At the TU Darmstadt, the mechanical engineering course has been advertised as a bachelor's/master's degree for several years, with the bachelor's standard period of study being 6 semesters and the master's standard period of study being 4 semesters.

In the bachelor's degree, you can choose between Mechanical Engineering – Sustainable Engineering (Bachelor curriculum) and Bio-Materials Engineering (Bachelor curriculum). After completing the bachelor's degree, there are master's courses in mechanical engineering (Master curriculum and Aerospace Engineering (Master curriculum). From winter semester 26/27, the English Master Bio-Materials will be offered. If you choose mechanical engineering, you can study general mechanical engineering or delve further into one of the main areas (Sustainable Use of Resources, Clean Energy and Process Engineering, Future Automotive Systems and Digital-based Production and Robotics).

Most lectures for the B.Sc. Sustainable Engineering, B.Sc. Bio-Materials Engineering and M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering are held in German. Some of the elective subjects are offered in English.

An exception is the Aerospace Engineering master degree program, which is offered entirely in English. The university strives to expand the English language offers.

A six-week pre-study internship is required for the bachelor's degree. Enrollment can also be conditional, provided the internship is recognized by the end of the second semester. We therefore strongly recommend that you complete the pre-study internship before starting your study program if possible.

In the Master's, instead of an ADP, a 12-week internship (aka external project work) can be completed and recognized with 6CP, as long as thequalification goals (page 13) (opens in new tab) are met.

The Mechanical Engineering course is designed as a full-time course. However, it is possible to enroll in other courses of study in parallel within the framework of a double degree scheme, but these courses run completely independently of each other.

There is a standard curriculum, which is a guide but not mandatory. The number of hours you take per semester depends on your choice of subjects. As a rule, 1 CP corresponds to an effort of 30 hours. If you want to complete your studies within the standard period of study, around 30 CPs are need per semester.

A list of all study programs (with plans) can be found on the University website.

The registration deadline for exam in mechanical engineering is four weeks before the exam date. For projects, particular care must be taken not to miss the registration deadline, as these are often before the TU-wide registration period in December and June.

Important: Events that are held by other departments for our degree (e.g. the mathematics and electrical engineering lectures) are exempt from the four-week rule! The regular registration periods of the TU Darmstadt apply here. It is common for a reminder of the deadline to be sent via TUCaN.

Please contact the examination affairs of the MechCenter. After providing your name and matriculation number (also possible by e-mail), they can activate students for modules, provided that all the prerequisites for them are met.Important: Only properly formulated e-mails will be answered. This applies to all written communication with and at the university. That’s a rule for life. The communication-code can be very useful.

The contact person for problems with exam registration and other exam matters is the MechCenter examination affairs (L1|01 room 81 to 83)

The re-registration takes place automatically with the receipt of the transfer of the tuition fees to the university. The current amount, the deadline and the transfer details can be found on the university website.

A performance record must be submitted that states how many CP have been completed so far. In order to continue receiving BAföG, 80 CP are required after the 4th semester and 100 CP after the 5th semester. Proof can be obtained from Ms. Zalman in the MechCenter's office.

BAFöG is not normally paid during vacation semesters, so they do not count towards these limits. Exceptions here are e.g. committee semesters, which extend the BAFöG entitlement by one semester, although BAFöG is paid during the committee semester. The Studierendenwerk offers counsel on BAföG.

Before the beginning of each semester, a semester fee must be transferred to the university in order to be able to continue studying. For the summer semester, the contributions must be received on the university account by mid-January to mid-March, in the winter semester from the beginning of July to mid-September.

More detailed information about the the semester contribution can be found here.

The semester fee includes a Germany semester ticket, which is issued digitally as a cell phone ticket by the AStA in cooperation with RMV. This is valid for all regional trains and local transport, as well as some long-distance routes throughout Germany. The ticket can be activated via the semester ticket portal.

You can use the airliner with a surcharge of 3.80€. This can only be paid with a card to the driver.

The campus is divided into two main parts:

• City Center aka Stadtmitte (room numbers starting with “S”) and
• Lichtwiese (room numbers starting with “L”)

A more comprehensive room plan is available on the university website.

With the RMU degree, you can visit lectures at the three universities in the Rhine-Main area and only be enrolled at one. These include: TU Darmstadt, Goethe-University Frankfurt and Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz. The available courses are published each semester. The modules attended can also be recognized by passing exams and acquiring credit points (CPs).

The application is made via the portal of the university where the selected course is offered. Further information is available here.

A list of all partner universities can be found here.

The student council itself does not have any experience reports from foreign students. However, there are a few testimonials on the website for internationals (use the search function further down). You can also contact the university groups AIESEC and IAESTE.

