The Clausthal University of Technology is an institute of technology in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany. The small public university is regularly ranked among the Top German universities in engineering by CHE University Rankings. More than 30% of students and 20% of academic staff come from abroad, making it one of the most international universities in Germany. The university is best known for the prominent corporate leaders among its former students. As of 2011, five of the 30 leading companies within the German stock index had alumni of TUC on their management board, with two of them as CEO.

A Technische Hochschule is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Finland. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the Technische Hochschule emerged into the Technische Universität (German) or Technische Universiteit (Dutch). Since 2009, several German universities of applied sciences were renamed as Technische Hochschulen.