[2] In 1864, the newly founded Westphalian Mining Trade Fund, Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse (WBK), became the responsible body for the school.

A new presidential constitution was passed in 2006 and, one year later, all Diplom courses were converted into the bachelor's/master's system in accordance with the Bologna Process.

[7] Since 1 January 1990, the university's governing body has been DMT-Gesellschaft für Lehre und Bildung mbh (DMT-LB), which also maintains the adjacent German Mining Museum in conjunction with the city of Bochum.

DMT-LB emerged in 1990 as one of two subsidiaries of the association Deutsche Montan Technologie für Rohstoff, Energie und Umwelt e. V. (DMT e. V.), which, in turn, arose from the merger of Westfälische Berggewerkschaftskasse with a series of similar organisations, the aim being to consolidate the educational and research activities of the entire German coal mining industry.

This also includes the development of cutting-edge systems to monitor the consequences of mining using special deep-water probes and remote sensing data.

[11] Students can enrol on the world's only Geo-Engineering and Post-Mining master's programme, which offers a combination of natural sciences and technology.

The programme is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the RAG-Stiftung and runs in close cooperation with regional job centres.

[13][14] Since 2017, THGA has been involved in the “Karrierewege FH-Professur” (“Career paths for professorships at universities of applied sciences”) throughout the region.

In the Hidden Champions3 project, master craftspeople, technicians and similar specialists at SMEs are trained as skilled professionals and executives in part-time degree courses running alongside their day jobs.

THGA is involved in Netzwerk UniverCity Bochum, which seeks to strengthen the affinity of the local population with the city's scientific institutions.