Constructor University: Three Lives of a German Private Research University
This webinar is a part of an Innovative Universities Webinar Series.
This webinar traces 25 years of continuous innovation through the “three lives” of what is now Constructor University. The story begins in 1947, when it was first proposed to establish an international university on the site of a former military base in Bremen; the philosopher Karl Jaspers was even discussed as a potential rector. Only in 2001 did the vision materialize as the International University Bremen (IUB), Germany’s first comprehensive English‑taught private university, championed by leading German scientist Reimar Lüst and former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the Bremen government, and Rice University (USA) as a modern, performance‑oriented institution free from state bureaucracy. In 2007, a record €200 million gift from the Jacobs Foundation transformed IUB into Jacobs University Bremen—more entrepreneurial and education‑oriented. A third transformation began in 2020, when the Constructor Group acquired majority ownership, leading to the 2022 rebranding as Constructor University within a high‑tech holding of technology companies and research labs. The university was forced to innovate and reinvent itself in each of these stages. The Constructor period is characterized by stronger entrepreneurial development and by the strengthening of computational aspects across different sciences.
What changes in a university when its owner changes? What survives? Is the initial design still relevant for Germany? We will discuss this and more with our own co-host, Isak Frumin.
Isak Frumin is Head of the Observatory of Higher Education Innovations at Constructor University Bremen and a Fellow of the International Academy of Education.
Isak Frumin is Head of the Observatory of Higher Education Innovations at Constructor University Bremen and, part-time, Professor in the Department of Higher Education Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. He is a founding member of the Global Observatory of Higher Education Changes. Previously, he was the founding director of the Institute of Education and vice-rector at HSE University in Moscow, and before that, a Lead Education Specialist at the World Bank, working in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India. He began his career as founding principal of the Krasnoyarsk University Laboratory School, the first of its kind in Russia. Isak is a Fellow of the International Academy of Education.