A semester abroad is ideally in the 5th or 6th bachelor semester or in the master's programme. Often two semesters are offered instead of just one.

You can find the application deadlines on the mechanical engineering departments website.

Mr. Keller from the MechCenter is responsible for accreditation of academic achievements from abroad. More information is available on the MechCenter’s webpage for International affairs.

There is also a equivalence list (can be found under the “Studying abroad” tab) with already recognized lectures.

Information about semesters and and Double Degree programmes abroad can be found under the following link.

In order to find out whether subjects that you would like to study abroad are recognized at the TU, it is often necessary to consult the lecturer, as they decide whether the content corresponds to that of their lecture.

However, for some universities there are already equivalence lists (under Studying abroad) of subjects that are definitely recognized.

Yes!

Here are the direct links to Office 365 and MatLAB. Further campus licenses can be found on the HRZ webpage.

Parking? Darmstadt is a city for biking. In general, the parking situation in Darmstadt is very critical and it is advisable to use the public transport. Meanwhile, parking fees must be paid everywhere near the university, unless you risk the ticket from the public order office, which is up to mischief, especially in the city center.

Jokes aside, more detailed information regarding parking for students can be found on the website of the property management of the TU Darmstadt.

Items lost in the canteens can be requested from the responsible office. These offices are in the Stadtmitte canteen above the bistro and in the corridor behind the parent-child room at the Lichtwiese canteen. A list of lost-and-found items from the past 6 months is availablehere.

Items lost in the library will be kept for 6 weeks and can be picked up during opening hours at the entrance.

Objects lost in the building L3|01 (particularly USB sticks forgotten at the copier) can be retrieved during the learning center HiWi working hours in room L3|01-A99 or the mechanical engineering student council in room L3|01-A12.

Instructions and rules for exams (and thus also short questions) can be found in the General Examination Regulations (aka APB), which regulate the examinations at the TU Darmstadt. Under paragraph §22a there is a version of the multiple-choice questions. The APB can be viewed here.

In the case of short questions, it must be stated how many answers are permissible. If not all correct answers are marked, no more points may be awarded for the task. In return, however, no deductions may be made for incorrect answers.

No one is left alone at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Depending on the problem, there are various contact points – both at the department and at the university: we as the student council, but always also thestudent advisory service of the MechCenter. The professorial mentor is another contact option. If we cannot help with the problem ourselves, we certainly know the right place to go.

Within the university, there are other offices such as the central student advisory service, the anti-discrimination office or the psychological counseling center of the Studierendenwerk.

All concerns will of course be treated with absolute confidentiality!

When looking for a single room or shared flat in Darmstadt, it is noticeable that we have a considerable shortage of accommodation in Darmstadt, both in the halls of residence and in private single rooms and shared flats. Unfortunately, we as the student council have no influence on the Studierendenwerk when it comes to allocating places in their halls of residence. You have to put your name on a waiting list and just hope. The waiting time is often longer than one semester!

Our tip for the private housing market is not to limit yourself to a specific type of accommodation when looking for a room, but to start a general search on relevant websites. You should not set the maximum rental costs too low, as room rents above €400 are unfortunately still considered ‘normal’ in Darmstadt.

Good luck!

As part of the bachelor’s degree, there will be (almost) no way around having your own computer (PC, laptop, tablet) without severely hindering your learning experience. There are PC pool rooms in which PCs can be reserved and used, but we recommend every student to have his own computer, e.g. to be able to take part in online lectures or submit online-submissions.

Over the course of the bachelor, programs such as MatLAB, Siemens NX or Fusion 360 are used. Your personal computer does not necessarily have to support these as there are PC pool rooms that have all these programs pre-installed and ready to use. Therefore, it is up to each student whether and in what capacity own computer (PC, laptop, tablet) is purchased. If you should choose to buy your own computer and run most programs, you don't necessarily need a “GAMING PRO ULTRA” computer and a dedicated graphics card is no longer absolutely necessary with current technology. Students from higher semesters are happy to give their opinion on this. A lot of students purchase tablets to take quick notes during lectures and use the PC pool rooms for more advanced programs.

“The application period for OE tutors starts around mid-July every year and ends at the latest at the end of August. The exact start date can be found on the Homepage of the mechanical engineering student council, on the back of the Pladdfeder, as well as in the student council Moodle course. You can also register via said Moodle course of the mechanical engineering student council.

The rule is ”first come, first serve". If you don't get a place, a waiting list will be created in case tutors have to cancel. OE tutors are required to attend the OE seminar (long weekend at the end of September) and the entire OE week.