Technical University Munich

Technical University Munich
Technische Universität München (TUM)

Motto	The Entrepreneurial University
Established	1868
Type	Government Funded
President	Wolfgang A. Herrmann
Academic staff	9,302 (2011, 475 Professors; 5,729 Academic)
Students	31,0232 (2011)
Location	Munich, Germany
Affiliations	German Universities Excellence Initiative, PEGASUS
Website	www.tum.de

The Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan. It is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the largest and most notable German institutes of technology.

History

Main campus entrance at Gabelsbergerstraße, Munich

Timeline

1868 University founded by King Ludwig II.
1877 Awarded the designation Technische Hochschule.
1901 Granted the right to award doctorates.
1902 Approval of the election of the Principal by the teaching staff.
1930 Integration of the College of Agriculture and Brewing in Weihenstephan.
1949–1954: Reconstruction of the main building of the Technische Universität by Robert Vorhoelzer after WWII. Construction of a new administrational building and library.
1957 Given the status of a ‘public legal body’.
1958 Research Reactor Munich (FRM), Garching officially assigned to the TH München.
1967 Establishment of a faculty of medicine
1970 Renamed to ‘Technische Universität München’.
2000 Establishment of Weihenstephan Science Centre for Life & Food Sciences, Land Use and Environment (WZW) belonging to the TUM.
2002 The German Institute of Science and Technology founded in Singapore.
2004 Official opening of Forschungsreaktor München II, a leading neutron source, on March 2.
2005 TUM Institute for Advanced Study founded
2006 TUM one of three successful universities in Germany's excellence initiative
2009 TUM School of Education established
2012 TUM again one of now 11 successful universities in Germany's excellence initiative

Academic reputation

Technical University Munich has succeeded in defending its top-ranking position in the latest university league tables.

International rankings

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
In the background, Nuclear Research Reactors FRM I and FRM II

European Commission ranking

The European Commission compiled a list of the 22 universities in the EU with the highest scientific impact. This ranking was compiled as part of the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators, prepared by the Directorate General for Science and Research of the European Commission in 2003 (updated 2004). By this ranking, the EU's top two research universities are Cambridge and Oxford followed by Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Technical University Munich (Germany) at 3rd and 4th places respectively.

QS World ranking 2011

By QS World Rankings 2011/12, TUM is ranked 54th (overall) and 29th (in Engineering & Technology) in the world.

ARWU ranking 2011

By Academic Ranking of World Universities also known as Shanghai Ranking, TUM is ranked 1st in Germany and 47th (overall) in the world.

Major award laureates

Interior of the Faculty Building for Math and Computer Science

Nobel Prize

1927 Heinrich Otto Wieland (faculty 1913-21), Chemistry
1930 Hans Fischer (faculty 1921-1945), Chemistry
1961 Rudolf L. Mößbauer, Physics (“Mößbauer effect”)
1964 Konrad Emil Bloch, Medicine or Physiology
1973 Ernst Otto Fischer, Chemistry (Sandwich complexes)
1985 Klaus von Klitzing, Physics (Quantum Hall effect)
1986 Ernst Ruska, Physics (electron microscope)
1988 Johann Deisenhofer, Chemistry
1988 Robert Huber, Chemistry
1989 Wolfgang Paul, Physics (ion trap)
1991 Erwin Neher, Medicine or Physiology
2001 Wolfgang Ketterle, Physics
2007 Gerhard Ertl, Chemistry

From an agricultural state to an industrial state

Lithograph of 1900 ( Colour map )

In its capacity as an academic stronghold of technology and science, the Technische Universität München (TUM) has played a vital role in Bavaria's transition from an agricultural state to an industrial state and Hi-Tech centre. Even to the present day, it is still the only state technical university. Numerous excellent TUM professors have secured their place in the history of technology, many important scientists, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs studied there. Such names as Karl Max von Bauernfeind, Rudolf Diesel, Claude Dornier, Walther von Dyck, Hans Fischer (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1930), Ernst Otto Fischer (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1973), August Föppl, Robert Huber (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1988), Carl von Linde, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Walther Meissner, Rudolf Mössbauer (1961 Nobel prize for Physics), Willy Messerschmitt (aircraft designer), Wilhelm Nusselt, Hans Piloty, Friedrich von Thiersch, Franz von Soxhlet are closely connected with the TUM.

