Brandenburg University of Technology


The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg was founded in 1991 and is a technical university in Brandenburg, Germany with campuses in Cottbus and Senftenberg. The university has 185 professors, 640 additional academic staff and more than 7,000 students, of which 2,350 are of foreign origin from more than 100 nations.

History

The university was a school for construction engineering in the former GDR starting in 1954. After German reunification, the school became a Technical University and was later renamed "Brandenburg Technical University" in 1994. In the following years, the university underwent major construction efforts and the number of students continued to grow. In February 2013 the Landtag of Brandenburg decided to merge the BTU and the Hochschule Lausitz on July 1, 2013 to found the new university Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg. Today, the university has 7,280 students, 2,190 of whom come from abroad.

Structure

The university is separated into six faculties each of them having a focus on certain study and research areas. Each faculty is further subdivided into institutes. The following faculties exist:
The new library was opened in the year 2004 and is called Informations-, Kommunikations- und Medienzentrum. It was designed by the famous architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Study

Academic year

Like for most universities in Germany, the academic year at BTU is divided into two semesters. The winter term is the official beginning of the academic year and lasts from October 1 to March 31. The summer term lasts from April 1 to September 30. The teaching takes place in only 15 weeks per semester and is followed by an examination period where usually no lectures are held.

Tuition and Fees

All students, regardless if German or non-German, need to pay a fee of 280,73 Euro per semester. The fee includes a student transit pass 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 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

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.

Student Life

The BTU has several facilities for the students comfortableness and facilitation, including but not limited to Cafeteria, restaurant, football yard, carrier center, etc.