The Faculty of MT An eventful history developing with the industry

The former Faculty of Business Administration (BW) was founded in 1971 in Esslingen as a school to provide further education and training for engineers at the then state engineering school in Esslingen. It quickly became a department which called itself “Engineering Management” and used a successful degree programme concept comprising both technical and business topics to train students with an interdisciplinary study focus, so-called engineering managers. 

A lack of space in Esslingen led the Council of Ministers of Baden-Württemberg to pass a resolution in 1987 to establish a campus in Göppingen for Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. The great commitment demonstrated by all parties concerned meant that the first students were able to begin their studies in Göppingen in 1988: in the “Mechanical Engineering / Manufacturing Systems (MS)” Department, whose aim was to do justice to the existing economic structure of the region, and in the “Microelectronics/Micromechanical Engineering (MM)” department, which was tailored from the very start towards one of the biggest growth markets of the future, the microtechnologies.

Investments of more than DM 10 million (EUR 5.1 million) allowed a laboratory environment to be created which was unique among universities of applied sciences, and at whose heart were the manufacturing automation laboratory with its mechanical engineering focus, and the microelectronics laboratory where the emphasis was on the microtechnologies. A key element of the latter and unique among universities of applied sciences is the cleanroomcovering an effective area of around 250 square metres, which will also become the nucleus for the further development and restructuring through to the upcoming expansion of the campus towards microsystems technology.

Here you can read about further milestones in the history of the two campuses Esslingen Flandernstrasse and Göppingen:

Since March 2021, the Faculties of Engineering Management and Business Administration belong together once more. Moreover, the Mechatronics programmes and the MechatronicsPlus, and MechatronicsCom programmes, which incorporate an apprenticeship and periods of practical experience, have been integrated into the new, big faculty of Management and Technology.

The two Master programmes - International Industrial Management and Smart Factory - likewise now belong to us. The two faculty locations now offer several laboratories, a strong research portfolio and a high level of internationalisation, which corresponds to the modern, globalised markets and prepares their students for the first rung of the career ladder into this highly complex world.

In 2021, the Engineering Management degree programme celebrates its 50th anniversary since the founding in 1971.