The prerequisites for an academic training in engineering were created at the start of the 19th century when the advancement of technology on the basis of exact sciences commenced. There were also calls for a 'university for all technical studies' in Bavaria. The 'polytechnic schools' set up in Augsburg, Munich and Nuremberg, which bridged the gap between middle schools and higher education colleges in their capacity as 'lyceums' (or high schools), were the first approach. For further qualification purposes, a 'technical college' was set up in 1833 as part of the Faculty of State Finance (Staatswirtschaftlichen Fakultät) of the Ludwig Maximilian University, which had been transferred from Landshut to Munich seven years previously. The experiment failed. Instead, an advanced 'engineering course' was established at the Polytechnic School Munich in 1840, which was the forerunner of what was later to become the 'Technische Hochschule München'.

Foundation of "Polytechnische Schule München"

University of Technology Munich building old

In 1868, King Ludwig II founded the newly structured Polytechnische Schule München, which had the status of a university, in Munich. It was allowed to call itself 'Technische Hochschule' as from the academic year 1877–78. The first Principal was the former Head of the Engineering Course, Karl Max von Bauernfeind. In the year of its foundation, the college took up residence in the new building in Arcisstrasse, which was designed by Gottfried v. Neureuther. In those days, more than 350 students were taught by 24 professors and 21 lecturers. The college was divided into five sections: I. General Department (Mathematics, Natural Science, Humanities, Law and Economics), II. Engineering Department (Structural Engineering and Surveying), III. Department of Architecture, IV. Mechanical/Technical Department, V. Chemical/Technical Department. Department VI. (Agriculture) was added in 1872.

Two of the university's long-standing requests were met by the state after the turn of the century: it was granted the right to award doctorates in 1901, and in 1902 the election of the principal by the teaching staff was approved. With an average of about 2,600 to 2,800 students, the TH München ranked ahead of the TH Berlin as the largest German technical college for a while. The first female undergraduate matriculated in architecture in 1905, after the Bavarian government officially allowed women to study at a technical college in the German Reich. However, the proportion of female students remained negligible; women accounted for just 0.6 per cent of the student body in the winter semester of 1913–14.

During the Weimar Republic, the TH München was obliged to make do with low funds and was drawn into radical political struggles in 1918–19 and again between 1928 and 1933. In the winter term of 1930–31, the National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB) became the strongest group within the AStA general student organisation of the THM for the first time.

Broadening the spectrum of subjects

The TH München was able to broaden its spectrum of subjects by taking over several smaller colleges that were no longer viable. In 1922, the former commercial college 'Handelshochschule München' became the VII Department of Economics. The former College of Agriculture and Brewing in Weihenstephan was integrated in 1930. Its agricultural unit was absorbed into the Department of Agriculture – which was located in Munich until 1947 before transferring toWeihenstephan, while the brewing section became Department VIII 'Brewing Technology' belonging to the TH München yet located in Weihenstephan. The tradition of the Weihenstephan campus dates back to the agricultural school founded in 1804, which was elevated to the status of an academy in 1895 and a university in 1920.

The eight departments of the TH München were reorganised into six faculties in 1934. This was reduced to five (General Sciences, Structural Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Agriculture, Brewing) in 1940.

During the Third Reich, the 'leadership principle' was imposed on the TH München. Its autonomy suffered considerable restrictions which affected such matters as the appointment procedure (for lecturers), etc. Based on the newly introduced 'Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service', lecturers of non-Aryan descent or those who were married to 'non-Aryans' were removed by the State, likewise politically 'undesirable' professors. The National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB) and the like-minded German Students' Association (Deutsche Studentenschaft) endeavoured to organise and influence the undergraduates with their radical national socialist doctrine.

Similar organisations were in place on the lecturers' level. Jewish students no longer enjoyed the same rights and were barred from matriculation from 1938 onwards. The TH München was required to contribute towards the Second World War effort with large-scale armament research. However, top-level basic research was still conducted in numerous institutes. The attitude of the university professors was characterised by opportunistic conformance on the one hand, and critical distancing and inner emigration on the other. A number of individual professors, employees, workers and students dared to demonstrate disobedience and obstruction.

