Facts & Figures
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RWTH Aachen University
RWTH Aachen has set clearly defined goals for itself. By the year 2020, it aims to be the best German university of technology and one of the top five in Europe as measured by academic output, by the quality of its graduates, and by external funding. The Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments provided a huge boost to the further development of RWTH Aachen. In the process it has gained great momentum, which can be seen, among other things, in extensive building activities and comprehensive staff development initiatives.
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Profile Areas Following an integrative approach, RWTH sets out to contribute to solving the great challenges of our time. Under the Excellence Initiative, the University established eight profile areas with a focus on comprehensive interdisciplinary research projects:
· Computational Science & Engineering · Energy, Chemical & Process Engineering · Information & Communication Technology · Material Science & Engineering · Medical Science & Technology · Molecular Science & Engineering · Mobility & Transport Engineering · Production Engineering
The profile areas focus on research in large-scale projects and undertake significant interdisciplinary research ventures.
Reputation Again and again, the University achieves top positions in both national and international university rankings. In 2015, the German weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche placed RWTH in first place nationally for the natural sciences, mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering. Over the last years, RWTH has been constantly voted into the top three in the technology subjects and the natural sciences. According to the “2015 QS World University Rankings by Subject,” RWTH is ranked 12th worldwide in mechanical engineering, and is thus the best-positioned non-Anglo-American university in this subject. Receiving 143.5 million Euros in research funding from the German Research Foundation DFG, RWTH comes in first place among the German universities.
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RWTH in Numbers 2014/2015 Total number of students
42,298
Newly enrolled students
8,190
International students
7,056
Graduates
6,480
Courses of Study
155
Professorships
538
Staff
9,191
Publications
4,833
Budget (in million Euros)
839.5
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Number of Students in the Winter Term of 2014/15 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
12,050
Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences 8,14 9 Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
4,267
Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering
4,256
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
3,745
Faculty of Civil Engineering
3,508
Faculty of Medicine
3,014
School of Business and Economics
1,774
Faculty of Architecture
1,508
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RWTH Map Oxford
London
Calais
Antwerp
Brussels
Reims
Paris
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Hamburg
Rotterdam
FZJ · Forschungszentrum Jülich
Jülich
Düsseldorf
Maastricht Cologne Aachen
RWTH Aachen University Hospital
Bonn
Liège
RWTH Aachen University
Strasbourg
Stuttgart
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Teaching and Learning & Career
Excellent teaching only remains excellent if it is continually being enhanced. Against this backdrop, RWTH Aachen has launched the largest self-funded teaching methodology initiative at a German university. Drawing on the concept of “blended learning,� it promotes a mix of face-to-face teaching and mediasupported study units. It has established the Media for Teaching center, which provides comprehensive services in media-supported learning. Evaluations and records of achievement show that students and teaching staff consider electronic exams, direct feedback technology, and flipped classrooms to be enriching teaching elements. In order to expand and further develop the media-based teaching methods already practiced at the University, RWTH is investing 2.2 million Euros in this project over the next few years. Teaching staff, service points and the IT Center are to join forces for projects in teaching and learning.
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RWTH Aachen offers workshops, individual advising, and coachings for diverse target groups on a regular basis. Three institutions are responsible for pooling the course offerings: As the central point of contact for students, the Career Center offers a comprehensive program of career training seminars and provides advising on application processes. The Center for Doctoral Studies provides continuing education and transferable skills training opportunities for doctoral candidates. The Center for Professional Leadership supports staff members in developing career-relevant leadership skills. With their initiative “A Good Academic Start in Engineering�, RWTH and FH Aachen are supporting students and prospective students by enabling them to assess their potential for a particular degree subject as well as possible, either prior to or at the beginning of their studies. This is intended to address the special needs of beginning students and reduce drop-out rates.
