Steel Technology and Metal Forming

In the course of this dual study path, the students will during the first two years complete an apprenticeship as industrial mechanic, which will be validated by an examination from the IHK, in one of the companies involved in this study path. During these first two years, the students will spend two days each week on the campus of the University Duisburg-Essen, attending some lectures, which will be completed by taking part in the corresponding examinations. The remaining 3 days shall be spent in the company. During the semester breaks, the students will spend the whole week in the company. After these two years, at the end of this apprenticeship, the students will then be matriculated as normal full-time students at the University Duisburg-Essen and will complete their studies in Steel Technology and Metal Forming in two more years.

The Bachelor degree course enfolds 180 credits points. 159 from these are covered by required and elective subjects, 6 others are covered by the practical internship and the last 15 credit points are obtained from the Bachelor thesis. All examinations are to be done during the course. At the end, a bachelor thesis (3 months are required for solving the bachelor thesis topic) must be submitted.

In the domain of iron- and steel industry, there is for the mean time a considerable need for metallurgic well-trained young professionals in the engineering area; this demand is according to the current state of knowledge, not closed to be met. The reason for this considerably high demand for the upcoming years is due to the age structure in the steel industry. For these reasons, graduates from this study path have very good career prospects in the iron and steel industry.

Considering all this, the Steel companies in the region are particularly interested in this dual course in the domain of steel manufacturing and forming technology, since the students will be in so doing both practically and theoretically trained. Because of the geographic central position of the University Duisburg-Essen, the central point of the European steel industry, and the proximity to steel companies, the University Duisburg-Essen just fulfills all the requirements needed in order to offer this course in a very unique way.

Since the steel industry is a very global-operating industry, with companies in which English is partly the working language, this dual study path will be based on the syllabus of international study path Metallurgy and Metal Forming offered in the course of the program “International Studies in Engineering” (ISE). Due to the fact that the lectures in the first two semesters in this ISE program are offered in English, this dual study path contains besides the practical and theoretical training a great futuristic and forward-looking language advantage.