Odense University, now Syddansk Universitet Odense (or SDU Odense in abbreviated form), has been part of the University of Southern Denmark since 1998 of which it forms the biggest campus. It is the university of Odense, Denmark's third largest city, and the island of Funen. When abbreviated, the university motto becomes FIONIA, the Latin name for Funen. The motto was created by the university's first rector, Mogens Brøndsted in 1966. Brøndsted also designed the university logo, featuring an apple tree.
Built in 1966, it had four faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Health Science and Natural Sciences. Approximately 800 researchers and 12,000 students (counting both undergraduates and postgraduates) are enrolled at SDU Odense. The Humanities faculty has by far the most students, mostly due to its varied selection of departments and degrees (a number of departments in the Humanities sector, however, have been either closed down or merged with other departments over the last few years).
Being an epitome of Danish functionalist architecture, SDU Odense has been nicknamed Rustenborg (which roughly translates as The Rusty Castle) by students and staff, because it is built from gray concrete slabs covered with oxidized metal plates. Its architecture has also given rise to other nicknames and slang expressions among students and staff. For instance, the administrative block goes by the name of Førerbunkeren ("Führerbunker"), referring to the architectural similarities between the university building and a stereotypical military building. The students' magazine is simply called Rust.
SDU Odense is considered the main campus of the University of Southern Denmark, both because of its relative size and because the central administration of the university is situated there. However each of the other campuses has its own local subadministration. Odense is also by far the biggest campus of the SDU - both in terms of physical size and the number of students, staff, departments and degrees.
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