StudyQA — Dresden University of Technology — Dresden — Germany: Fees, Rankings, Courses, Admissions

Description History Accreditations Student's life

About TUD

The TU Dresden (usually mistakenly translated from German as Dresden University of Technology and abbreviated TUD) is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 37,134 students as of 2013. The name Technische Universität Dresden has only been used since 1961; the history of the university, however, goes back nearly 200 years to 1828. This makes it one of the oldest colleges of technology in Germany, and one of the country’s oldest universities, which in German today refers to institutes of higher education which cover the entire curriculum. The university is member of TU9, a consortium of the nine leading German Institutes of Technology. The university is one of the eleven German universities which succeeded in the Excellence Initiative in 2012, thus getting the title of a "University of Excellence". The TU Dresden succeeded in all three rounds of the German Universities Excellence Initiative (Future Concept, Graduate Schools, Clusters of Excellence).

History of TUD

In 1828, with emerging industrialization, the "Saxon Technical School" was founded to educate skilled workers in technological subjects such as mechanics, mechanical engineering and ship construction. In 1871, the year the German Empire was founded, the institute was renamed the Royal Saxon Polytechnic Institute (Königlich-Sächsisches Polytechnikum). At that time, subjects not connected with technology, such as history and languages, were introduced. By the end of the 19th century the institute had developed into a university covering all disciplines. In 1961 it was given its present name, the Dresden University of Technology (Technische Universität Dresden).

Upon German reunification in 1990, the university had already integrated the College of Forestry (Forstliche Hochschule), formerly the Royal Saxony Academy of Forestry, in the nearby small town of Tharandt. This was followed by the integration of the Dresden College of Engineering (Ingenieurshochschule Dresden), the Friedrich List College of Transport (Hochschule für Verkehrswesen) the faculty of transport science, and the “Carl-Gustav Carus” Medical Academy (Medizinische Akademie or MedAk for short), the medical faculty. Some faculties were newly founded: the faculties of Information Technology (1991), Law (1991), Education (1993) and Economics (1993).

Accreditation

Institutional Accreditation or Recognition - Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst

Rankings & reputation

The university offers a comprehensive spectrum of courses and research. It has a high reputation in technical fields such as electrical engineering, computer science, photo optics, engine construction and traffic logistics.

The university is considered highly underfunded. Until 2020 more than 1,000 jobs are to be cut at Saxon universities, including Dresden University of Technology. As of 2012 there is an annual funding gap of about 50 million Euros. Since March 2012, every single new or extended employment contract needs to be personally approved by the Minister-President of Saxony. The Minister-President of Saxony promised to end this situation in case the university achieves what media often call an elite status in the German excellence initiative. The university officially achieved the status on June 15, 2012.

The Center of Biotechnology ("BIOTEC") is a unique interdisciplinary center focusing on research and teaching in molecular bioengineering. The BIOTEC hosts top international research groups dedicated to genomics, proteomics, biophysics, cellular machines, tissue engineering, and bioinformatics.

The university is currently developing new strategies to make itself more independent from state funding and decision making. As one of the first universities in Germany it has opened a branch in Hanoi, Vietnam offering a Master's course in mechatronics. It also maintains close partnerships with leading universities around the world, e.g. Boston University, Georgetown University, Harvard Medical School, Tongji University and POSTECH.

In 2009 TU Dresden, all Dresden institutes of the Fraunhofer Society, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community and the Max Planck Society and Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, soon incorporated into the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, published a joint letter of intent with the name DRESDEN-Konzept - Dresden Research and Education Synergies for the Development of Excellence and Novelty, which points out worldwide elite aspirations, which was recognized as the first time that all four big post-gradual elite institutions declared campus co-operation with a university. These German semi-public institutes hire their team leaders globally and settle freely within Germany and the city of Dresden has appealed to an unmatched absolute number of them. Building on that circle the university and non-university institutions formed Dresden Concept to strengthen international awareness and the position in applications for the German excellence initiative. A significant decision about success or failure of this strategy concept was expected for June 15, 2012. The characteristic focus on the technical and nature-science subjects of almost all quality-endeavours displeased especially students from other subjects who have to suffer most from reorganization, cancellation and shortage of qualified staffmembers.