As Vice President, Klaus Busch was particularly instrumental in driving forward the conversion of teacher training to the new Bachelor's and Master's structure at the time and was also involved in the introduction of new degree programs with international degrees. "Both as a university lecturer and as Vice President, Professor Busch played a key role in shaping the university; our condolences go out to his family," said the President of Osnabrück University, Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl.
Born in 1945 in Brake an der Unterweser, Klaus Busch studied economics and political science at the Free University of Berlin from 1965. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Economy, where he completed his Doctorate in 1974.
In the same year, he moved to Osnabrück University and was appointed associate professor in the schools of social sciences in 1986. In 1995, Prof. Busch was awarded the Jean Monnet Chair of the Commission of the European Union. The political scientist was instrumental in setting up the interdisciplinary European Studies course at Osnabrück University and, from 1997, was spokesman for the Hans Böckler Foundation's doctoral program "European Integration - Possibilities and Limits of Deepening and Enlargement". In the same year, he was also elected chairman of the "Osnabrück Universities and Trade Unions" cooperation advisory board. The defining characteristic of his lectures was his consistently human and approachable manner.
"Klaus Busch helped shape the research profile of the schools at the time to a great extent with his extensive knowledge of European and monetary policy and at the same time inspired entire generations of students with his humorous manner. For this, and for his decades of collegiality, we owe him a deep debt of gratitude," said the Dean of the School of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Daniel Mertens.
Further information for the media:
Dr. Oliver Schmidt, Osnabrück University
Communications and Marketing Office
oliver.schmidt@uos.de
