Hochschule Kaiserslautern

The courses offered consist of more than 70 innovative Bachelor’s, Master’s, and vocational training courses in the fields of Life and Engineering Sciences, Design, Business Studies, IT, and Communications. The study courses are designed to be practice-oriented, interdisciplinary, and flexible, and are also characterized by strong links to the local region. A high level of internationalism in the study courses is ensured by promoting student and professor exchanges with more than 100 partner universities worldwide.

The HS Kaiserslautern is making a considerable contribution to safeguarding the next generation of skilled workers and to the training of skilled and management employees in the region with the future-oriented development of the range of courses offered, and with new study models, such as the Cooperative Study Model KOSMO that the university offers in close cooperation with industry partners, and by opening up the university to professionally qualified students.

Support Services

There are many projects supported by the BMBF to ensure the quality of teaching and to bridge the gap between professional and academic education. The project “Promoting Individual Study Paths” (FIS) takes the individual abilities of the students into account and develops measures for intensive support during the course and to facilitate the transition into studying and work. It is funded by the BMBF program, the Hochschulpakt Säule III – better study conditions and higher quality in teaching.

The goal of the BMBF-funded, cooperative project by the Hochschule Kaiserslautern, Koblenz, and Trier, Open MINT Labs (OML) is to collaboratively develop and execute Blended Learning Lab concepts in the subjects of Life and Engineering Sciences, in order to increase motivation and success in studying.

The collaborative Entrepreneurship Office of the TU and HS Kaiserslautern is the central point of contact for career-minded and entrepreneurial members of both universities and local research institutions. With several employees and an extensive program of events, it supports interested parties, starting with raising awareness, ranging to consultation and qualification, up to preparing for becoming independent.

The cooperative project, “Offene Kompetenzregion Westpfalz” [Open Competencies Region of West Palatinate], which focuses on competencies and supports increasing the range of courses available for students in employment or with familial responsibilities, and also promotes the expansion of the educational network in the region.

Research and Technology Transfer

The application-oriented research & development is mostly carried out in cooperation with businesses. The Hochschule serves as a partner to the local economy, whereby the support given as part of students’ employment in a company means that there are many people actively involved in the transfer of knowledge and technology. The active involvement in the knowledge transfer network, twin-rlp, also taps into the potential of the six other (Fach-)Hochschulen in the Rhineland-Palatinate region.

With the establishment of the now four applied research focus areas of “Integrated Miniaturized Systems”, “Reliable Software-Intensive Systems”, “Sustainable Products and Services”, and “Highly Efficient Technical Systems”, the university has reinforced its research profile. The core competencies here are Microsystems and Nanotechnology (a modern clean room with several processing lines allows for development of micro- and nano-components), Mechanics of Materials (internal stress analysis), or System Development, where software is developed with close consideration of technical or organizational features. The other core competencies are in Light Construction, Energy, and Mechatronics, where the future challenges in the area of Construction and Design will be in the fields of energy, securing a supply of raw materials, intelligent mobility, and digital networking.

Some institutions have been established that relate to these focus areas and are available to support industry partners in assignments or collaborative projects. The four newest institutions will be mentioned here, information on all others can be found at our homepage under “Research”. At the Bio Medical Engineering competence center, established with financial support from the state, expertise in the new subject area of Applied Life Sciences is shared among the professors involved. Synergies from the fields of Microsystems and Nanotechnology, as well as Medicine and Biology provide completely new diagnostic approaches, treatments, and simulation options. The core competency of the Institute for Sustainable Construction and Design is the integrative, energetic, and technical optimization of architectural planning and execution processes with consideration of the life cycle of buildings. The Institute for Plastics Technology Westpfalz (IKW) is a research and testing institute at the HS campus in Pirmasens that works in the field of reinforced and non-reinforced plastics. It serves as a partner in the execution of public and privately funded projects along the plastic components supply chain. It deals with chemically produced and bio-based (i.e. sustainably sourced) thermoplastics, duroplastics, as well as carbon, glass, and natural fibers. The Institute for Energy-Efficient Systems (IES) is a platform for application-oriented research related to the topic of “energy efficiency”.