RWTH Aachen | |
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| Motto | Zukunft denken[1] |
|---|---|
Motto in English | Thinking the Future |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 10 October 1870; 155 years ago (1870-10-10) |
| Budget | EUR 1.255 billion(2024)[2] |
| Rector | Ulrich Rüdiger [de] |
Academic staff | 6,264[3] |
Administrative staff | 2,979[3] |
| Students | 44,892[3] |
| Location | ,, Germany 50°46′40″N6°04′41″E / 50.77778°N 6.07806°E /50.77778; 6.07806 |
| Affiliations |
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| Website | rwth-aachen.de |
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RWTH Aachen University (German:RWTH Aachenor Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, lit. Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University Aachen) is a publicresearch university located inAachen,North Rhine-Westphalia,Germany. It is one of the oldest and leading technical universities in Germany (TU9) and, with about 45,000 students, is simultaneously the second-largest. It was founded in 1870 asKönigliche Rheinisch-Westfälische Polytechnische Schule zu Aachen inPrussia.[4] Renowned for its academic excellence, RWTH Aachen is funded under the national Excellence Strategy and is recognized as an elite research university.[5][6] The university comprises ten faculties and some 290 institutes.
RWTH Aachen maintains numerous partner universities and is a founding member of theCESAER association of universities of science and technology in Europe, andIDEA League, a strategic alliance of five leading universities of technology in Europe,[7] as well as its German counterpartTU9. It is also a member ofDFG ,Top Industrial Managers for Europe, ACalNet, ALMA,CESAER,DFH, JARA, NRW-Zertifikat, ENHANCE,PEGASUS andUNITECH International.
Since 2007, RWTH Aachen has been continuously funded by theDFG and theGerman Council of Science and Humanities as one of eleven (previously nine) GermanUniversities of Excellence.[8] RWTH Aachen regularly achieves good rankings in national and international rankings, particularly in engineering, natural sciences, and economics. In the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2025, RWTH Aachen University was ranked 36th worldwide in engineering.[9] In the QS World University Ranking 2025, RWTH Aachen University was ranked 1st in Germany, 8th in Europe, and 23rd worldwide in mechanical engineering.[10]
On 25 January 1858, princeFrederick William of Prussia (laterGerman emperor), was given a donation of 5,000talers from theAachener und Münchener Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, the precursor of theAachenMünchenerinsurance company, for charity. In March, the prince chose to use the donation to found the firstPrussianinstitute of technology somewhere in theRhine province. The seat of the institution remained undecided over years; while the prince initially favoredKoblenz, the cities ofAachen, Bonn,Cologne andDüsseldorf also applied, with Aachen and Cologne being the main competitors. Aachen finally won with a financing concept backed by the insurance company and by local banks.[11]Groundbreaking for the newPolytechnikum took place on 15 May 1865 and lectures started during theFranco-Prussian War on 10 October 1870 with 223 students and 32 teachers. The new institution had as its primary purpose the education of engineers, especially for the mining industry in theRuhr area; there were schools ofchemistry,electrical and mechanical engineering as well as an introductorygeneral school that taught mathematics andnatural sciences and somesocial sciences.
The unclear position of the new Prussianpolytechnika (which officially were not universities) affected the first years. Polytechnics lacked prestige in society and the number of students decreased. This began to change in 1880 when the early RWTH, amongst others, was reorganized as aRoyal Technical University, gained a seat in thePrussian House of Lords and finally won the right to bestowDr.-Ing. (1899) degrees andDipl.-Ing. titles (introduced in 1902). In the same year, over 800 male students enrolled. In 1909 the first women were admitted and the artistAugust von Brandis succeeded Alexander Frenz at the Faculty of Architecture as a "professor of figure and landscape painting", Brandis became dean in 1929.[12]
World War I, however, proved a serious setback for the university. Many students voluntarily joined up and died in the war, and parts of the university were shortly occupied or confiscated.
While the (then no more royal)TH Aachen (Technische Hochschule Aachen) flourished in the 1920s with the introduction of more independentfaculties, of several new institutes and of thegeneral students' committee, the first signs ofnationalist radicalization also became visible within the university.Nazi Germany'sGleichschaltung of the TH in 1933 met with relatively low resistance from both students and faculty. Beginning in September 1933, Jewish and (alleged)Communist professors (and from 1937 on also students) were systematicallypersecuted and excluded from the university. VacantChairs were increasingly given toNSDAP party-members or sympathizers.[13] The freedom of research and teaching became severely limited, and institutes important for the regime's plans were systematically established, and existing chairs promoted. Briefly closed in 1939, the TH continued courses in 1940, although with a low number of students. On 21 October 1944, when Aachencapitulated, more than 70% of all buildings of the university were destroyed or heavily damaged.
