Technische Universität München
EuroTech Universities Alliance successful in the European Universities program
TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
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phone: +49 89 289 22798 - email: presse@tum.de - web: www.tum.de
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European engineering education of the future
EuroTech Universities Alliance launch an international study program
An alliance of leading European science and technology universities is starting an international study program with the goal of jointly shaping the engineering education of the future. This "EuroTeQ Engineering University" will be open not only to students enrolled at the partner universities, but also to engineers working in industry who are interested in life-long learning. The initiative will reinvigorate the symbiosis between society and technology together with various stakeholders and orient its programs towards a human-centered engineering.
The EU will fund the project in its "European Universities" program with approximately five million euros over the next three years. The initiative emerges from the EuroTech Universities Alliance, a strategic partnership of Technical University of Denmark (DTU), École Polytechnique (L'X), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Technical University of Munich (TUM) as well as Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. For this project, they have brought two other strong partners on board: Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). EPFL and Technion, being located in non-EU countries and hence not eligible for funding, will contribute to the implementation of the program.
Individually designed curricula
The partners will establish a joint engineering sciences study program across different disciplines as well as across national and institutional boundaries whose content will reach well beyond the treatment of individual technologies. The goal of the alliance is to look at technology developments on a holistic level. "Today we can't talk about mobility without considering climate impacts, and robotics and artificial intelligence will not succeed without winning over human trust," says Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann, President of TUM, which is coordinating the project. "A modern engineering education must provide students not only with in-depth technical knowledge but also with an extended educational horizon, an entrepreneurial mindset and sociopolitical sensitivity."
In order to promote this understanding on a Europe-wide basis, the "EuroTeQ Engineering University" will not be restricted to students enrolled at the respective partner institutions. It will also be open to those who do not hold an academic degree yet, but who play an important role in value creation and communication processes. Students will be trained with individually designed curricula and new digital formats and will be able to continue their education in the sense of life-long learning.
Interaction between students and vocational trainees
The alliance will furthermore bring their university students together with vocational trainees in technical careers as well as a large number of stakeholders from industry, trade associations and various areas of society to explore the great challenges of the 21st century and to jointly formulate solution strategies. The project has already won the support of 45 collaboration partners. In the process, the "EuroTeQ Engineering Univsersity" will gain comprehensive experience with the various qualification structures within Europe and will learn about the needs of the younger generation. These findings will then in turn be integrated in the design of teaching at all the partner universities.
"We are building a truly open university program, bridging not only national boundaries, but also boundaries of age and social circumstances, which will serve as a pioneer in the whole European academic sector," says TUM President Hofmann. "The program will produce engineers who act with a sense of responsibility and it will foster the development of new technologies in an environment of mutual understanding that is sustainable and accepted by society."
Prestigious project of the European Commission
The European Universities Initiative, introduced by French President Emmanuel Macron, is one of the European Commission's most prestigious calls for proposals. The objective of this promotional instrument is to establish ambitious European university alliances over the next few years that will make the European university landscape even stronger in the fierce competition with the USA and Asia.
More information:
The EuroTech Universities Alliance is a strategic partnership of leading European universities of science and technology committed to excellence in research and education, jointly developing solutions to the grand challenges of society. The alliance combines the complementary strengths of its partner universities to jointly achieve multi-scale initiatives of high impact to society and to industry in an international context. It engages with all societal actors to raise awareness of the opportunities offered by science and technology.
https://eurotech-universities.eu/
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe's leading research universities, with around 600 professors, 43,000 students, and 10,000 academic and non-academic staff. Its focus areas are the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, combined with economic and social sciences. TUM acts as an entrepreneurial university that promotes talents and creates value for society. In that it profits from having strong partners in science and industry. It is represented worldwide with the TUM Asia campus in Singapore as well as offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, San Francisco, and São Paulo. Nobel Prize winners and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde, and Rudolf Mößbauer have done research at TUM. In 2006, 2012, and 2019 it won recognition as a German "Excellence University." In international rankings, TUM regularly places among the best universities in Germany.