It was under the hardest possible conditions that teaching activities recommenced in April 1946. 80% of the buildings on the main campus had been bombed. For many years, undergraduates actively supported the rebuilding of their university by providing hands-on (voluntary) restoration service. The Department of Economics had to be surrendered to the Ludwig Maximilian University in 1946.

"Research Reactor Munich" (FRM) third location

With the internationally acclaimed installation of the Research Reactor Munich (FRM) in Garching in 1956/57, the TH München gained third location. The Physics Department building was opened there in 1969, followed by the new building for housing the departments of Chemistry, Biology and Geoscience in 1977.

In December 1957, the university was granted its long-standing request to acquire the status of a 'public legal body'. In the following year, the first constitution drawn up by the university itself came into force. From the 1960s onwards, the university had to cope with an enormous influx of students. When the first economising measures were introduced by the State in the mid-Seventies, the conditions for students began to deteriorate.

A Faculty for Medicine spanning two sites: Munich-Haidhausen (Clinic 'right of the Isar') and Munich-Schwabing (Biederstein, Children's Clinic at Schwabing Hospital) was founded in 1967.

100th anniversary

The university's 100th anniversary fell in the 'hot May' of 1968. Critical tendencies were also in evidence at the TH München, particularly in the Departments of Architecture, Geography, Medicine and Social Sciences. In the 100th year since its foundation, the TH München comprised six faculties, 168 chairs and institutes, about 8,400 undergraduates and somewhere in the region of 5,700 university staff, who were employed in teaching, research, running operations and administration. In 1972, a sports centre with a 'central sports ground' covering an area of 45 hectares, that had previously been used for the Olympic Games was set up in the grounds of the Olympic stadion.

The new designation of 'Technische Universität München' was conferred in August 1970. With the introduction of the Bavarian Higher Education Law in 1974, the six faculties were replaced by eleven smaller departments, which soon resumed the designation of Faculties: 1. Mathematics and Informatics, 2. Physics, 3. Chemistry, Biology and Geoscience, 4. Economics and Social Sciences, 5. Structural Engineering and Surveying, 6. Architecture, 7. Mechanical Engineering, 8. Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, 9. Agriculture and Horticulture, 10. Brewing, Food Technology and Dairy Science, 11. Medicine. In addition, several interdisciplinary central institutes were established, initially for regional planning and environmental research, as well as sports sciences. The 'regulated student organisation' was abolished in Bavaria and replaced by structures of student involvement within the context of the newly introduced group representation concept.

Twelve faculties at three locations

Technische Universität München at Garching, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

In 1992, a twelfth faculty 'Informatics' was created by splitting the former Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics into two. Ten years later a Faculty of Sports Science and a Faculty of Economics were set up. The latter incorporated the former 'Faculty of Economics and Social Science. The Mechanical Engineering Faculty and the Faculties of Mathematics and Informatics moved from the main Munich campus to the spacious, well-equipped new buildings in Garching in 1997 and 2002 respectively.

The Weihenstephan campus was restructured for the start of the winter semester 2000/01 and realigned along scientific lines: the former Faculties of Agriculture and Horticulture, Brewing, Food Technology and Dairy Science, as well as the Forestry Faculty that previously belonged to the Ludwig Maximilian University, were collectively accommodated in the newly established Weihenstephan Science Centre for Life&Food Sciences, Land Use and Environment (WZW).

An "Entrepreneurial university"

Numerous other reform procedures have been realised since 1995 under the auspices of TUM's president, Wolfgang A. Herrmann, such as the introduction of efficient guidance and decision profiles, the resolute expansion of the university's autonomy in keeping with the new philosophy of an 'entrepreneurial university', university-wide core competences in the field of informatics, the establishment of central institutes and research platforms with an interdisciplinary focus, the introduction of numerous, attractive Bachelor/Masters degree courses, strategic internationalisation, enhanced collaboration with industrial and social partners, stepping up professional fundraising, the inauguration of the Carl-von-Linde Academy to house the Humanities, Cultural and Social Studies.

