The University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN) (German: Technische Universität Nürnberg) was founded on January 1st 2021, which makes it the first new foundation of a public university in Bavaria since 1978.[1]
History
On January 1, 2021, Markus Zanner took up office as Chancellor of the University of Technology Nuremberg.[2]
In February 2021, Hans Jürgen Prömel was named founding president to take office on March 1, 2021, initially for a term of five years.[3]
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on the construction site in August 2021[4]
The first building, the so-called Cube One, will be occupied by 2024. The foundation stone for the construction was laid in October 2022.[5]
A sustainability concept is integrated into the design of all buildings on the campus from the outset. Since October 2021, the name of the first campus street has also been determined following a resolution by the Nuremberg City Council. It is named after the astrophysicist and mechanical engineer Luise Herzberg.[6]
In December 2021, the University of Technology Nuremberg signed a cooperation agreement with the Nürnberg Institute of Technology. The Nürnberg Institute of Technology will build a modular building for health science courses on the campus of the UTN.[7]
On January 1, 2022, Isa Jahnke began her duties as founding vice president for studies, teaching and international affairs. As an expert in digital didactics, she also holds the professorship “Information Science & Learning Technologies”.[8]
Since April 1st 2023 Alexander Martin is Founding Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.[9]
At the beginning of 2022, the University of Technology Nuremberg established the first department. Since February 1, 2022, the founding chair has been the Leibniz Prize holder Wolfram Burgard.[10]
He will build the engineering department and set an initial focus at the UTN with the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics. The second department Liberal Arts and Sciences has been run since April 1, 2023 by the knowledge historian and Leibniz Prize winner Gyburg Uhlmann.[11]
Teaching started in winter semester 2023/2024 with the English-language master's program “AI and Robotics”.[12][13]
Criticism
Double offers in the region
Criticism comes from the German Science and Humanities Council as it still sees a "need for clarification", because the new university creates double structures in the immediate vicinity of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Nürnberg Institute of Technology[14]
Demolition of the reloading halls
The old reloading halls at Nuremberg's former South Station were demolished instead of being integrated into the Technical University based on the concept originally proposed.[15] Nuremberg's Stadtbild-Initiative (Cityscape Initiative) made allegations, among other things of “vandalism”.[16]