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JARA Jülich Aachen Research Alliance Focusing competence – shaping the future: in the Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance, known as JARA for short, RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich have established a model that is unique in Germany in order to overcome the insularity of university and non-university research and teaching. The research alliance was established in 2007 as part of the Institutional Strategy developed under the first phase of Germany’s Excellence Initiative; in the second phase it saw considerable expansion. The Alliance has established a scientific environment that is in the top international league and is attractive to the brightest researchers worldwide. It opens up opportunities to realize research projects that would not be possible for one partner alone. JARA has a staff of about 4,000 and a budget of around € 500 million. In 2014, the investment volume was around € 60 million.
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The Six JARA Research Areas
Translational Brain Research
Sustainable Energy
Fundamentals of Future Information Technology
Key Research Areas
Computer Simulation with Supercomputers
Particle Physics and Antimatter
Researching Soft Matter
Source: JARA 09/2015
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RWTH International Locations worldwide Beijing Liaison Office of RWTH Aachen University, China German University of Technology, Muscat, Oman Thai-German Graduate School, Bangkok, Thailand
USA & Canada 35 agreements with 22 universities
Top 5 countries of origin of international students 1. China 2. India 3. Turkey 4. Iran 5. Luxembourg
Key partner countries and selected cooperations Brazil Universidade de São Paolo China Tsinghua University Europe Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) Écoles Centrales, France KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden India IIT Madras Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology Keio University Osaka University Korea Seoul National University KAIST Russia Moscow State University St. Petersburg Polytechnic University USA/Canada Georgia Institute of Technology University of Michigan UC Berkeley University of Pennsylvania
South America 25 agreements with 15 universities
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Europe & Russia 1,250 agreements with 412 universities (incl. ERASMUS)
Africa 10 agreements with 5 universities
Australia & New Zealand 15 agreements with 8 universities
Asia 120 agreements with 53 universities
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RWTH International Selected Networks
English-Taught Master’s Programs
CESAER - Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research EUA - European University Association IAU - International Association of Universities IDEA League - A collaborative network between four leading European Universities of Science and Technology: Delft University of Technology, ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, and RWTH Aachen University T.I.M.E. Association: International collaborative network of 54 universities with a focus on dual Master‘s programs UNITECH International A joint program of leading European universities of technology in collaboration with industry
· Applied Geophysics · Applied Geosciences - Energy and Mineral Resources - Geomaterials · Automotive Engineering · Biomedical Engineering · Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Engineering, with specialization in: - Communications Engineering - Electrical Power Engineering · Media Informatics · Metallurgical Engineering · Physics · Simulation Sciences · Software Systems Engineering
Master‘s programs offered by RWTH International Academy · Computer-Aided Conception and Production in Mechanical Engineering · Laboratory Animal Science · Management and Engineering in Electrical Power Systems · Management and Engineering in Production Systems · Production Systems Engineering · Textile Engineering
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RWTH Entrepreneurship Center
In the last 25 years, around 1,000 high-tech businesses have been founded in the Aachen region, more than half of them spin-offs from RWTH Aachen. The University’s Entrepreneurship Center provides comprehensive support for the implementation of business ideas. Benefitting from these services, it was possible for the founders of Apodius GmbH to develop the “Apodius Vision System,” an optical inspection system which ensures a high quality of fiber composite structures. One of the largest development service providers is FEV GmbH, which was founded in 1978 by RWTH professor Franz Pischinger. Soon the company developed into a worldwide leading service provider for the automotive industry with more than 4,000 members of staff in 35 locations. In 2015, Franz Pischinger was honored with the Aachen Engineering Award for his life’s work. A recent example is the company Medical Adhesive Revolution GmbH, MAR for short. With their business idea centered around a biodegradable surgical adhesive for medical applications, the company founders won the 2014 Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest graduate-level and student startup competition worldwide, receiving about 500,000 US dollars. In 2013, RWTH Aachen was awarded a prize for its comprehensive entrepreneurship support strategy in the “EXIST Gründerkultur – Die Gründerhochschule” competition by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The strategy, which integrates the entrepreneurship activities of the University, was developed under the direction of RWTH professor Malte Brettel.