In 2002, the TUM initiated the setting-up of the very first subsidiary of a German university abroad with its 'German Institute of Science and Technology' (GIST) in Singapore.

The commissioning of the new 'Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Reactor Munich' (FRM-II) in 2004 heralded in a new era of neutron research with lots of promising applications in the fields of science, technology and medicine. The high-flux Neutron Source has served to place the TUM among the world's leaders in terms of scientific and technical research.

In the summer semester 2010, the TUM comprises thirteen faculties with more than 26,000 students (about 20 per cent of whom come from abroad), about 460 professors of both sexes and roughly 8,500 members of staff.

Campuses

main campus (dark brown building area) aerial view in Munich downtown

TUM’s academic faculties are divided amongst three campuses in the greater Munich area. The Main Campus in central Munich houses the faculties of Architecture, Medicine, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Civil Engineering, Surveying, Economics, Social and Sports Sciences. A second large campus is located in Garching, about 10 km north of Munich. Garching is home to the faculties of Physics, Chemistry, Informatics, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, as well as the Garching research reactor. Over the years, several research institutes, including the Max-Planck Society, the Bavarian Academy of Science and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich have joined TUM in Garching. The third TUM campus is located 35 km north of Munich in Weihenstephan near Freising, and is home to the faculties of Biology, Agricultural Science and Horticulture, Forestry and Resource Management, Brewing and Food Technology, Nutrition, and Landscape Planning and Landscape Architecture. There are also many institutions throughout Munich and the surrounding area that belong to TUM. These include the hospital “Rechts der Isar”, used for training medical students, and the Central University Athletic Complex.

The TUM, like many German universities, is a “non campus” university. However, with further expansion plans for the Garching site, more and more departments are to be placed into new buildings in Garching. The Garching campus, unlike the downtown area, is set up more like a traditional “quadrangle” style campus with a large grouping of buildings. At the moment, university buildings are spread over four main and several minor locations:

Munich

Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich (Main Campus)
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Surveying at the Technical University of Munich (Main Campus)
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Main Campus)
Faculty of Economics at the Technical University of Munich (Main Campus)
Faculty of Medicine at the Technical University of Munich (Klinikum rechts der Isar)
School of Sport and Health Science at the Technical University of Munich, Olympic Park (Munich)
TUM School of Education (since 1 October 2009, Munich)

Garching

Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich
Faculty of Computer Science of the Technical University of Munich
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich
Department of Mathematics at the Technical University of Munich
Physics Department of the Technical University of Munich

Weihenstephan (Freising)

Weihenstephan Center of Food, Land Use and Environment at the Technical University of Munich

Straubing

Science Centre Straubing

Singapore

TUM operates a subsidiary in Singapore. In 2001, TUM founded the German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) with its partner universities: the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. Today, the GIST is recognized in Singapore as an independent Asia Pte. Ltd. of TUM. The Institute offers both master's programs and training for managers and undertakes research on a contract basis. The GIST acts as a contact for students and young professionals throughout Southeast Asia. This Asian subsidiary leads the major project Electro Mobility for Megacities (2010) at the CREATE Research Campus of the Singapore National Foundation.

Organization

Werner-von-Siemens Auditorium Maximum at main campus in downtown Munich.

Extended Board of Management

The Extended Board of Management advises the Executive Board of Management and assists in discharging its duties. Alongside the Chief Executives (President, Chancellor, Vice Presidents), it consists of the Department Deans, the Speaker for the Central Scientific Institutions and the Speaker for the Deans of Studies.

Supervisory Board

The TUM Supervisory Board is the TUM's monitoring body and steering committee, comprising the members of the Senate and the External University Council. The External University Council comprises eight high-ranking representatives from the fields of science, culture, industry and politics. Current members include:

Susanne Klatten, Member of the Supervisory Board, Altana, BMW AG

Students

In 2011 TUM has approx. 26,100 students in undergraduate and graduate programs, of which 4,500 are foreign students.

Faculty

TUM has 461 professors, 5,564 academic and 3,032 non-academic staff.

