Winter semester 2009/10:

Rush of students at TU München smashes all records

16.10.2009, Press releases

Largest number of first-year students in the history of the TU München – 6,703 freshmen – Civil and environmental engineering on the upswing – 76 percent rise in economics. The Technische Universität München (TUM) has registered a record number of university entrants for the Winter Semester 2009/10, which starts next week. In spite of the selection process in numerous courses of study, 6,703 new enrollments have been registered to date. This represents a growth of 6 percent on the previous year and 40 percent over the past five years (Winter Semester 2004/5: 4,775 new enrollments). The overall student count is now around 24,500 (previous year: 22,338), which corresponds to 24 percent growth over the past five years.

TUM President Prof. Wolfgang A. Hermann does not want to speculate on the steep upward trend. “It speaks for the young talents that they are not disheartened by the current financial and economic crisis, and then there is the excellent reputation of the TUM, of course,” says Hermann. Beyond this all-time historical record – the TUM was founded in 1868 – it is the distinguished quality of the new students that the university is directing particular attention to. Many programs of study have dramatically lower dropout rates, which is clearly a biographic and economic benefit.

Taking stock at the start of the semester, the President thanked the Free State of Bavaria for its “University Billion,” which contributes to the maintenance of a high and competitive level of education, particularly in the “difficult subjects.” All three of the large TUM campuses, Munich, Garching and Freising-Weihenstephan, have recorded a mercurial pace of growth in individual programs of study, whereby civil and environmental engineering (up 13 percent), technology-oriented TUM economics (up 76 percent), mechanical engineering (up 11 percent) and forestry science (up 31 percent) are particularly conspicuous. Not surprising, but nonetheless gratifying in light of the newly founded TUM School of Education, is the growth in demand for secondary teachers qualification and vocational schools of 17 percent (MINT subjects: mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology).

The deadline for enrollment at the TUM has not been reached.

Kontakt: presse@tum.de