In addition, the university, through its Master of Arts in Democratic Governance and Civil Society graduate program, is also part of the highly prestigious DAAD Public Policy and Good Governance Scholarships for Developing Countries, along with other reputable institutions in political science and public policy such as the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Erfurt.

Higher education began in 1632 in Osnabrück when the Gymnasium Carolinum was upgraded into a Jesuit university.

[4] The government of the state of Lower Saxony decided to set up a university in Osnabrück in 1970, and by 1973 had laid down the legal basis for such an institution.

The university opened for the summer semester in 1974 as a successor institution to the Adolf Reichwein Teachers' College, which had occupied the former palace of the Prince-Bishopric since 1953.

Sport stadium and gymnasium are a bit farther away; the mathematical and natural-scientific faculties as well as the botanical garden are located in the western part of the city in the borough "Westerberg" (the "Western Mountain", which is rather a hill than a mountain).