It is divided into 13 departments:

Architecture
Business Administration
Chemistry
Civil Engineering and Surveying
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Informatics (Computer Science)
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Medicine, including the university hospital “Rechts der Isar”
Physics
Sports Science
Weihenstephan Center for Life and Food Science
Education

All faculties at a glance

    * Architecture
    * Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan
    * Chemistry
    * Civil Engineering and Surveying
    * Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
    * Informatics
    * Mathematics
    * Mechanical Engineering
    * Medicine
    * Physics
    * Sport and Health Science
    * TUM School of Education
    * TUM School of Management

Architecture

The architects’ faculty plans, designs and builds - and is associated with renowned names such as Gottfried von Neureuther, Friedrich Thiersch, Robert Vorhoelzer, German Bestelmeyer, Hans Döllgast and Sep Ruf. Comprising 27 teaching and research units, the faculty encompasses both a wide and a diverse portfolio and places the emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach. The four-year Bachelor’s degree course incorporating a year spent abroad, combined with an extensive visiting professors program, introduces the approximately 1,200 architecture students to international concepts in their field. The Technical Center impresses with first-class studio facilities for building models and prototypes. The TUM Architecture Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne is one of the best of its kind in the world.

Civil Engineering and Surveying

Construction · Infrastructure · Environment · Planet Earth: Civil and environmental engineers, geodesists and geologists at the TUM are visibly working together on the design of our civilization’s living space. The teaching and research programs also cover the energy aspects of sustainable planning and building. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) satellite project GOCE, which was largely designed at the TUM, will survey with hitherto unequaled accuracy the Earth’s gravity field in order to draw conclusions on the effects of climate around the globe, for example. Munich’s Oskar von Miller Forum of the Bavarian Construction Association provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary discourse.

Chemistry

Germany’s number one in chemistry has produced several Nobel Prize winners. The department attracts many international visiting scientists and research cooperation partners from the industrial arena. The globalized labor market values its graduates as experienced, versatile generalists. The faculty’s subject portfolio covers all core and applied areas of modern chemistry, including chemical engineering and construction chemistry, electrochemistry, water chemistry and radiochemistry. In addition to outstanding expertise in biological chemistry, catalysis research based in the TUM Catalysis Research Center is the faculty’s interdisciplinary focus of research.

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

The Deparment of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology is the largest and most researchstrong faculty of its kind in Germany. The nation-wide highest percentage of international students and visiting scientists is proof of the excellence for which it is renowned. The faculty’s outstanding reputation is attributable not least to its strong international ties, for example in the fields of energy technology, information and communications technology, and automation and automotive engineering. The Faculty’s professors include numerous IEEE fellows. Siemens AG has acted as one of its major industrial partners for decades.

Informatics

TUM Informatics is an international brand. Students not only learn how to design operational information systems for large enterprises, set up data networks between banks, develop traffic management systems and simulate technical and administrative processes. At the Cognitive Factory, they also design the production facilities of the future and develop new models for the interaction of people with “intelligent” machines. Modern software engineering has its origins at the TUM where mathematicians and engineers designed and built the first “program-controlled electronic computer Munich” (PERM) in 1956.

Mechanical Engineering

Today, mechanical engineering extends far beyond the traditional core subjects. It is linked closely with virtually all research areas at TUM, such as mechatronics, microsystems and medical engineering, bioprocess engineering, energy technology and power plant technology. Advanced automotive technologies (e.g. drive technology and electromobility) form the main focus, together with production engineering and aerospace technology, form the main focus. The institutes of the faculty closely collaborate with leading industry partners, especially from the automobile sector, but also with many small and medium sized enterprises. Aerospace technology at TUM brings together research and industrial partners in the Munich Metropolitan Region at the Munich Aerospace Center.

Medicine

TUM’s Medicine faculty is one of the leading teaching and research institutions in Germany. The university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar and the German Heart Centre Munich are much sought after for research-based health care in all fields of modern medicine. The TUM Medicine faculty has created its particular interdisciplinary effectiveness as a result of its links with the natural and engineering sciences. Although the faculty was only founded in 1967, it has repeatedly written medical history, for example with the world’s first double arm transplant in 2009. Future technologies in medical diagnostics are at the center of the research, as exemplified by early stage tumor detection in the “Centre for Advanced Laser Applications” (CALA), for example.

