Aachen , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany
Total Students
National Ranking
The RWTH Aachen University was founded in 1870 after Prince William of Prussia decided to use a donation to set up an institute of technology somewhere in the Rhine Province. Funding local banks and an insurance company meant that it was eventually located in Aaachen, so building work began in 1865 and doors opened to 223 students during the Franco-Prussian War. There was a strong focus on engineering and particularly the local mining industry.
As Germany’s westernmost important city, Aachen is situated at the heart of Europe and very close to the Dutch and Belgian border, so RWTH Aachen – or Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen – benefits greatly from a mix of cultures and languages. Although faculties of philosophy and medicine were introduced in the 1960s, it is still most famous for natural sciences and engineering – and, since 2014, has joined forces with the city to give a prestigious annual Engineering Award to a prominent figure in the field.
The university has always had strong ties with industry, creating a European equivalent of Silicon Valley around it, and attracted exceptional levels of external funding to its researchers. For its size, Aachen is the dominant German city for university spin-off companies and offices of engineering firms.
The world’s first wind tunnel and particle accelerator were both developed at RWTH Aachen. Major innovations created onsite include a pioneering aircraft made entirely of metal and a diesel soot filter.
RWTH Aachen University is a place where the future of our industrialized world is thought out. The University is proving to be a hotspot with increasing international recognition where innovative answers to global challenges are developed.
Outstanding Reputation
The Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments provided a huge boost to the targeted development of RWTH Aachen by providing € 180 million of funding in the first approval phase. The institutional strategy on which the successful Excellence Initiative application was based has, in the meantime, been expanded to form a long-term strategy to strengthen all the areas of the University and enhance their profiles. In the process, it has gained great momentum, which can be seen, among other things, in the extensive building activities.
Visible evidence of this is the RWTH Aachen Campus that is being developed in close cooperation with industry and which is to form one of the largest research parks in Europe. Students and employees of RWTH Aachen will benefit equally from these developments and are expressly invited to get involved in shaping the individual initiatives.
A Multi-National Knowledge Community
The many stimulating ideas already have an impact on the whole urban region of Aachen and the entire tri-border area of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. An innovative knowledge community is evolving that is closely networked with some of the world’s leading research and industry partners. This brochure will give you a brief overview of RWTH Aachen as a major driving force behind this development and of its future prospects. At the same time, it also shows that Aachen, as a liveable and lovable city at the crossroads of three cultures, provides an ideal environment for creative exchanges.
THE GOALS
THE Ranking::
99
QS Ranking::
165
Type of Accommodation::
On Campus
Annual Cost of living:
10200 EUR / year
Average Annual UG Fee:
N/A
Average Annual PG Fee:
N/A
Application Fee:
N/A