AfterWorld War II ended in 1945 the university recovered and expanded quickly. In the 1950s, many professors who had been removed because of their alleged affiliation with theNazi party were allowed to return and a multitude of new institutes were founded. By the late 1960s, the TH had 10,000 students, making it the foremost of all German technical universities. With the foundation of philosophical and medical faculties in 1965 and 1966, respectively, the university became more "universal". The newly founded faculties in particular began attracting new students, and the number of students almost doubled twice from 1970 (10,000) to 1980 (more than 25,000) and from 1980 to 1990 (more than 37,000).[14] Now, the average number of students is around 42,000, with about one third of all students being women. By relative terms, the most popular study-programs are engineering (57%),natural science (23%), economics andhumanities (13%) and medicine (7%).[14]
In December 2006, RWTH Aachen and theSultanate ofOman signed an agreement to establish a privateGerman University of Technology inMuscat. Professors from Aachen aided in developing thecurricula for the currently five study-programs and scientific staff took over some of the first courses.[15]
In 2007, RWTH Aachen was chosen as one of nine GermanUniversities of Excellence for its future conceptRWTH 2020: Meeting Global Challenges, earning it theconnotation of being a "University of Excellence". However, although the list of universities honored for their future concepts mostly consists of large and already respected institutions, theFederal Ministry of Education and Research claimed that the initiative aimed at promoting universities with a dedicated future concept so they could continue researching on an international level.[16] Having won funds in all three lines of funding, the process brought RWTH Aachen University an additional total funding of €180million from 2007 to 2011. The other two lines of funding weregraduate schools, where theAachen Institute for Advanced Study inComputational Engineering Science received funding and so-called "clusters of excellence", where RWTH Aachen managed to win funding for the three clusters:Ultra High-Speed Mobile Information and Communication (UMIC),Integrative Production Technology for High-wage Countries andTailor-Made Fuels from Biomass (TMFB).[17]
RWTH was selected to receive funding from the German federal and state governments for the third Universities of Excellence funding line starting 2019. RWTH's proposal was called "The Integrated Interdisciplinary University of Science and Technology – Knowledge. Impact. Networks." and has secured funding for a seven-year period.
2019 Clusters of Excellence:
RWTH was already awarded funding in the first and second Universities of Excellence funding lines, in 2007 and 2012 respectively.
The RWTH itself has a University agreement with theHarbin Institute of Technology since 2019. In June 2024 a research byCorrectiv journalists showed Chinese military involvement in several RWTH projects. From 100 RWTH professors inMechanical- andElectrical engineering 19 had coorperated with researchers fromNUDT and theSeven Sons of National Defence initiative and 45 had benefited from Chinese government funding. The money, in some cases channelled throughcompanies privately held by RWTH professors, went, among other things, to projects with military applications, including radar technology fordrones.[18]
RWTH Aachen University's 620 acres (250 ha) campus is located in the north-western part of the city Aachen. There are two core areas – midtown and Melaten district. The Main Building, SuperC student's center and theKármán Hall are 500 m away from the city centre with theAachen Cathedral, the Audimax (biggest lecture hall) and the main refectory are 200 m farther. Other points of interest include the university'sbotanical garden (Botanischer Garten Aachen).
A new building, the so-calledCentral Auditorium for Research and Learning (CARL) was opened in 2017. It offers space for 4000 students and replaces Audimax as the largest lecture hall building. The name of the new central auditorium, which is going to contain different lecture halls, is a reference toCharlemagne, who reigned his empire from Aachen in the middle-ages.[19][20]
The RWTH has external facilities inJülich andEssen and owns, together with theUniversity of Stuttgart, a house inKleinwalsertal in the AustrianAlps.
The university is currently expanding in the city center and Melaten district. The SuperC, the new central service building for students, was opened in 2008. The groundbreaking for the newCampus-Melaten was in 2009.
Double degrees and student mobility are promoted with other technology universities through the TIME (Top Industrial Managers for Europe) network. Furthermore, the RWTH is member of theIDEA League, which is a strategic partnership among four of Europe's leading research universities, includingTU Delft,Chalmers University of Technology, andETH Zürich, and was the first German university starting anUndergraduate Research Opportunities Program in 2008.
More than 7,000 international students are currently enrolled within the undergraduate, graduate or PhD programme. Compared to other German universities the portion of international students at the RWTH Aachen is higher-than-average.[14] The proximity of Aachen to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg combined with the subsequent exposure to a variety of cultural heritages has placed RWTH Aachen University in a unique position with regards to the reflection and promotion of international aspects and intensive interaction with other universities.
