RWTH Aachen University
With 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen University is one of Europe’s leading institutions for science and research. Currently around 31,400 students are enrolled in over 100 academic programmes. Over 5,000 of them are international students hailing from 120 different countries.
The scientific education students receive at RWTH Aachen is firmly rooted in real-world applications. As a result, our graduates are highly sought after by businesses as trainees and for executive positions.
National and international rankings show that our graduates have a high aptitude for managing complex tasks, constructive problem solving in teams, and taking on leadership responsibilities. It should come as no surprise, then, that one out of every five board members at German corporations is an alumnus of RWTH Aachen.
Work conducted in the research centres at RWTH Aachen University is strongly oriented toward the current needs of industry, commerce, and the professions. This has led to numerous innovations, patents, and licenses.
The individual competence centres at RWTH Aachen collaborate very effectively across departments and faculties in interdisciplinary groups and forums, while still maintaining a strong focus on their own department specialisation. For instance, the computer science and biology departments - and even the social sciences - all have a clear connection to the school's engineering focus.
This was a crucial factor in motivating multinational corporations such as Philips, Microsoft, and Ford to locate their research institutions in the Aachen region. Against this background, it comes as no surprise that for several years now, RWTH Aachen University ranks as the premier German university with regard to external funding: According to a 2010 report by the Federal Statistical Office, in 2008 RWTH Aachen University was able to secure €193 million in funding from business and industry as well as in public research grants. This excellent result demonstrates RWTH’s special status among German universities and illustrates its success in linking academic research with private sector innovation activity.