The University of Paderborn is one of the fourteen universities of higher learning in North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. It was founded in 1972 and over 17,421 students were enrolled at the university as of December 2011. "Paderborn University is the University for the Information Society. Our strong foundation in computer science and its applications, as well as the importance of IT for a growing number of disciplines, are the pillars for this claim. But we want to achieve more: we want to contribute to the scientific and technical development of the information society, simultaneously critically reflecting these developments by taking into account the history, norms and values of our society. To achieve this, we need the spectrum from “hard” sciences to the arts and humanities to complement and learn from each other. Our mission includes a strong international and cultural presence, since the information society is decidedly global and should not remain a purely intellectual undertaking. Our university orchestra, our drama group, and more than 70 different sports, are some of the important university activities that help characterize academic life here in Paderborn. "