On 6 October 1999, the IDEA League was formed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between four leading European universities of technology: Imperial College London (United Kingdom), Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), ETH Zürich (Switzerland), and RWTH Aachen University (Germany). In 2006, ParisTech (France) joined the collaboration. Since 2014, Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) has been a member of the IDEA League network. In 2016, University Politecnico di Milano (Italy) joined the IDEA League.
Information about RWTH Aachen University
With 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen University is one of Europe's leading institutions for science and research. Currently, more than 44,500 students are enrolled in 144 academic programmes. More than 8,500 of them are international students hailing from 130 different countries. The scientific education students receive at RWTH Aachen University is firmly rooted in real-world application. As a result, our graduates are highly sought after by businesses to work as trainees and fill executive positions. National and international rankings show that our graduates have a high aptitude for managing complex tasks, constructively solving problems in teams, and taking on leadership responsibilities. Thus, it should come as no surprise that one in five board members of German corporations is an alumnus of RWTH Aachen University.
Work conducted in the research centres at RWTH Aachen University is strongly oriented towards the current needs of industry, commerce, and the professions. This has resulted in numerous innovations, patents, and licences. The individual competence centres at RWTH Aachen University collaborate effectively across departments and faculties in interdisciplinary groups and forums, while still maintaining a strong focus on their own department specialisation. For instance, the computer science and biology departments - and even the social sciences - all have a clear connection to the school's engineering focus. This has been a crucial factor in motivating multinational corporations such as Philips, Microsoft, and Ford to locate their research institutions in the Aachen region.
Excellence in teaching and research constitutes the basis from which RWTH Aachen University works with other leading institutions and technical universities around the world.