Technische Universit

The historic Technische Universität Berlin is one of Germany’s largest and most internationally renowned technical universities. Located in Germany’s capital city – at the heart of Europe – outstanding achievements in research and teaching, imparting skills to excellent graduates, and a modern service-oriented administration characterize TU Berlin. The range of services offered by our seven Faculties serves to forge a unique link between the natural and technical sciences on the one hand, and the planning, economics and social sciences and humanities on the other. This is indeed a significant achievement for any technical university.

Internationalization is a basic principle of all scientific activities. The university’s internationalization strategy adheres to the concept of strategic partnerships with top-notch universities abroad. These include TU Warsaw, NTNU Trondheim, TU Vienna, TU St. Petersburg, POLIMI Milan, and - since 2017 - the University of Technology Sydney. These partnerships serve to encourage broad-based cooperation and to promote diverse joint activities in research and teaching. A further building block consists of strategic cooperation with science institutions in the three target regions of Eastern Europe, South-East Asia and South America. TU Berlin currently offers 26 dual-degree programs in conjunction with partner universities in England, France, Poland, China, Russia and Chile, in addition to 17 English-language Master’s programs. International students from more than 130 countries make up about 20 percent of the student body. In the Alexander von Humboldt Ranking, TU Berlin currently ranks second among all technical universities. Other statistics further underscore the university’s interna-tional approach: TU professors alone were involved in 1500 cross-border cooper-ation projects between 2009 and 2011. In 2012, around 120 international science agreements were in force at the central university level.

Family-friendly, equal opportunity and workplace health policies ensure a sustainable and attractive university. TU Berlin has earned the European seal of approval as a “family-friendly university” and is a multiple recipient of the Total E-Quality Award for promoting equal career opportunities for men and women. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has already twice awarded us its highest rating for how we reconcile work and family life. We are the most highly rated university in Germany in the nationwide CEWS ranking of equal opportunity aspects. A Dual Career Service, a Family Support Center, a TU-DOC Office and a School Outreach Center are practical examples of the modern instruments provided by TU Berlin to attract and actively serve its members. Promoting good health and fitness is also an important university task. 800 sports courses alone are offered each semester. Moreover, TU Berlin with its Olympic Athletic Center (Olympiastützpunkt Berlin) is a partner university in top athletics. We also actively support students involved in high-performance sports, whose participation in the Olympic Games, world or European championships demonstrates the successes of this university support program.

Students, Scholars and guests have access to on of Germany´s most modern science libraries with its three million items in various media and 30 000 square meters of floor space. 1300 work stations in various forms, campus-wide wi-fi, 300 computer workstations, several meeting rooms, multimedia workstations and a lounge area are used intensely by as many as 3100 visitors each day.

In 2013, TU Berlin initiated a vison of its own future. With broad support from all status groups, the university adopted a strategy for future university priorities up to the year 2020. These ranged from establishing a new culture of teaching and learning and further developing of quality management systems, to promoting diversity in career paths, reinvigorating existing structures and developing modern campus management approaches.

The City of Berlin itself is another major benefit of studying and working at our university: TU Berlin is a vital component of one of the world’s most interesting metropolitan cities. Few other regions can boast such highly concentrated scientific and research activities as does the “City on the Spree”. Around 200 000 people from around the world teach, conduct research, work and study at Berlin’s four universities, Chari-té – University Medical Center Berlin, seven universities of applied sciences, three art academies, 18 private universi-ties, as well as more than 60 research institutions. Important national research organizations such as the Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association and Max Planck Society maintain several institutes here, in ad-dition to eight research facilities of federal ministries. In the area of higher education alone, Berlin invests around 1.5 billion euros each year. But the city has much more to offer.

The TU Berlin has adopted a number of reforms over the past few years to help strengthen its competitive edge, for example by adopting both a seven-school approach and a new fundamental organizational strategy that features an innovative university administration and committee structure. This process is now to be applied to all university endeavors - especially as state funds continue to dwindle and competition between universities increases.

To further sharpen our focus we are also taking advantage of the generational change-over of professional staff. In the context of the “Bologna Accords”, the TU Berlin introduced an integrated Bachelor and Master degree program. New and forward-looking educational opportunities are taking shape, some of which are unique in all of Germany. Moreover, a comprehensive approach to quality assurance in term of course content will guarantee the highest possible level for the Bachelor and Master programs.

In the future, comprehensive quality management needs to be anchored in the core principle of good university governance. A number of reform projects in the area of university administration are currently being implemented: these range from facility management, to structuring of information and communications technologies, to delegating responsibilities to the faculties in terms of managing their own equipment and personnel budgets. The aim is to optimize all of the university’s science-support processes, for the purpose of achieving excellence in research and teaching. Moreover, a number of renovation activities are planned that will give the university a whole new “look” in just a few years.