In Asia, RWTH Aachen collaborates withTsinghua University to offer Tsinghua-Aachen (Germany) Joint Master Program.[21]
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RWTH Aachen was ranked #105 globally (#6 nationally) in theQS World University Rankings 2026,[22] #92 globally (#6 nationally) in theTimes Higher Education World University Rankings 2026,[23] and #201–300 globally (#10–19 nationally) in theARWU World Rankings 2025.[24]
In the 2023 QS Subject Ranking, RWTH Aachen ranks first in Germany in mechanical engineering and materials sciences.[25] In the 2023 THE Subject Ranking, RWTH Aachen ranks second in Germany in engineering and computer science.[26] In the 2022 ARWU Subject Ranking, RWTH Aachen ranks first in Germany in chemical engineering.[24]
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In 2009, two prominent German newspapers,Handelsblatt andWirtschaftswoche, ranked RWTH Aachen the first place in Germany in the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, and computer science.[27] In 2012, Handelsblatt ranked The RWTH School of Business and Economics amongst top 10 within Germany.[28] In the 2015 ranking published byDAAD together with Centre for Higher Education Development andDie Zeit, RWTH Aachen also stands on top among other German universities in the aforementioned fields of engineering and computer science.[29]
RWTH Aachen took 3rd place in 2018 based on the number of top managers in the German economy measured by the number ofDAXboard of management members.[30] In 2019, RWTH Aachen took 2nd place.[31] The top 3 universities in 2019 with the most top managers were theLMU Munich, the RWTH Aachen and theTechnische Universität Darmstadt.[31]
According to theStepstone Salary Report for Graduates 2019/2020, graduates of RWTH Aachen are amongst the highest earners inScience, technology, engineering, and mathematics.[32] From 2001 to 2013, national rankings regularly identified RWTH Aachen as one of the best universities in Germany in the fields of engineering (especially mechanical engineering,electrical engineering), as well as amongst the top three incomputer science,physics,chemistry, and medicine.[33][34][35][36][37]
 | Thefactual accuracy of parts of this article (those related to paragraph)may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2012) |
Almost all basic lectures are held in German, but an increasing number of master programs require proficiency in English for admission.
RWTH Aachen is run by thefederal state ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia. Since the summer semester of 2004 the state of North Rhine-Westphalia allowed universities to request a maximum of €500 per semester as tuition fees. In the past, tuition fees applied solely for long-term students and second studies. Since the summer semester of 2007, all students enrolled at the RWTH Aachen had to pay these €500, if they were not exempt for one of several reasons put forth by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Since 24 February 2011 study fees were abolished by theLandtag of North Rhine-Westphalia (Legislation for the Improvement of Equal Opportunities to University Admission) with effect from Winter Term 2011/12. Universities will receive 249 Mio Euro of national funding for measures that improve the quality of teaching (e.g., through additional teachers and tutors) as compensation. Tuition fees per semester are still being charged.
The RWTH is divided into ten faculties:
Faculty 9 was originallypedagogical sciences, but it was abandoned in 1989.Teacher education, however, continued.[38] It was re-founded in 2025 as the faculty of computer science.[39]
The university cooperates with theFraunhofer-Institutes situated in the Melaten district ofAachen. The institutes offer workshops, courses and lectures for the students of RWTH Aachen.
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TheJülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) was founded by the RWTH Aachen andForschungszentrum Jülich in 2007.[40] Five sections are coordinated by the research facilities:
The Aachen Institute for advanced study in Computational Engineering Science (AICES) is a graduate school established in 2006 under theGerman Universities Excellence Initiative at the RWTH Aachen University. Research at AICES is broadly in the area ofComputational engineering, solvinginverse problems that find applications in mathematics,computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering andnatural sciences. AICES is a collaborative effort of 47principal investigators from 8 academic divisions of RWTH Aachen University, as well asMax Planck Institute for Iron Research andForschungszentrum Jülich.
RWTH Aachen University has educated several notable individuals, including some Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry.The scientists and alumni of the RWTH Aachen played a major role inchemistry, medicine,electrical, and mechanical engineering. For example, Nobel laureatePeter Debye received a degree in electrical engineering from RWTH Aachen and is known for theDebye model andDebye relaxation. Another example,Helmut Zahn and his team of the Institute for Textile Chemistry were the first who synthesisedinsulin in 1963 and they were nominated for Nobel Prize. Another example isB.J. Habibie, the third president ofIndonesia that contributed in many aviation advancements.Franz Josef Och was the chief architect ofGoogle Translate.Werner Tietz is one of the leading engineers of the Volkswagen Group and vice president of SEAT.
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