[8] The Ruhr-University Bochum is one of the largest universities in Germany and part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the most important German research funding organization.

[9] The RUB was very successful in the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments (2007), a competition between Germany's most prestigious universities.

[10] Unlike many older German universities, the buildings of Ruhr-University are all centralized on one campus, located south of Bochum city.

Internationally renowned experts in their respective fields include professors Wolff Schmiegel in oncology and Burkhard Dick in ophthalmology.

One striking feature of these buildings is that although their roofs are all at the same apparent height (sky level), the absolute heights of the buildings vary in accordance with their placement on the undulating landscape in which the university is located: the campus is at the edge of a green belt on high ground adjacent to the Ruhr valley.