The university emerged from a department of the Rhineland-Palatinate University of Applied Sciences in 1996 and is divided into five faculties at three locations in the Palatinate - Kaiserslautern, Pirmasens and Zweibrücken.

Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences (HAW) specialises in technology, business, design and health as well as computer science as an integrated cross-sectional competence. Around 5500 students in around 80 Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes from around 80 nations and around 150 professors learn, teach and research in five departments at the study locations Kaiserslautern, Pirmasens and Zweibrücken.