Starting uni together: TU Dresden welcomes over 6,200 first semester students

The 2025/26 academic year at TUD Dresden University of Technology began today, October 9, 2025, with a welcome ceremony in the Auditorium Center. TUD Rector Ursula M. Staudinger welcomed the new students under the motto “TUD – The Collaborative University.” So far, over 6,200 young people have opted for studying at TUD. Amongst this number, we have around 1,700 international students joining us from 107 nations – with the highest numbers hailing from India, China, and Pakistan. This demonstrates that our student body is maintaining its steady trend toward greater international diversity. As students are still able to enroll until the end of the month, we will only be able to give the final figures to the State Office for Statistics on November 1.

This year's motto for the welcome ceremony, “TUD – The Collaborative University,” reflects our community values of research, study, and teaching across disciplines and national borders. "It is the core of TUD's success story, which has become one of the eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. TUD is a place where perspectives are exchanged, big ideas are discussed, and today's questions become tomorrow's breakthroughs," emphasized Rector Prof. Staudinger in her welcome address.

"This year's motto, which is also TUD's claim, is also reflected in our internationally networked range of courses. Because we will only succeed in solving the challenges of the future if we work together. To do this, we need the brightest minds. Within this context, we are delighted that there was another slight increase in the number of international students enrolled in the first semester. This shows that TUD's range of courses is also appealing beyond Germany's borders," says Prof. Niels Modler, Vice-Rector Education across the Life Course.

This semester, for example, two new Erasmus Mundus Master's degree courses are being offered in collaboration with universities throughout Europe: Joint Studies in Intellectual Property and Data Law, and Groundwater and Global Change - Impacts and Adaptation. The latter deals with groundwater and the way in which it both influences and is influenced by the climate and human activities.

For the 2025/26 winter semester, TUD is also expanding its range of courses to include forward-thinking degree programs such as Environmental Informatics and Mobility and Transport Systems.

In total, prospective students at TUD can choose from 121 degree programs that lead to a Bachelor's, Master's or Diplom degree, including 28 English-language Master's programs.

Contact:
TU Dresden Press Office
Tel.: +49 351 463-32398