Two universities, two disciplines and one goal: well-educated graduates in the field of Biomedical Engineering. Due to the cooperation between the two universities, students on the B.Sc. study programme in Biomedical Engineering have the unique opportunity in the German State of Hesse of benefiting from the expertise offered by a medical university and that offered by a technical university all at the same time. Students will obtain a degree that is jointly awarded by both universities.

“In the new study programme Biomedical Engineering, the profiles of TU Darmstadt and the Goethe University complement each other perfectly. Furthermore, we are strongly expanding research into Biomedical Engineering together and also in cooperation with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Four new professorships will be created at TU Darmstadt in this field alone. The Rhine-Main Universities are thus pushing forward this future field of study to a significant extent in the Rhine-Main scientific region,” says TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel.

Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, President of Goethe University, emphasised: “The new study programme in Biomedical Engineering is a good example of how cooperation between partners who are already strong on their own can still open up new opportunities. As the engineering sciences in Darmstadt and medicine in Frankfurt complement each other well, it will enable the development of promising research projects that could not have originated at either of the universities alone. A particularly pleasing aspect is that teaching will also benefit because there were especially challenging obstacles that needed to be overcome due to the entrance restrictions for the subject of medicine. But we have now also managed to resolve these difficulties – with the support of the state government.”

In order to do justice to the interdisciplinary approach of Biomedical Engineering, around eighty percent of the courses will teach core skills in the engineering sciences and around twenty percent will focus on basic medical knowledge. In order to participate in both specialist cultures and make them tangible for students, the teaching will also be conducted at both universities: four days per week at TU Darmstadt and one day per week on-site in the Faculty of Medicine at the Goethe University Frankfurt. It is one example of how interdisciplinary and inter-university cooperation can tackle the issues of tomorrow.

Demographic change is without doubt one of the challenges of our time. Life expectancy is rising, birth rates are falling and age-related diseases and problems are increasing. The demand for telemedicine, biotechnologies and Biomedical Engineering is growing. Whether smart implants, orthoses or point-of-care diagnostics, it is important to already focus on the growing importance of biomedical technologies today. TU Darmstadt and the Goethe University Frankfurt have identified this trend and expanded their range of study programmes for the future to include the B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering.

A Master's study programme in Biomedical Engineering that will follow on from the Bachelor degree will be introduced in the winter semester 2021/2022 – just in time for the first graduates from the Bachelor degree. Applications for the Bachelor degree in Biomedical Engineering can be submitted to TU Darmstadt from 01/06/2018.