TU Dresden and Its Self-Governance

The TUD Dresden University of Technology is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany. Founded in 1828 as the Dresden Technical Educational Institute, it has borne the title “TUD Dresden University of Technology” since 1961 and is thus a member of the TU9, the association of Germany’s nine oldest technical universities.
In the third round of the Federal and State governments’ Excellence Initiative for the Promotion of Universities (the “Excellence Initiative”), TUD prevailed over numerous other applicants with its vision for the future (“The Synergistic University”) and has thus been one of Germany’s eleven Universities of Excellence since June 15, 2012. It is also the only University of Excellence in the new federal states.

Despite its designation as a technical university, TU Dresden is a comprehensive university. It consists of 18 faculties, which are organized into 5 divisions. According to the “Future Concept,” these divisions are intended to promote and leverage synergies among the administrative units. Of course, collaboration is also intended in the areas of teaching and research, which encourages the participating departments to achieve better results.
Together with the “School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,” the engineering sciences account for approximately half of the TU’s roughly 33,000 students. In addition to two technical divisions, the TUD also includes scholars in the humanities (e.g., philosophers and linguists), natural scientists (including those in mathematics and psychology), and medical professionals.

The actual operations of universities and colleges in Saxony are governed by the so-called Saxon Higher Education Act (SächsHSG for short). This unwieldy term grants higher education institutions the right to self-governance. Self-governance means that, although the university is funded by the Free State of Saxony, it can make its own decisions on many matters. Various democratically elected bodies are established for this purpose (see “Overview of Bodies” for details).