Mathematics

Mathematics forms the scientific basis of TUM, with pioneers such as Walther von Dyck, Felix Klein and Friedrich L. Bauer. Today, the faculty is the paragon of Applied Mathematics in Germany. It has been honored on many occasions and has an outstanding team of internationally renowned professors. Together with informatics, it is frequently the driving force behind scientific progress in the natural, engineering and life sciences and in medicine. TUM’s financial mathematics activities are highly relevant for business and economy.

Physics

The Physics Department is one of the major physics centers in Europe, offering a unique combination of basic and applied research. International scientists work at TUM in all areas of modern physics on questions of fundamental high-energy and astro physics, engineering physics, optics and the properties of solid and flexible materials, as well as biophysical challenges. The cooperation with a number of Max Planck institutes and other non-university research institutions is a particular feature. TUM physicists are based at the major transnational research centers, e.g. CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva and ILL (Institut Laue-Langevin) in Grenoble/France. Garching’s neutron physics is a magnet for top researchers across the globe.

Sport and Health Science

The faculty boasts one of the largest sports complexes in Europe, a legacy of the 1972 XXth Summer Olympic Games. The focus is on health science, linked on an interdisciplinary basis with other faculties including Medicine, Life and Food Sciences (Weihenstephan Science Center) and the TUM School of Education. An avant-garde approach is directed at research into preventive medicine and nutritional medicine. At the same time, the faculty acts as a service provider for the training of physical education teachers, and offers recreational sports facilities for students from all Munich universities.

TUM School of Education

The TUM School of Education (2009) sets the “gold standard” in Germany for forward-looking teacher training. It manages and coordinates teacher training in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) across the university. The faculty draws its scientific profile from cross-disciplinary research, also conducting Germany’s International Comparative Studies of Education and Training. With an extensive school network, the faculty represents the University’s “backward integration” into the national school system. The TUM Otto von Taube- Kolleg at Gymnasium Gauting is a forerunner for new education formats at the school / university interface.

TUM School of Management

This young faculty, founded in 2002, is currently on its way to joining the nation’s leading institutions in this field and ranks as a European bastion of entrepreneurship research. Excellent professors, students selected to an exacting standard, and the TUMspecific management – technology – life science profile characterize its unique position. Research and teaching take place at the interfaces of natural and engineering sciences. Study is demanding in terms of scientific methodology, but has a practical orientation at the same time. It is specifically oriented towards ultimately occupying leading positions in the economic sector while also creating the entrepreneurial environment for spinoff companies arising from TUM.

Center of Life and Food Science Weihenstephan

Biology is the key science here, while interdisciplinary research on the foremost subjects of this century – nutrition, land use, environment - is conducted at the largest of TUM’s faculties. Scientists work on safeguarding the quality and quantity of nutrition and gaining ecological, economic and social living space. Agricultural, forestry and environmental scientists, biologists, chemists, nutritional and food scientists, engineers and physicists research the entire life cycle of food and raw materials, from the genetic and biological bases to production to processing and consumption.

