Dresden University of Technology

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The Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) founded in 1828 does not only rank among the oldest technical universities in Germany but also among the most important ones as far as research is concerned.

With its 34.575 students and almost 4.000 employees, among them 438 professors, it is the largest university in Saxony, today ( not counting the Faculty of Medicine).

Having been committed to the natural sciences and the engineering sciences until the reunification of Germany, TU Dresden has developed into an all-around university due to the new faculties of social sciences and medicine. With its altogether 14 faculties it now offers a broad scientific spectrum which only few universities in Germany are able to match.

The multi-faceted offering of course programmes is constantly being expanded with international courses of studies. By the end of the 1990's the academic bachelor degree was introduced; meanwhile, this degree is offered by seven faculties and 12 courses of studies; likewise, the master degree is offered by eleven courses of studies. As of the winter semester 1999/2000 the bachelor degree was introduced at TU Dresden, a first in the realm of Germany's technical universities.

TU Dresden complements this broad offer of course programmes by participating in the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). This European system for accepting a student's performance by means of credits makes it possible to also accept a student's performance credits received from foreign universities ( from those using the ECTS). With the introduction of this system to almost all of the faculties, TU Dresden is one of the forerunners among German universities.

The university's consistent orientation toward competitiveness is also closely linked to its being restructured at the beginning of the 1990's. Of course, this also includes a commerce-oriented way of thinking and action as well as the expansion of already existing partnerships of science with industry and commerce. Leading commercial enterprises have acknowledged the university's commitment to practice-oriented teaching and research, among other things, with the foundation of thirteen endowed chairs.

The model of "result-oriented self-regulation" was developed, successfully introduced and applied at TU Dresden. Already in 1994, an exemplary patent initiative was started at TU Dresden, which safeguards an inventor´s patent rights and assures rapid conversion of inventions into marketable products.

Also students benefit from this practice-oriented and interdisciplinary co-operation as teaching and research are based on the prevailing principle of incorporating students and graduates into current research tasks as soon as possible.

As a techically oriented university TU Dresden offers favourable prerequisites for the acquisition of resources from outside funds. In the annual balance of 2003 this amount exceeded the 100-million-euro-limit for the first time; in 2004, TU Dresden even acquired 108 million euros in outside funds. Hereby, these resources from outside funds come first and foremost from public sources like the Federal Research Ministry, the German Research Society, and the European Union. Money from research on direct order for the industry is gaining increasing importance.

The close contact between enterprise, professors and students is the basis for the co-operation, without which the establishment of important businesses in Dresden during recent years would hardly have been possible. Names like Infineon, AMD and Volkswagen as so-called "beacons" stand for numerous flourishing subcontractors and service enterprises that, without the potential of TU Dresden, undoubtedly would have settled in another location.

TU Dresden offers practice-oriented and individually conceived continuing education courses to its graduates and any other interested individuals. More than 20 post-graduate courses , including those with internationally recognized degrees, blended learning and career guidance are part of the further qualification offers of the university.