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RWTH Aachen Campus
With 19 research clusters on an 800,000 square meter site, one of the largest technology-oriented research landscapes in Europe is currently being built. By pooling expertise from science and industry in the clusters, where the unique know-how of the contributing partners is further developed, a high-practice orientation is secured. More than 250 companies are already contributing to research on RWTH Aachen Campus. Six clusters are currently being established: Smart Logistics, Production Engineering, Photonics, Bio-Medical Engineering, Heavy Duty Drives, and Sustainable Energy.
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RWTH International Academy
The educational and research focus of RWTH is highly practice-oriented: 60 to 80 percent of its professors come from business and industry careers. Furthermore, a large number of collaborations with companies are in place. As the official executive education academy of RWTH Aachen, the RWTH International Academy is backed by the broad expertise of the University’s wide range of institutes and research departments. This close cooperation makes it possible to develop and market practice-oriented continuing education offerings for professionals.
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Culture & Sports
The RWTH Sports Center has a broad range of popular sports offerings: each week, more than 12,000 students and university employees participate in over 70 sports courses such as handball, diving, kung fu, and many others. Concerts, music and theater: RWTH Aachen not only offers lectures and classes but also swinging jazz, classical music, scenic dialogues, and poetry slams. The University’s lively cultural scene invites you to join in or listen and watch. The Student Unions’ executive committee, known as AStA, is also actively involved in the cultural life at RWTH Aachen. In 2014, for example, the vocal ensemble AStAcapella was founded: In their performances, 11 students offer an interesting cross section of pop and rock songs.
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The City of Aachen
Located in the three-country point together with Belgium and the Netherlands, this university town distinguishes itself through a multicultural and unique quality of life. Cologne, Düsseldorf, Maastricht, Brussels, Paris, London, and the North Sea can all be quickly reached. Over 55,000 students from RWTH Aachen, FH Aachen, and the NRW Catholic University of Applied Sciences – statistically a fifth of the over 250,000 residents – roam the streets between the university campus, central square, city hall, old town, Kurpark, and street cafés. They mingle among numerous tourists who want to witness the European spirit, Charlemagne’s throne in the 1,200 year old cathedral, and the city hall from the 14th century. Annual highlights include the awarding of the International Charlemagne Prize, the Aachen Engineering Award, and the Orden wider den tierischen Ernst during Carnival, as well as the CHIO equestrian festival.
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Contacts RWTH Aachen University Templergraben 55 52062 Aachen GERMANY www.rwth-aachen.de/en
International Office www.rwth-aachen.de/international
AStA RWTH www.asta.rwth-aachen.de
International Academy www.academy.rwth-aachen.de/en
Research and Career Department www.rwth-aachen.de/research-career
RWTH Aachen Campus www.rwth-aachen.de/rwthcampus/en
Press and Communications Department www.rwth-aachen.de/pressoffice
JARA www.rwth-aachen.de/jara/en
University Sports www.rwth-aachen.de/hsz
RWTH Alumni www.rwth-aachen.de/alumni
Student Advice Center www.rwth-aachen.de/studentadvice
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Publishing Information Published on behalf of the Rector Department 3.0 - Press and Communications RWTH Aachen University Editor Celina Begolli
Photos Carl Brunn (p. 20) Joerg Hempel/Stadt Aachen (p. 21) Hochschulsportzentrum Aachen (p. 20) Andreas Schmitter (back cover) Peter Winandy (front cover, pp. 2, 4/5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 18/19, 20, 22, 23)
Responsible Renate Kinny
Design and graphics (pp. 6/7, 12/13) Kerstin Lünenschloß
Data & Figures Department 2.0 - International Office Department 6.0 - Planning, Development and Controlling
Translation Ralf Pütz and Helen Merenda Print schmitz druck&medien GmbH & Co. KG Status 09/2015