For many years, the Department of Architecture has owed its position in the top ranks of the CHE rankings in part to the positive assessment by students, who praise the very good study conditions. In the "BlueBox", for example, around 250 modern architecture workstations with PC and notebook connections are set up on 1,200 square metres, and every student has a workstation available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for drawing and building models.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has particular strengths in the area of "Water and Environment". A Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory and the former International Geothermal Centre, now Fraunhofer, with whose diverse activities in research and teaching (headquarters of the International Geothermal Association, Network Geothermal Energy of the EnergyAgency.NRW, Bochum Graduate School AGES etc.) the university is identified nationally and internationally, are visible signs of this commitment.

The Department of Geodesy, with its practical training profile close to business and public administration, is unique in NRW and has already produced several teaching award winners. These are chosen each year by students at the university and honoured with the award for their exemplary teaching.

Another core area of the Bochum University of Applied Sciences is engineering education in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as well as Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering. Since 1995, it has also been offering its degree programmes in this field of expertise alongside training or practical experience (cooperative studies - KIA and KIS). The university is widely recognised for its activities in the field of Electric Mobility. For example, students have been building vehicles powered by sunlight for many years, with which they successfully took part in the World Solar Challenge in Australia, for example, and completed a 3-month European tour in 2022 with an old Land Rover with a SecondLife battery fuelled solely by solar energy.

In addition to a broad, internationally networked and practice-oriented education in business administration, the Department of Business and Management is also known for its part-time degree programmes, which provide engineers, for example, with a business and practice-oriented basic education.

The focus on regional co-operation with companies is extremely important to Bochum University of Applied Sciences. Co-operations, e.g. in the form of final theses, enable companies to systematically address practical issues scientifically without great effort. Students are supported by the professors, who themselves have several years of professional experience and conduct practice-orientated teaching and research.

In addition to its very strong regional network, Bochum University of Applied Sciences has established and expanded important international contacts in the education sector since the 1990s, particularly with universities in Europe and Asia. Numerous close co-operations have resulted from this. The type of interaction ranges from the organisation of internships and student and lecturer exchanges to joint research projects.

The basic idea that sustainable development should be a central concern of society and science has been an integral part of Hochschule Bochum's DNA since 2011. This resulted in the adoption of the official sustainability strategy in 2021.

The Bachelor's degree programme in Sustainable Development, one of the first sustainability degree programmes in Germany to be characterised by a consistently interdisciplinary approach, was launched back in 2013. This was followed by two Master's degree programmes in Sustainability in 2016 and a new degree programme in Renewable Energy (Renewable Energy Systems) in 2022. With these courses, the university is actively helping to train urgently needed specialists for the global labour market.

In addition to teaching and the equally important administrative bodies, Bochum University of Applied Sciences has several student-centred facilities. In addition to the libraries for technology and business and advice centres such as the Central Student Advisory Service or the Career Service, these also include the Institute for Academic Success and Didactics. Here, students acquire useful additional qualifications from a wide range of programmes, from languages and management techniques to seminars on climate change and sustainability.