On the occasion of its 600th anniversary in 1988, the university published an extensive history of the University of Cologne in three volumes, which appeared with Böhlau. Erich Meuthen wrote the first volume, and in a short overview he first described the history of the old university (1388–1798), celebrating the height of its prosperity in the 15th century. More than a century after the French government closed the old Universitas coloniensis in 1798, a long-cherished dream of the people of Cologne came true: in 1919 a new university was built. In 2019 the university celebrated its 100th anniversary.

The UoC’s mission is to create, preserve and impart knowledge, to offer its students and early-career academics outstanding academic education, to qualify them for both academic and professional  careers, to promote cutting-edge research and to drive innovation while focusing on the constantly changing needs and challenges of today’s society.

The University of Cologne’s six Faculties are the institutional framework for its research activities. The Faculties offer more than a hundred degree programmes and support 16 cross-Faculty research and teaching centres. Moreover, the UoC has several large, internationally competitive research areas: mechanisms of aging-associated diseases; behavioral economic engineering and social cognition, quantum matter and materials, socio-economic, cultural and political transformations in the global south, plant sciences and skills and structures in language and cognition.