DTU was founded in 1829 as the "College of Advanced Technology" (Danish: Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt). The Physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, at that time a professor at the University of Copenhagen, was one of the driving forces behind this initiative. He was inspired by the École Polytechnique in Paris, France which Ørsted had visited as a young scientist. The new institution was inaugurated on 5 November 1829 with Ørsted becoming its Principal, a position he held until his death in 1851.^[4]

The first home of the new college consisted of two buildings located in Studiestræde and St- Pederstræde in the center of Copenhagen. Although these buildings were expanded several times, they eventually became inadequate for the requirements of the college. In 1890 a new building complex was completed and inaugurated located in Sølvgade. The new buildings were designed by the architect Johan Daniel Herholdt.^[4]

In 1903, the College of Advanced Technology commenced the education of electrical engineers in addition to that of the construction engineers, the production engineers, and the mechanical engineers who already at that time were being educated at the college.

In the 1920s, space again became insufficient and in 1929 the foundation stone was laid for a new school at Østervold. Completion of this building was delayed by World War II and it was not completed before 1954.^[4]

From 1933, the institution was officially known as Danmarks tekniske Højskole (DtH), which commonly was translated into English, as the 'Technical University of Denmark'. On 1 April 1994, in connection with the joining of Danmarks Ingeniørakademi (DIA) and DTH, the Danish name was changed to Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, this done to include the word 'University' thus giving rise to the initials DTU by which the university is commonly known today. The formal name, Den Polytekniske Læreanstalt, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, however, still includes the original name.

In 1960 a decision was made to move the College of Advanced Technology to new and larger facilities in Lyngby north of Copenhagen. They were inaugurated on 17 May 1974.^[4]

On 23 and 24 November 1967, the University Computing Center hosted the NATO Science Committee's Study Group first meeting discussing the newly coined term "Software Engineering".^[5]

On 1 January 2007, the university was merged with the following Danish research centers: Forskningscenter Risø, Danmarks Fødevareforskning, Danmarks Fiskeriundersøgelser (from 1 January 2008: National Institute for Aquatic Resources; DTU Aqua), Danmarks Rumcenter, and Danmarks Transport-Forskning.

The university is governed by a board consisting of 10 members: Six members are recruited from outside the university and they form the majority of the board. One member is appointed by the scientific staff and one member is appointed by the administrative staff. Two members are appointed by the university students.

The President of DTU is appointed by the university board. The President in turn appoints the Deans, and the Deans appoint the Heads of the departments.

In 2014, DTU was granted institutional accreditation by the Danish Accreditation Institution (a member of ENQA). The institutional accreditation ensures that the quality assurance system of the institution is well-described, well-argued, and well-functioning in practice.

Since DTU has no faculty senate, and since the faculty is not involved in the appointment of the President, Deans, or Department heads, the university has no faculty governance.^[6]

DepartmentsEdit

Research centersEdit

The university is located on a plain known as Lundtoftesletten in the northeastern end of the city of Lyngby. The area was previously home to the airfield Lundtofte Flyveplads.

The campus is roughly divided in half by the road Anker Engelunds Vej going in the east–west direction, and, perpendicular to that, by two lengthy, collinear roads located on either side of a parking lot. The campus is thus divided into four parts, referred to as quadrants, numbered one through four in correspondence with the conventional numbering of quadrants in the Cartesian coordinate system with north upwards.

DTU was the subject of controversy in 2009 because the (then) institute director of the Department of Chemistry, O.W. Sørensen,^[8] was a high-ranking member of Scientology.^[9] In relation to this, the university was accused of violating the principles of free speech by threatening to fire employees, among them Rolf W. Berg, who voiced their criticism of the institute director.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]} On 7 April 2010, the successor of Sørensen was announced, at a department meeting, as Erling Stenby,^[16] who officially took over as Director on 1 May 2010.

The university maintains an updated site with the university's standing in several relevant academic and research rankings. In November 2007 the Times Higher Education Supplement put the university as number 130 in their ranking of the universities of the world and number 122 in 2010.^[20]

• In "The World's Most Innovative Universities" 2015 ranking by Thomson Reuters, DTU is ranked:^[21]
  • No. 1 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 43 in the World
• In the "engineering" category in the QS subject rankings, DTU is ranked:
  • No. 2 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 36 in the World
• On the Leiden Ranking's 2008 "crown indicator" list of Europe's 100 largest universities in terms of the number of Web of Science publications in the period 2000–2007, DTU is ranked:^[22]
  • No. 1 in the Nordic countries
  • No. 5 in Europe
• In the 2022 QS World University Rankings^[23] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 99 in the World
• In the 2013 Leiden Ranking^[24] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 45 in the World
  • No. 7 in Europe
• In the 2013–2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings^[25] DTU is ranked:
  • No. 121 in the World (No. 31 in the "Engineering & Technology" category)

SportsEdit

Exiles RUFC is the official rugby union club of DTU.^[26]

Student organizationsEdit

168-year-old Polyteknisk Forening, as well as the maritime student association Nul-kryds formed in 1947.^{[citation needed]}

• Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy
• Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME), network for student mobility
• Technologist, magazine published by EuroTech Universities Alliance
• Open access in Denmark^[28]
• Dana IV (ship)

• Official website
• History of DTU
• International Education at DTU
• Map of the Lyngby DTU Campus
• DTU Alumni Association

Coordinates: 55°47′8.87″N 12°31′17.52″E / 55.7857972°N 12.5215333°E / 55.7857972; 12.5215333