The faculties
"Faculty" explained using the example of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Related subjects are grouped together in a faculty. In the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, these are Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, although Electrical Engineering also includes, for example, Communications Engineering, Automotive Electronics and Information and Communication Technology.
Many things are coordinated within the faculties. As the subjects are related, they also overlap to some extent. Basic subjects such as mathematics and programming are required in all degree programmes. These subjects are then offered directly to all students in the faculties. In this way, supervision is optimally distributed among all students and the learning groups can remain small and informal for everyone.
A faculty is therefore a teaching and administrative unit that coordinates the individual subjects and optimises administration for everyone. The faculties are headed by the Dean. This is a professor who is elected as a kind of manager for a certain period of time.
Straightforward experts or individual generalists?
Both are possible! From the very beginning, there have always been courses and lectures at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology in which students from all 4 degree programmes offered at the faculty sit together.
The faculty has agreed for all degree programmes that students can choose from various elective modules from the 4th semester onwards. For most degree programmes, you can also choose subjects from another degree programme.
Students particularly enjoy the interdisciplinary projects. This involves teams of students from different degree programmes working on a joint project.
There are also degree programmes that are organised by several faculties. The advantage: you are taught by experts from several fields. For example, in the Business Informatics degree programme, which is organised jointly with the Faculty of Business. Three faculties are even involved in the Smart Building Engineering degree programme: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Architecture and Civil Engineering.
Sometimes professors with common research interests from different faculties join forces to form an Institute. Students benefit from this because it provides exciting topics for final theses.
What characterises the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology?
It is a founding faculty of FH Aachen (it has been around since 1971). It has a lot of experience in teaching.
And in the future? If you think about the advancing digitalisation of all areas of industry and life, the subjects are in demand wherever the challenges of the changing world need to be tackled. Self-driving cars, digital business models such as Amazon or Air BnB, the Internet of Things or decentralised power supply: computer science, MCD, business informatics and electrical engineering are involved everywhere!
And despite our age, we are a young faculty. Many of our professors are just in their forties.
Here you can find more information about the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology