Дармштадтын Технологийн Их Сургууль

The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a public research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882, it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and introduced the world's first degree course in electrical engineering. In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. TU Darmstadt has assumed a pioneering role in Germany. Computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, business informatics, political science and many more courses were introduced as scientific disciplines in Germany by Darmstadt faculty.

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Technische Universität Darmstadt together form the Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU). TU Darmstadt is a member of TU9, a network of the most notable German Technische Universitäten (universities of technology) and of the EU-supported European University Alliance Unite! (University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering).

TU Darmstadt is a location of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and seat of the Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence. TU Darmstadt is a member of the Darmstadt-based ATHENE-Center, the largest research institute for applied cybersecurity in Europe. The university is located in the IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, the "Silicon Valley of Germany".

Graduates of TU Darmstadt include Nobel Prize winners, entrepreneurs, managers, billionaires and politicians. As of September 2019, the university is associated with 4 Nobel laureates and 3 Wolf Prize in Physics laureates. For several years, TU Darmstadt has been one of the universities with the most top managers in the German economy. The university is currently among the top 3. The graduates include Oliver Zipse, Peter Grünberg, Chaim Weizmann and John Tu.

History

On 10 October 1877, Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, elevated the Polytechnische Schule to Technische Hochschule zu Darmstadt and thereby raised the status of this educational institution to that of a university so that the Abitur (a school leaving certificate from German Gymnasium schools qualifying for university admission or matriculation) became a requirement for admissions. In 1899, the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt was granted the right to award doctorates.

Early beginnings

The university's history is varied: its early phases began with the Höhere Gewerbeschule (Higher Trade School), which was founded in 1836 and received its own building near the 'Altes Pädagog' on Kapellplatz in 1844, followed by the Technische Schule (Technical School) in 1864 and the Großherzoglich Hessische Polytechnische Schule (Grand Ducal Hessian Polytechnic) in 1868. At that time, heated discussions were continually held in political circles on the issue as to whether such a poor state as the Grand Duchy of Hessen could afford a technically oriented higher educational institution, or even a polytechnic. After the foundation of Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in 1877, student numbers kept on being so low that in the years from 1881 to 1882 there were long debates in public about closing down the university. In this difficult situation, the local government and the university made the courageous decision to set up the first chair of electrical engineering worldwide. Thus the Faculty of Electrical Engineering came into being as the sixth faculty of the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, which was a novelty in academia, because until then no other university had had such a faculty. This forward-looking higher education policy paved the way for Darmstadt to take up a leading position in the rapidly developing field of electrical engineering, which in turn led to a continuously rising number of students, so that the closure of the university never was demanded again.

First steps as a university

In 1895, new buildings were opened in Hochschulstrasse: the Altes Hauptgebäude (the 'Old Main Building' of the university) and an institute building directly opposite. During the two decades before the World War I, all disciplines of the university underwent diversification and expansion. New disciplines such as paper making and cellulose chemistry were introduced, and as early as 1913 a chair of aeronautics and flight mechanics was set up.

Meanwhile, the political climate had become stormier, and a growing political polarization exploded in Darmstadt over the question of foreign students. The Technische Hochschule Darmstadt had an extraordinarily large number of foreign students. In 1906, for instance, as many as three-quarters of the electrical engineering students were from abroad, mainly from states of eastern Europe.

Academic profile

Growth in the student population

Following is the growth in the student population of TU Darmstadt:

Departments

Typical for a university of technology, ten out of its 13 academic departments (Fachbereiche, FB) are in engineering, natural sciences, and mathematics, while three departments are in the social sciences and the humanities. The departments (with number of the department) are:

• Department of Law and Economics (FB1)
• Department of History and Social Sciences (FB2)
• Department of Human Sciences (FB3)
• Department of Mathematics (FB4)
• Department of Physics (FB5)
• Department of Chemistry (FB7)
• Department of Biology (FB10)
• Department of Materials and Earth Sciences (FB11)
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (FB13)
• Department of Architecture (FB15)
• Department of Mechanical Engineering (FB16)
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (FB18)
• Department of Computer Science (FB20)

Fields of study

There are five fields of study (Studienbereiche), which offer interdisciplinary degree courses in which students take lectures in multiple departments:

• Computational engineering
• Energy science and engineering
• Information systems engineering
• Mechanics
• Mechatronics

TU Darmstadt offers about 100 courses of study. Beyond bachelor's and master's degrees, it also offers degree courses for teaching positions at German vocational schools and the secondary schools known as gymnasiums.

Research profile

TU Darmstadt defined three major research fields:

Energy and Environment (E+E)

Information and Intelligence (I+I)

Matter and Materials (M+M).

Each of these research fields cover several, focused Profile Topic which are taken to shape the academic reputation of TU Darmstadt.

Research

At TU Darmstadt there are several Sonderforschungsbereiche (SFB, collaborative research units) as well as several Graduiertenkolleg's (graduate schools) that are funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The university has attracted a considerable number of national and international research institutions to the Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt (Darmstadt – City of Science). Among them are:

• GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT
• Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD
• Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability
• European Space Operations Centre (ESOC)

European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellite (EUMETSAT).

• ATHENE
• German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence
• Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI)

TU Darmstadt collaborates with these research institutes on a broad basis. For instance, TU Darmstadt and GSI agreed on a strategic partnership, which includes collaboration in the establishment of the FAIR Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research.

Campuses

The university, with 164 Buildings and an area of property of 600 acres (2.4 km2), is concentrated at three campuses, Inner City, Lichtwiese and Botanical Garden. But individual facilities can be found in other parts of Darmstadt and in Griesheim, a neighboring town.

Inner City Campus

This campus lies very central in Darmstadt and is easily reachable by tram and bus from every part of the city. The departments located here are Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (FB18), History and Social Sciences (FB2), Human Sciences (FB3), Computer Science (FB20), Mathematics (FB4), Physics (FB5) and Law and Economics (FB1).

Campus Lichtwiese

The Lichtwiese lies in the eastern part of Darmstadt. It is reachable by bus, tram and a nearby train station. The departments located here are Architecture (FB15), Civil Engineering and Geodesy (FB13), Chemistry (FB7), Mechanical Engineering (FB16) and Materials and Earth Sciences (FB11).

Botanical garden

The Botanical Garden of TU Darmstadt is located near the Lichtwiese Campus and the Department of Biology (FB10) is located here as well. With additional buildings of the Department of the Materials and Earth Sciences (FB11) and parts of the faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology of the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da) it makes for an additional smaller campus.

Griesheim

Since 2005, TU Darmstadt owns the August Euler Airfield, Germany's oldest airfield, for scientific purposes. It is named after its founder August Euler, a pioneer aviator. The airfield is not only used to start planes, but also to conduct research on topics where wide spaces are needed, for example driver assistance systems and automotive lighting are being tested here. Located near the airfield are the wind tunnels of TU Darmstadt.

Internationality

With 18% (2017), the percentage of international students at TU Darmstadt is clearly higher than the average of German universities of 13% (2017/18). TU Darmstadt maintains partnership agreements with over 300 universities in 53 countries world-wide, which enable students to come to TU Darmstadt and to go abroad within their course of studies. For example, the Technische Universität Darmstadt has partnerships with the University of California, Berkeley, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Nanyang Technological University, Tsinghua University and Seoul National University. With Tongji University Shanghai, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Graz University of Technology, TU Darmstadt has developed strategic partnerships.

The Technische Universität Darmstadt has been awarded the title "European University" by the European Commission. Together with 6 other European technical universities, TU Darmstadt has formed the alliance UNITE! (University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering). The aim of the project is to create a trans-European campus, to introduce trans-European curricula, to promote scientific cooperation between the members and to strengthen knowledge transfer between the countries. The alliance includes Aalto University, the Royal Institute of Technology, the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the University of Lisbon.

The university offers international (English-language) Master's programs and a broad range of double degree programs. The Joint Master Programme "International Cooperation in Urban Development (Mundus Urbano)" is offered together with Université Pierre Mendès-France, International University of Catalonia, and Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata as part of the Erasmus Mundus programme of the European Commission.

TU Darmstadt is a member of the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research.

Student life

Activities

TU Darmstadt offers various recreational sports courses and operates three sports halls, a sports stadium including various fields, a swimming pool, and a fitness studio. TU Darmstadt won the university competition of the German Olympic Sports Confederation for the third time in succession and has since been awarded the title of the most athletic university in Germany. There are manifold accredited student groups, ranging from the Formula SAE TU Darmstadt Racing Team (DART), TU Darmstadt Space Technology (TUDSaT), Akaflieg Darmstadt, and Chaos Computer Club to a theater group, an orchestra, and the campus radio AudioMax. The annual job fair konaktiva, which connects approximately 10,000 students with potential employers, is organized by volunteer students.

Students' representation

Students at TU Darmstadt are represented by the students' parliament (Studierendenparlament, StuPa), which is elected annually and in turn elects the General Students' Committee (Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, AStA). The AStA is the students' government and engages in university politics and provides social and economic counseling for students. Moreover, it runs the café 60,3qm ("60.3 square meters"), a beer garden and a club in the Ducal Palace, a store for office supplies, and a bicycle garage. In addition to the regular university curriculum, students can attend various non-credit courses held by students and coordinated by the AStA.

Complementing the General Students' Committee, which represents all students enrolled at TU Darmstadt, the students of each department (Fachschaft) are represented by an elected students' council (Fachschaftsrat). Students of the Fachschaft participate in a number of committees of their department, such as the department's council (Fachbereichsrat), which consists of professors, students, academic staff and administrative staff.

Legends

Since the 1970s, the fictitious student Fritz Filter passed numerous examinations at the Department of Architecture before graduating with a Diplom degree in 2004. His thesis featured the design of the department building. Fritz Filter turned in multiple further architecture theses since then.

Housing

According to a survey determined in 2016, students in Darmstadt paid an arithmetic mean of 348 euros a month for rent, heat and utilities. With the German average being 323 euros at the time, this made Darmstadt the ninth most expensive city for students in Germany. This value only includes students who live alone, are not married and are pursuing their first degree. In 2016, on national average, approximately 20% lived with their parents, 12% lived in a hall of residence, 1% were lodgers, 30% were sharing a flat with others, 17% were living alone and 21% were sharing a flat with their partner. There are about 2600 beds in 10 halls of residence offered by the state-run student affairs organization Studierendenwerk Darmstadt for students of TU Darmstadt and the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Reputation and ranking

In the QS World University Rankings of 2026, the university secured a global ranking of 250, making it the 15th top university nationally. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the year 2026, it was placed within the 251–300 range globally and ranked between 26th and 30th in the national context. Furthermore, in the 2026 ARWU World Rankings, it fell within the 501–600 category on a global scale, while its national position varied between 36th and 41st.

For several years, TU Darmstadt has been one of the universities with the most top managers in the German economy. The university ranks currently number one. In total nine board members of DAX listed companies have studied there.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)