Dresden University of Technology

Dresden University of Technology (Technische Universität Dresden, TUD) is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany and is justifiably proud of its fine tradition in education. The buildings and institutes cover approximately 275 hectares and form an integral part of the city of Dresden, just south of the centre. If you add the extended area of the Faculty of Medicine located in another part of the town with its numerous hospitals, the university is even bigger. Originally founded as a technical school in 1828, it was awarded the status of Technical Academy in 1890 and in 1961 was recognized as a University of Technology.

Famous scientists established the international reputation of the alma mater dresdensis, among them :

Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann (1796-1844) cartographer, astronomer and meteorologist

Johann Andreas Schubert (1808-1870) engineer and designer of the first German steam locomotive

Gustav Zeuner (1829-1907), founder of the technical thermodynamics and long-serving director of the Royal Saxon Polytechnic

Heinrich Barkhausen (1881-1956), founder of the first German Institude of Low Voltage Engineering

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), specialist for Romance and Germanic literature

Since German reunification in 1990 new faculties have been added to the traditional faculties of science and engineering. These include Economics, Humanities, Social Sciences and Medicine. as a result the range of research possibilities and courses now offered by TUD are extremely broad and quite unique in Germany. In the last few years TUD has expanded its international links by adding new contacts, mostly in Western Europe and in North america, to the relationships that already exist with central and eastern Europe. In its international contacts, TUD puts particular emphasis on student mobility and research collaboration.

TUD, like the large majority of German universities, is a state university, one of four in the Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen). Apart from TUD we have the University of Leipzig, the University of Chemnitz-Zwickau and the Mining Academy of Freiberg. At present approx.20 000 students (1000 of them foreigners from over 70 countries) are studying at TUD. the university in total employs around 8500 persons and is one of the biggest employers in Saxony. Around 600 professors and 90 associate professors ensure the high standards of teaching and research that have established the reputation of TUD. The ratio between staff and students is better than at many universities in the western part of Germany and this makes a more personal atmosphere.

TUD consists today of fourteen faculties that enable you to choose from many different fields of science and have a truly interdisciplinary study plan. Moreover, TUD offers excellent research opportunities. All faculties have been thoroughly modernized since reunification, often with state-of-the-art facilities. The university is within reach of a series of first-class research instututes that collaborate closely with the faculties. Thus, there are eight Fraunhofer Institutes (for acoustic diagnostics, ceramic technologies, microelectronic circuits and systems, etc.), two working groups of the Max Planck-Gesellschaft and others.