Courses

Advanced Construction and Building Technology
Advanced Materials Science (Elite graduate program)
Aerospace Engineering
Aerospace Engineering (GIST-TUM Asia)
Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
Agrimanagement
Applied and Engineering Physics
Architecture
Automotive and Combustion Engine Technology
Automotive Software Engineering
Biochemistry
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics (a joint study course offered by TUM and LMU)
Biology
Biomedical Computing (BMC)
Biophysics
Bioprocess Engineering
Brewing ("Diplombraumeister" degree)
Brewing and Beverage Technology
Building Materials, Construction Chemicals and Repair
Cartography
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil Engineering
ClimaDesign (Executive)
Communications Engineering
Computational Mechanics (with Elite graduate program)
Computational Science and Engineering (with Elite graduate program)
Condensed Matter Physics
Conservation - Restoration Art Technology Conservation Science
Consumer Affairs
Diagnostics and Training
Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Energy and Process Engineering
Energy Efficient and Sustainable Building
Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
Engineering Science
Environment Planning and Engineering Ecology
Environmental Engineering
Ergonomics - Human Factors Engineering
ESPACE-Earth Oriented Space Science and Technology
Finance & Information Management - FIM (Elite Graduate Program)
Food Chemistry
Food Technology and Biotechnology
Forest Science and Resource Management
Forestry and Wood Science
Geodesy and Geoinformation
Geosciences
Horticultural Science
Industrial Biotechnology
Industrial Chemistry (GIST-TUM Asia)
Industrial Design
Industrial Engineering (TUM-WIN)
Informatics
Informatics (Certificate)
Informatik: Games Engineering
Information Systems
Integrated Circuit Design (GIST-TUM Asia)
Intellectual Property and Competition Law (Executive)
Land Management (Partial degree)
Land Management and Land Tenure (Executive)
Landscape Architecture
Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning
Landscape Planning, Ecology and Conservation
Management and Technology (TUM-BWL)
Management for Natural Scientists
Management with Technology (TUM-WITEC)
Mathematical Finance and Actuarial Science
Mathematics
Mathematics in Bioscience
Mathematics in Operations Research (OR)
Mathematics in Science and Engineering
MBA (Executive) - field of study: Communication and Leadership
MBA (Executive) - field of study: Innovation and Business Creation
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering and Management
Mechatronics and Information Technology
Medical Life Science and Technology (PhD program)
Medical Technology and Engineering
Medicine
Microelectronics (GIST-TUM Asia)
Molecular Biotechnology
Movement and Health in Human Development
Nuclear Technology
Nuclear, Particle and Astrophysics
Nutrition and Biomedicine
Nutritional Science
Pharmaceutical Bioprocess Engineering
Philosophy of Science and Technology
Physics
Power Engineering
Product Development and Design
Production and Logistics
Renewable Resources
Research on Teaching and Learning
Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence
Scientific Principles of Sports
Software Engineering (Elite graduate program)
Studium naturale (Certificate)
Sustainable Resource Management
Systems of Information and Multimedia Technology - SIM (Elite graduate program)
Teaching at Academic Secondary Schools - Scientific Education (Part 1)
Teaching at Academic Secondary Schools - Scientific Education (Part 2 - Master)
Teaching at Middle Schools – Sport as a teaching subject
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Agriculture (Part 1)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Agriculture (Part 2 - Master)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Part 1)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Part 2 )
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Health and Health Care Science (Part 1)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Health and Health Care Science (Part 2 )
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Metal Engineering (Part 1)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Metal Engineering (Part 2 )
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Nutrition and Home Economics (EH) Part 1
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Nutrition and Home Economics (Part 2 )
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Structural Engineering (Part 1)
Teaching at Vocational Schools - Vocational Education Structural Engineering (Part 2 )
Technology Management (Elite graduate program)
TopMath: Applied Mathematics with Integrated Doctorate Program (Elite graduate program)
Transport and Logistics (GIST-TUM Asia)
Transportation Systems
Urbanism - Urban and Landscape Studies and Design

Research

The Technische Universität München is one of the most research-focussed universities in Germany and Europe. This claim is supported by relevant rankings, such as the DFG-Förderranking (DFG Funding Rankings) or the research rankings of the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE – Center for Higher Education Development). TUM was one of three universities which were successful in obtaining funding in all three funding lines of the Excellence Initiative in 2006. Along with the IGSSE Graduate School and TUM’s participation in five Clusters of Excellence, the strategic plan "TUM. The Entrepreneurial University” has been funded. The actual round of the Excellence Initiative (funding period 2012-2017) confirmed TUM's strategic concept, the gradudate school IGSSE, the clusters of excellence Origin and Structure of the Universe, Munich-Centre of Advanced Photonics, Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Center for Integrated Protein Research Munich and approved the new cluster Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology). In addition, TUM takes part in more than 20 Collaborative Research Centres, of which TUM is the spokesperson in nine. In the seventh European Union Research Framework Program, TUM coordinates thus far nine projects and also received six Starting Independent Researcher Grant and five Advanced Investigator Grants.

TUM features a strong, characteristic profile in the fields of Science and Engineering. Alongside the traditional key areas addressed by technical universities, powerful links have been also established with the life sciences, ranging from nutrition and food sciences, biotechnology and bioinformatics to medicine. Much of its innovative research and teaching has emerged from collaborations between the disciplines.

