IDEA League

IDEA League
Logo
Established	1999
Members	5
Region	Europe
President	Stefan Bengtsson (2016-2017)

The IDEA League is an alliance among five leading European universities of technology:

• Chalmers University of Technology
• Delft University of Technology
• ETH Zürich
• Polytechnic University of Milan
• RWTH Aachen University

On October 6, 1999, the IDEA league was formed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between four leading European universities of technology: Imperial College London, Delft University of Technology, ETH Zürich, and RWTH Aachen University. In 2006, ParisTech joined the collaboration. As of 2014, Chalmers University of Technology is a member of the IDEA League network. In 2016, Polytechnic University of Milan joined the IDEA League.

Each member has a respectable research-oriented profile and is the largest producer of engineering and science graduates in its own country. One of the IDEA League's main ambitions is to re-establish Europe as a technological and scientific leader by bundling academic resources and knowledge. The term IDEA comes from the first letter of each of the founding institutions.

Imperial College London confirmed its decision to withdraw from the IDEA League with effect from December 2012.^[1] At the end of 2013, Paris Tech left the IDEA League because the university was restructuring in connection with the newly created Paris-Saclay campus.

Currently, three schools of the members of the alliance offer a Joint Masters in Applied Geophysics, where students spend one semester at each university (Delft University of Technology, ETH Zürich and RWTH Aachen University), then spend the fourth semester doing their thesis at one of the schools or in industry. The programme builds on the strengths and the complementary expertise in Earth Science at the three universities. It offers a combination of study and research. During the program students can specialize in either hydrocarbon exploration and management or environmental and engineering investigations, including geothermal energy exploration and management, and will also receive a solid background in the other speciality.^[2]

Students of the IDEA League universities are represented by IDEALiStiC.

Institution	Location	Established	Joined	Rector/President	Total Number of Students**	Website
Delft University of Technology	Delft	1842	1999	Tim van der Hagen	19,000	[1]
ETH Zürich	Zürich	1855	1999	Günther Dissertori	18,000	[2]
RWTH Aachen	Aachen	1870	1999	Ulrich Rüdiger	42,000	[3]
Chalmers University of Technology	Gothenburg	1829	2014	Stefan Bengtsson	11,000	[4]
Polytechnic University of Milan	Milan	1863	2016	Donatella Sciuto	41,000	[5]

Note: **incl. doctoral students, all numbers for 2008

Institution	Location	Established	Joined	Left	Rector/President	Total Number of Students	Website
Imperial College	London	1907	1999	2012	Alice Gast	16,610 (2015)	[6]
ParisTech	Paris	1991	2006	2013	Jean-Philippe Vanot[3]	19,700 (2015)	[7]

• ASPIRE League – Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of Research and Education
• National Institutes of Technology – 30 leading public engineering universities in India

• Official website
• Delft University of Technology
• ETH Zurich
• RWTH Aachen
• Chalmers University of Technology
• Polytechnic University of Milan