Roskilde University

Roskilde University was formed under the Act of Copenhagen University's Siting and University Centres of 1970. The Act was passed only after a great deal of debate between the conservative-liberal coalition government in power at the time and the opposition. The government wished to set up a university in the city of Roskilde to take some of the pressure off Copenhagen University; the opposition wanted this Denmark's fourth university to be located in the city of Aalborg on the mainland to improve the educational level of the population of northern Jutland. As a result, universities were established in both cities. Roskilde University opened its doors to students, 723 of them, on 1 September 1972. The founders of the University wanted a different approach to education and science than what was already being practiced at Denmark's three other, traditional universities at the time. Thus RUC's first year was characterised by a completely new educational concept that included elements such as basic studies programmes, interdisciplinarity, problem orientation and group project work. Back in 1972, these educational ideas were both unorthodox and controversial, but the traditional universities in Denmark have now adopted much of the original RU concept themselves, not least the concept of group project work, which is today a recognised academic method. RU can also be said to have brought to Denmark the Anglo-Saxon concepts of interdisciplinarity and less well-defined boundaries between academic fields. RUC was founded as the Roskilde University Centre, but 'Centre' was dropped from its name in 2008, and the institution became simply Roskilde University. With this, the name of 'university centre' disappeared from the Danish educational sector (Aalborg University had previously also got rid of the 'centre' in its name). However, the University is still often called 'RUC' in Danish, since this remains a strong trademark, or brand, for the institution among the public. Today, RUC has more than 9500 students and is thus the fifth-largest university in Denmark.

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