Through close collaboration with business and industry, TUM provided important contributions to Bavaria’s development from an agricultural land to a center of high-level technology. Even today, successful research collaborations with companies – among them Siemens, BMW, and Audi – contribute to expediting the transfer of knowledge and technology into the economy. More than 30 percent of TUM’s third party funding stems from third party sources such as these. Approximately 600 new research collaborations occur annually.

: Lots to do in the climatic chamber: Dr Alexander Christmann of the Chair of Botany (Eckert/Heddergott).

A Center of Excellence in Research

Technische Universität München (TUM) thinks and acts like an innovative modern company. It maintains links with regional, national and international research institutes. TUM researchers are constantly striving to improve the ways we live and work together – in a technology-defined society under growing pressure to find a sustainable path forward.

Faculties

The ESA’s GOCE satellite throws a new light on our planet (photo: ESA).

13 faculties form the bedrock of teaching and research at TUM. Their success is built on an ability to combine disciplinary excellence with interdisciplinary networking. Our high placing in national and international university rankings underpins our claim to excellence. At TUM, students will find an excellent study environment at the very cutting edge of scientific research. gy-defined society under growing pressure to find a sustainable path forward. More on research at the TUM Faculties

: The circle of knowledge: 13 academic departments frame research and teaching at TUM.

Integrative Research Centers (IRC)

: Knowledge networking: Researchers swap notes in the atrium of TUM-IAS (photo: Eckert).

Solving future challenges together. TUM has set up interdisciplinary Integrative Research Centers (IRCs) to bundle the specialist expertise of its faculties. They encourage scientists to open up new fields of research that transcend their individual disciplines by networking knowledge.

Corporate Research Centers

: The hub of neutron research: A view of the research neutron source FRM II (photo: Schuermann).

Cutting-edge research in highly specialist areas is concentrated at the seven Corporate Research Centers. New standards are being set, for instance, by the powerful Heinz Maier-Leibnitz research neutron source – the most versatile high flux neutron source in the world. The Catalysis Research Center is exploring ways for industry to save energy and raw materials. From biologists to mechanical engineers, several disciplines work side by side at the Central Institute of Medical Engineering to develop targeted medical treatments.

Research centres

TUM Institute for Advanced Study
Research Neutron Source "Heinz Maier-Leibnitz" (FRM II)
Walter Schottky Institute for Semiconductor Research (WSI)
Leonardo da Vinci-Zentrum für Bionik
TUM Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (nanoTUM)
Straubing Center of Science
Corporate Research Center of Food and Nutrition Science (ZIEL)
Corporate Research Center of Biomedical Engineering (IMETUM)
Catalysis Research Center
Munich Center of Molecular Life Sciences

TUM Graduate School

The TUM Graduate School was founded in May 2009. The goal of this institution is to facilitate all doctorates with further specialist and transferable skills as well as to encourage the building of international and interdisciplinary networks. The TUM Graduate School officiates as the parent organization of the TUM’s Faculty Graduate Center (FGC) and Thematic Graduate Center (TGC), encompassing over 3000 doctorates. Currently 8 FGCs and TGCs officially exist with a further 13 graduate centers in formation. The TUM Graduate School presides over the Graduate Dean. Founding Dean is Professor Ernst Rank who is also the director of the International School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE). The TUM Graduate School’s doctorates are supervised by a manager and an administration team.

Partnerships

TUM's first spin-off is the German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), located in Singapore (together with National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University).

TUM has currently over 130 international partnerships, among them:

Ecole Centrale Paris, TU Eindhoven, Technical University of Denmark, Technical University of Vienna,
MIT, Stanford University, University of Illinois, Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech
National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Tokyo,
University of Melbourne, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, and many others.

TUM is also a partner of LAOTSE, an international network for student and senior lecturers among leading European and Asian universities, as well as a member of the TIME network (Top Industrial Managers for Europe).

Application and admission

If you intend to apply for a university place at TU München, please bear in mind that along with the courses of study with unrestricted admissions there also are numerous courses of study with restricted admissions. Application procedures and rules depend on the respective course of study.

On the following pages, you will find the necessary information on application, admission and enrollment: