The University of Stuttgart (German: Universität Stuttgart) is a public research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, industrial and electrical engineering, among others. It is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the nine oldest German institutes of technology.
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History
From 1770 to 1794, the Karlsschule was the first university in Stuttgart. The University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart-Hohenheim, founded in 1818 and Stuttgart's oldest still existing university, is not related to the University of Stuttgart, except for some joint activities.
What is now the University of Stuttgart was founded in 1829, and celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2004. Because of the increasing importance of the technical sciences and instruction in these fields, from 1876 the university was known as the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart (Stuttgart Institute of Technology). In 1900 it was awarded the right to grant doctoral degrees in the technical disciplines. The development of the courses of study at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart led to its renaming in 1967 to the present-day "Universität Stuttgart". With this change of name came along a built-up of new fields, such as history of science and technology and the social sciences, and the extension of existing ones, such as history and art history.
Since the end of the 1950s, a part of the university has been located in the suburb of Stuttgart-Vaihingen. Most technical subjects (computer science, engineering, etc.) are located in Vaihingen, while the humanities, the social sciences, architecture, and similar topics are still located in the city center campus. The university hosts many national and international research institutes, and collaborates with partners such as Fraunhofer, German Aerospace Center, among others. The university is also founding member of the Startup Autobahn as well as Arena2036, the flexible research factory.
Organization
The university is divided into 10 faculties:
Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
Faculty of Civil- and Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Chemistry
Faculty of Energy-, Process- and Bio-Engineering
Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Geodesy
Faculty of Engineering Design, Production Engineering and Automotive Engineering
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Faculty of Humanities
Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences
Ranking and reputation
The University of Stuttgart is globally and nationally recognized in several prominent university rankings. According to the QS World University Rankings of 2024, it was ranked 312th worldwide and 19th within Germany. As for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, in 2024, the institution landed within the 251-300 band globally and was situated between the 25th and 31st positions nationally. The Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as ARWU, positioned the University of Stuttgart between the 301-400 range globally and between 20th and 24th in the national ranking for the year 2023.
In the field of Engineering and Technology, the university was ranked 167th worldwide and 6th within Germany according to the 2023 QS World University Rankings. In the same year, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for Engineering positioned the institution within the 101-125 range globally, and between the 5th and 7th spots nationally.
Notable alumni
Gustav Bauernfeind, painter, illustrator and architect
Volker Beck
Günter Behnisch, architect
Gunnar Birkerts, architect
Kim Bui, Artistic gymnast, member of 2012, 2016, and 2020 German Olympic teams
Gottlieb Daimler, engineer: The Inventor of "The Automobile" and co-founder (together with Carl Benz) of Mercedes-Benz
Vera Demberg, computational linguist and professor of computer science and computational linguistics
Gerhard Ertl, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry in 2007
Hartmut Esslinger, Industry Designer, Apple Macintosh, Lufthansa, Windows XP, SAP Designer
Max Eyth
Gego
Rudolf Haag, physicist
Ernst Heinkel
Rolf-Dieter Heuer
Martin Jetter, CEO of IBM Deutschland GmbH and IBM Japan, Ltd.
Wunibald Kamm
Heinz-Hermann Koelle
Berthold Leibinger
Fritz Leonhardt
Michael Macht, former CEO of Porsche AG