Computational Linguistics can be studied at the University of Düsseldorf as an area of concentration (Schwerpunkt) within the subject (Fach) General Linguistics. 

Computational Linguistics in Düsseldorf deals especially with formal models of natural languages in connection with the design and implementation of linguistic formalisms. As such it builds a link between Computer Science and Theoretical Linguistics. In its practical applications Computational Linguistics centers on the development of software for the automatic processing of natural languages. Some of the important areas of application are machine translation, automatic extraction of information from texts, speech recognition, and speech synthesis.

People need a strong background in both Linguistics and Computer Science in order to study Computational Linguistics successfully. Especially important is the ability to work on a very abstract level with systems of formal notation. Because of its interdisciplinary character Computational Linguistcs tends to be a field that attracts people later in their studies rather than at the beginning, but there always can be exceptions.