RWTH Aachen University

Overview

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, known as RWTH Aachen University for short, is a polytechnic in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The university opened its doors to students in 1870 with the aim to mold professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills in an increasingly industrialized society. To that end, lecturers combined theory and practice in their instruction. Liberal education at the university was halted during the totalitarian regime of the Nazi Party but quickly resumed at the dawn of German democracy in January 1946.

Academics in RWTH Aachen University is organized into nine faculties, all of which offer more than 100 study programs. The faculties are Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences, Architecture, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Georesources and Materials Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Arts and Humanities, School of Business and Economics, and Medicine. In particular, the university is well recognized for its programs in mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, and electrical engineering as well as its courses in physics, chemistry, computer science, and medicine.

The university’s 88,000 square-meter ground houses the offices of 260 institutes and seven collaborative research centers and transregio, or Transregional Collaborative Research Centre, all committed to inquiry in the institution’s eight key research areas. Furthermore, there are 34 research training programs with 10 of them being Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft training groups. The institution also cooperates with the research organization Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research to form institutes for Applied Information Technology, Laser Technology, Production Technology, and Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology.

RWTH Aachen University’s dedication to research has won awards from the federal and state governments of Germany. It has three successful Clusters of Excellence: Fuel Science Center, Internet of Production, and Matter and Light for Quantum Computing. The latter is a collaborative project with the University of Cologne, the University of Bonn, and Forschungszentrum Jülich. Moreover, the institution is recognized as a University of Excellence for its project, the Integrated Interdisciplinary University of Science and Technology – Knowledge. Impact. Networks. Research undertakings such as these are in line with the university’s aim to enhance inquiry into the natural sciences and to promote interdisciplinary projects.

RWTH Aachen University is committed to gender and diversity in its community as well. The institution started accepting female students to its undergraduate programs in 1909 and continues to give them access to its courses of study today. The university has students, researchers, instructors, and staff who come from over 125 countries, too. This internationalization positions RWTH Aachen University as a global institution and allows it to strengthen its instruction and research.