With roughly 40,000 students, about 580 professors and more than 14,000 employees, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), founded in 1743, is one of the largest universities in Germany. In addition to the Cluster of Excellence 'Engineering of Advanced Materials' (EAM) and the ‘Graduate School of Advanced Optical Technologies’ (SAOT), which was founded as part of the Excellence Initiative, FAU currently has more than 40 co-ordinated programmes funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). FAU offers around 260 degree programmes, including eight Bavarian Elite Master's degree programmes and around 50 programmes with a distinct international focus. No other German university offers such a broad and interdisciplinary range of subjects on all qualification levels. FAU students enjoy global mobility through over 500 partnerships with higher education institutions in more than 70 countries.