[1] Research and education at the Technische Universität Ilmenau is focused on engineering with strong links to economics and natural sciences.

These all also form part of the interdisciplinary media subjects which are a more recent development and combine technology, economics, law and social studies.

[3] The courses they take lead to bachelor's and/or master's degrees in which the subjects tend to be drawn from a number of disciplines within the overall groups of engineering, mathematics with science, and economics with social studies.

The Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media Technology (IDMT) is located near the TU Ilmenau campus.

It comprises 19 departments as well as the junior professorship "Design of mechatronics drives" and is in charge of the graduate courses of study of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Automotive Engineering, Optronics, Teacher Training for Vocational School and Materials Science taught at the Inter-Faculty Institute for Materials Technology.

Furthermore, it is responsible for the basic training of the students required for other courses of study in mathematics, physics and chemistry.

This faculty has four institutes including 15 departments and is in charge of the graduate courses of study of Commercial Information Technology, Industrial Engineering and Management and Media Economics.

This concept is underlain by the entities known as "TU Ilmenau Service GmbH" and the "Technologiegesellschaft Thüringen mbH & Co. KG".

Here the intention is to unite the academic strength of the university in energy engineering and management with the interest of other Thuringian enterprises and institutes.

Considering educational export as one its main tasks, the university supports the international exchange of its students and collaborators on the basis of programmes set up for this purpose.