University of Applied Sciences Wedel: Top English-taught Study Programs (2026/2027)

Fachhochschule Wedel traces back to a technical training institute founded in Lübeck in 1948, which moved to the small town of Wedel — just outside Hamburg — in 1963 and was formally re-established as a Fachhochschule in 1969. It's one of the few private, nonprofit universities of applied sciences in Germany, and unusually for a German institution, it has stayed a family enterprise across three generations of the Harms family, who have led it since its founding.

The academic focus sits at the intersection of computer science, engineering, and business, with a program lineup that has kept pace with the field — e-commerce, IT engineering, and smart technology were each added once the corresponding career fields had established themselves. Small class sizes and a compact campus keep contact between students and faculty close, a deliberate contrast to the larger public technical universities in the region.

The campus sits on the edge of the Hamburg metropolitan area, combining a quiet small-town setting with labs, workshops, and data centers on-site, and easy access to the city. International partnerships and exchange programs, in place since the mid-1990s, round out the offering.