Type Public President Prof. Dr. J. Steinbach | Established 1991 Students 9000 (WS 2014/15) | |
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Motto Wir gestalten nachhaltige Zukunft Motto in English Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable Future | ||
The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus- Senftenberg (German: Brandenburgische Technische Universität - BTU Cottbus) was founded in 1991 and is the top technical university in Brandenburg, Germany. Located in Cottbus, in English it is often called Technical University of Cottbus or TU Cottbus. In (WS 2012/13), the University had 112 professors, 594 academic staff and 6,972 students, of which 1,234 are of foreign origin from 89 nations.
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History
The university has been a school for construction engineering in the former GDR starting from 1954. After the German reunification the school became a Technical University and was finally renamed into Brandenburg Technical University in 1994. In the following years the university has undergone major construction efforts and the number of students has continuously grown ever since. In February 2013 the Landtag of Brandenburg decided to fuse the BTU and the Hochschule Lausitz on July 1, 2013 to found the new university Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (abbreviation: BTU).
Structure
The University is separated into 4 faculties (German: Fakultät) each of them having a focus on certain study and research areas. Each faculty is further subdivided into departments (Institut). The following faculties exist:
Library
The new library was opened in the year 2004 and is called Informations-, Kommunikations- und Medienzentrum (IKMZ). It was designed by the famous architects Herzog & de Meuron.
Academic year
Like for most universities in Germany, the academic year at BTU is divided into two semesters. The winter term (Wintersemester) is the official beginning of the academic year and lasts from October 1 to March 31. The summer term (Sommersemester) lasts from April 1 to September 30. The teaching takes place in only 15 weeks per semester and is followed by an examination period (Prüfungszeitraum) where usually no lectures are held.
Tuition and Fees
All students, regardless if German or non-German, need to pay a fee of 256,10 Euro per semester. The fee includes a student transit pass (Semesterticket) which allows the students to travel with all public transportation services in the states Berlin and Brandenburg for free. Free use of regional express train(RE 18) to Dresden-Neustadt is also included. There is no further fee collected as the parliament of the federal-state Brandenburg decided not to introduce further study fees (Studiengebühr)
Academic programmes
BTU has introduced the international Bachelor/Master's degree system for all its study programmes. The following programmes are offered:
The programmes marked with the star symbol are taught in English.
International Partnerships
The BTU has a worldwide network of partner universities and allows students to take part in European Erasmus Programme or overseas programmes such as STUDEXA or GE4. Students who want to participate in an exchange programme do not need to pay the tuition fee of the hosting university.