KTH Royal Institute of Technology
The KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Swedish: Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit. 'Royal Technical High School'), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university.[3] Currently, KTH consists of five schools with four campuses in and around Stockholm.
Motto
Vetenskap och konst
Science and Art
Public Research University
1827
Ulf Ewaldsson
950
3,600
1,700
Urban
Blue
CLUSTER, CESAER, EUA, T.I.M.E. association, PEGASUS, NORDTEK, Nordic Five Tech, UNITE!
KTH was established in 1827 as the Teknologiska institutet (Institute of Technology) and had its roots in the Mekaniska skolan (School of Mechanics) that was established in 1798 in Stockholm. But the origin of KTH dates back to the predecessor of the Mekaniska skolan, the Laboratorium mechanicum, which was established in 1697 by the Swedish scientist and innovator Christopher Polhem. The Laboratorium mechanicum combined education technology, a laboratory, and an exhibition space for innovations.[4] In 1877 KTH received its current name, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology). The Swedish king, Carl XVI Gustaf, is the patron of KTH.
KTH is ranked 73rd in the world among all universities in the 2024 QS World University Rankings, which is higher than any other university in the nordic countries.[5]
KTH is organized into five schools individually responsible for education and research activities. Each of the schools head a number of departments, centres of excellence, and study programmes. The schools are:[8]
University rankings
201–300 (2023)
=73 (2024)
=97 (2024)
240 (2023)
Campuses[edit]
KTH Campus[edit]
KTH Campus is the main campus of KTH located in the area of Östermalm. The main buildings by architect Erik Lallerstedt, were completed in 1917. The bells of the clock-tower were completed ten years later in 1927 at the 10 year anniversary of the transformation of the School of Mechanics to the Technological Institute. The buildings and surroundings were decorated by prominent early 20th-century Swedish artists such as Carl Milles, Axel Törneman, Georg Pauli, Tore Strindberg and Ivar Johnsson. The older buildings on the campus were renovated heavily in 1994. While the original campus was large at the time of construction, KTH very soon outgrew it, and the campus has since been expanded with new buildings. KTH Campus is still the base for most of the university's operations.
KTH Kista[edit]
In the 1980s, the predecessor to the current School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (at KTH) located some of their operations to a campus in Kista, Stockholm. Kista is situated north of central Stockholm and is Sweden's largest corporate center and one of the most important ICT clusters in the world.[14] The area is home to over a thousand companies in the ICT sector, for example Ericsson, Volvo, IBM, Tele2, TietoEnator, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle.
KTH Flemingsberg[edit]
Since 2002, the current School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (at KTH) has had a part of its activities in Flemingsberg, Stockholm. Flemingsberg is an area of high academic density and one of northern Europe's most important areas for biotechnology, both in terms of research and industrial activities. Södertörn University and the Karolinska Institute also conducts education and research in Flemingsberg, often in collaboration with KTH.
KTH Södertälje[edit]
KTH Södertälje is the southernmost and smallest KTH campus, located in the city of Södertälje. Education at KTH Södertälje is constantly developed via a close co-operation with the town's business community and in particular major Södertälje companies such as Scania and AstraZeneca. KTH offers both bachelor's and master's level courses on the campus, mainly focused on mechanical engineering, logistics, production and product development.[15]
Many prominent former students have attended KTH, including;
KTH Great Prize is a prize annually awarded by KTH. The distributed amount was SEK 1,200,000 in 2019.
The prize is awarded to:
The recipient of the award must also be a Swedish citizen. Usually, the prize is awarded to a single prize winner, but it has happened that two or three prize winners have shared the prize. The list of recipients is at KTH:s stora pris.
Internationalization[edit]
KTH has been awarded the title "European University" by the European Commission. Together with 6 other European technical universities, KTH has formed the alliance UNITE! (University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering). The aim of the network is to create a trans-European campus, to introduce trans-European curricula, to promote scientific cooperation between the members and to strengthen knowledge transfer between the countries. The alliance includes the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Aalto University, KTH, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the University of Lisbon.[22]