The University offers the most excellent conditions and infrastructural facilities for postgraduate studies, research and continuing education in the context of Public Administration. Thanks to a small average number of some 400 students a close contact with lecturers can be established and students can be given our staff's best attention. The university was founded in 1947 by the French occupation authorities. In 1950, a law, passed by the government of Rhineland-Palatinate, reaffirmed its status as an institution of public law with legal capacity. As a result of a special agreement in 1952, the national and the states' (Länder) governments assumed joint responsibility for the university. After the German Unification, also the 'new' states Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia acceded to this agreement. The work of the university covers three broad activities in the field of administrative sciences: postgraduate education, in-service training and research. This includes the training of future senior civil servants, in-service training for senior civil servants, and research into the legal, economic and social problems of international, national and local administration. The university is authorized to award doctorates and confer eligibility for professorships. There are 18 professorial chairs presiding over Public Law, Administrative Sciences, and Economics, as well as Modern and Contemporary History, Sociology and Political Science. In addition, senior civil servants, judges and business executives holding part-time lectureships teach applied administration. This close association between the theoretical science of administration and its practical application has not only proven to be extremely useful for teaching, but has also provided the impetus for numerous recent research projects.