Technical University of Munich


The Technical University of Munich is a research university focused on natural sciences, engineering, medicine and social sciences concerning technology issues. It holds campuses in Munich, Garching, Freising-Weihenstephan, Heilbronn and Dover, Singapore. A member of the TU9 and host to 4 institutes of the Max Planck Society, the university has developed its teaching and research activities around 5 major topics: health and nutrition, energy and natural resources, environment and climate, information and communications, and mobility and infrastructure.
In 2019, TUM secured the title "University of Excellence" for the third time in succession under the German Universities Excellence Initiative, winning every round since the excellence competition's inception in 2006. TUM is consistently ranked among the leading universities in the European Union and its researchers and alumni include 17 Nobel laureates and 22 Leibniz Prize winners.

History

;Timeline
In its capacity as an academic stronghold of technology and science, the Technical University of Munich 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 university dedicated to technology. 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, Ernst Otto Fischer, August Föppl, Robert Huber, Carl von Linde, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Walther Meissner, Rudolf Mössbauer, Willy Messerschmitt, 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', were the first approach. For further qualification purposes, a 'technical college' was set up in 1833 as part of the Faculty of State Finance 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"

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 Königlich Bayerische Technische Hochschule München 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, II. Engineering Department, III. Department of Architecture, IV. Mechanical/Technical Department, V. Chemical/Technical Department. Department VI. was added in 1872.
Two of the university's long-standing requests were met by the state after the beginning of the 20th 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 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 to Weihenstephan, 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 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, 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 Students' League and the like-minded German Student Union 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 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 in Garching in 1956/57, the TH München gained a 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 and Munich-Schwabing 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

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 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.

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/Master's 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' in Singapore.
The commissioning of the new 'Heinz Maier-Leibniz Research Reactor Munich' in 2004 heralded in a new era of neutron research with applications in the fields of science, technology and medicine.
By the summer semester 2010, the TUM comprised thirteen faculties with more than 26,000 students, about 460 professors of both sexes and roughly 8,500 members of staff. In 2013, the university has 32,547 students, 507 professors, and 9,704 members of staff.

Campuses

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, 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

In 2010, GIST – TUM Asia also helped to set up TUM Create, a research center that engages researchers from Germany and Asia. TUM Create is currently focusing on the project on Electric Mobility Solutions for Megacities at the CREATE Research Campus of the Singapore National Research Foundation.

Organization

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, 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:
TUM has 566 professors, 10,501 staff members.

Students

As of winter semester 2018 TUM has 41,375 students in undergraduate and graduate programs, of whom c. 11,999 are foreign students. Student initiatives include the IKOM, a career fair, the TUM Speakers Series, a series of speeches which is organised by students, and open-air-festivals TUNIX and GARNIX.

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 Centers and Thematic Graduate Centers, encompassing over 3000 doctorates. Currently 8 FGCs and TGCs officially exist with a further 13 graduate centers in formation. The TUM Graduate School is presided over by the Graduate Dean. The Founding Dean is Ernst Rank, who is also the director of the International School of Science and Engineering. The TUM Graduate School’s doctorates are supervised by a manager and an administration team.

Research

The Technical University of Munich is one of the most research-focused universities in Germany and Europe. This claim is supported by relevant rankings, such as the DFG-Förderranking or the research rankings of the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung. 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 International Graduate School of Science and Engineering and TUM’s participation in five Clusters of Excellence, the strategic plan "TUM. The Entrepreneurial University" was funded. The current round of the Excellence Initiative confirmed TUM's strategic concept, the graduate school IGSSE, the clusters of excellence Origin and Structure of the Universe, Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics, Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Center for Integrated Protein Science 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 Grants and five Advanced Investigator Grants.
TUM features a characteristic profile in the fields of Science and Engineering. Alongside the traditional key areas addressed by technical universities, links have been also established with the life sciences, ranging from nutrition and food sciences, biotechnology and bioinformatics to medicine. Much of its research and teaching has emerged from collaborations between the disciplines.
Through collaboration with business and industry, TUM provided important contributions to Bavaria's development from an agricultural land to a center of high-level technology. 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.
It is part of a 6-million-euro project of a clinical mass spectrometry center in Munich.

Research centres

TUM's first spin-off is the German Institute of Science and Technology – TUM Asia, located in Singapore.
TUM has currently over 175 international partnerships, among them:
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.

Scholarships

Since TUM is a research university, it offers several scholarship programs to students such as:
The Technical University of Munich ranked 7th in 2018 based on the number of top managers in the Germany economy measured by the number of DAX board of management members. In 2019, TU Munich fell by several places and ranked 11th. The top 3 universities in 2019 with the most top managers were the LMU Munich, the RWTH Aachen, the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the University of Göttingen.
According to the funding report of the German Research Foundation from 2018, which breaks down the grants for the period 2014 to 2016, TU Munich ranks 3rd in life sciences, 13th in natural sciences and 18th in engineering, normalized to the size of the university. The Technical University of Munich took 3rd place absolute in computer science and 3rd place absolute in electrical engineering. The funds of the German Universities Excellence Initiative are included. In a competitive selection process, the DFG selects the best research projects from researchers at universities and research institutes and finances them. The ranking is thus regarded as an indicator of the quality of research.
According to the Stepstone Salary Report for Graduates 2017, graduates of the TU Munich earn the fifth-highest starting salaries in information technology in Germany compared to graduates of other universities. In the engineering sciences and natural sciences, the university is not among the top 10. In the natural sciences the University of Münster ranks first. In engineering and information technology the Technische Universität Darmstadt ranks first.
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. By this ranking, the EU's top two research universities as defined by "impact" are Cambridge and Oxford followed by Eindhoven and TUM at 3rd and 4th places respectively.
By QS World Rankings 2020, TUM is ranked 1st in Germany at 55th place in the world. In Physics & Astronomy the TUM attained 16th position which is the highest ranking among the German universities. The university also rose in the natural sciences reaching the 19th position.
In the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2018, TUM is ranked at 48th place in the world and 2nd in Germany. In the subject area "Chemistry", TUM stands at 14th place worldwide and at 1st place in Germany.
In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019, TUM stands at 44th place worldwide and 2nd nationwide. In the subject area "Engineering and Technology," TUM is ranked at 20th place and in the subject area "Computer Science," TUM is ranked at 16th place worldwide.
The Best Global Universities Ranking of the U.S. News & World Report ranks TUM 3rd nationally and 80th in the world as of 2019.
In the 2018 Global University Employability Ranking of the Times Higher Education World Rankings TUM was ranked 8th in the world and 2nd in Europe. TUM is ranked 4th overall in Reuters 2017 European Most Innovative University ranking.
In November 2018 Expertscape recognized TUM as #10 in the world for expertise in Pancreatic Cancer.

Major Award Laureates

Nobel Prize

16 Nobel Prize winners have studied, taught and researched at the TUM: