about RWTH Aachen University (legacy information)


RWTH Aachen University has a global reputation for state-of-the-art research and market-driven academic studies, especially in engineering and natural sciences. RWTH Aachen University has occupied a top place in German college rankings in many areas for years, be it with respect to its reputation in leading corporations, its academic reputation or its high research success with an optimally practical focus.

More than 40,000 students of the university – one of Germany’s three largest for technical degree courses – study in ten schools. RWTH Aachen University offers research possibilities in the most diverse fields such as natural sciences, computer science, engineering, economics and medicine. In addition, it has numerous cooperation programs with many universities and research centers throughout the world.

Thinking the Future

The Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments provided a huge boost to the further development of RWTH Aachen University. 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 campuses 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.

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.

RWTH Aachen is a major driving force behind this development. And Aachen, as a liveable and lovable city at the crossroads of three cultures, provides an ideal environment for this creative process of development.

RWTH Graduates in High Demand

With its 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen is among the leading European scientific and research institutions. 43,721 students in 152 courses of study are registered for the winter semester of 2015/16, including 7,904 international students from 125 countries. Teaching at RWTH Aachen is first and foremost application-oriented. Its graduates are therefore sought-after as junior executives and leaders in business and industry.

National rankings (de) and international assessments attest to the RWTH graduates’ marked ability to handle complex tasks, to solve problems constructively in team work and to take on leadership roles. It is therefore not surprising that many board members of German corporate groups studied at RWTH Aachen.