On 1 May 2009, Hochschule Ruhr West (HRW), or Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, was officially founded as a science and engineering institution. Only a few months later, in September 2009, the university launched its first two degree programmes and welcomed its first students on its interim campuses in Mülheim and Bottrop.
In the years that followed, Ruhr West saw steady and rapid growth, adding four faculties with seven institutes and expanding its academic offerings to a current total of 17 bachelor’s and 5 master’s programmes, including programmes in business administration. After five years, student enrolment was up from 80 in 2009 to more than 4,500 in 2016. Likewise, academic and non-academic staff had grown from 28 to 300.https://en.hochschule-ruhr-west.de/about-hrw/ruhr-west-profile/history/