with the university and ranks within the top one hundred largest cities in Germany; the student population exceeds 30,000, is spread over three distinct campuses, and is able to grant 1,000 doctorates per year to graduates. Famous alumni include 31 Nobel Prize laureates and a long list of men and women excelling in the scientific, economic, and social community.
