Students’ choice of selecting a university abroad depends heavily on employability opportunities. Every year “The Times Higher Education” releases a ranking list for universities around the world. The ranking is based on 13 performance indicators that measure the institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.
The list is prepared after compiling the answers of several recruiters, chief executives, and business managers from top companies in 20 countries. Let us have a look at the list “Top 10 Universities in Germany for Higher Education for the year 2021”
LMU Munich
LMU is recognized as one of Europe’s premier academic and research institutions. Since its founding in 1472, LMU has attracted inspired scholars and talented students from all over the world, keeping the University at the nexus of ideas that challenge and change our complex world.
As one of Europe’s leading research universities, LMU looks back on 500 years of tradition. Its excellence in teaching and research embraces a wide diversity of fields—from the humanities and cultural studies through law, economics and social sciences to medicine and natural sciences. An intense interdisciplinary approach fosters the innovation so critical to our global future.
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich was originally known as the Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich when it was founded in 1868.
Specialising in the natural sciences, several inventors have studied at the institution, including Carl von Linde, who invented the refrigerator, and Rudolf Diesel, who conceived the diesel engine.
In addition, 13 of the university’s professors or alumni have been made Nobel laureates since 1927. The most recent recipients include Gerhard Ertl, a former lecturer at the institution who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2007, and alumnus Wolfgang Ketterle, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. In 2014, 165 inventions were made by scientists at the university, while in 2015, 69 patents were submitted.
The institution is also home to five Humboldt professors – academics who are internationally recognised in their field – while 18 Leibniz prizes gave been awarded to its scientists since 1987.
The university has more than 400 buildings across three campuses in the state of Bavaria: Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan. The institution is spilt into 13 departments, and also has an Olympic park and university hospitals.
In 2002 it opened a campus in Singapore called the German Institute of Science and Technology – TUM Asia. It includes master’s degrees and training programmes for professionals.
In 2006 the university launched a new institutional strategy, positioning itself as “The Entrepreneurial University”. More than 800 start-ups have been developed by students and staff at the institution.
Its mission statement is: “We invest in talents. Recognition is our return.”Wolfgang Hermann, who became president of the institution in 1995, is the longest-serving leader of a German university.
Heidelberg University, founded in 1386, is Germany’s oldest university. The research institution is a state university, covering a comprehensive range of subjects from the humanities to medicine, and is located in Baden-Württemberg. The university’s motto is “Semper apertus” – “always open” – and the institution aims to work in a spirit of open-mindedness and tolerance towards individuals and ideas. Heidelberg has twelve faculties, more than 30,000 students, and more than 5,000 research and teaching staff. In 1386, Ruprecht I, Elector of the Palatinate, was granted permission by the Pope to establish the university in his home city of Heidelberg. In the 16th Century it gained a reputation as a Calvinist stronghold, while in the 19th Century it was known for its commitment to liberal and democratic ideals. Heidelberg University secured institutional funding in both the 2006 and 2012 guises of Germany’s Excellence Initiative, aimed at promoting world-class research. Eleven professors at Heidelberg have been awarded a Nobel Prize since the award was established in 1901. The university places an emphasis on developing new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration that cross traditional subject boundaries. The institution also prides itself in its collaborations with non-university research institutions and companies in the Rhine-Neckar and Heidelberg regions. The city of Heidelberg has a cosmopolitan and student-friendly atmosphere. City and university alike offer a wide range of sports and leisure activities, as well as film and music festivals and a large number of museums, meaning students and staff can relax in a diverse cultural atmosphere.
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe.
Its motto is: ‘Forschen, Lehren, Heilen, Helfen’, which translates as ‘Research, Teaching, Healing, Helping.
’Dating back to 1710, the hospital was originally built in response to a plague epidemic in Eastern Prussia. By 1727 it had become a military hospital and educational training centre, and renamed Charité.
Following its destruction during World War II, the building had to be rebuilt, and between 1946-1989, it served as a medical institute of the German Democratic Republic.
By 2003, as a result of merges with other medical institutes in Germany, the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin became one of the main medical centres in Europe.
More than half of German Nobel prize-winners in medicine and physiology originated from the Charité, including physician and microbiologist Robert Koch, and the immunologist Paul Ehrlich.
In 2010, the university celebrated its 300-year anniversary and today, it is wholly-owned by the Federal State of Berlin, has a turnover of €1.5 billion per annum and is one of the largest employers in the city, home to 3,700 doctors.
Charité has four campuses across Berlin: Campus Benjamin Franklin, Campus Charité Mitte, Campus Virchow-Klinikum and Campus Berlin Buch, which between them take up 540,000 square meters of land.
It has a student body of 7,000 – 1,200 of whom are from overseas – and is made up of approximately 100 departments and institutes, which are organised into 17 CharitéCentres.
Students of Charité are encouraged to join student councils and committees in order to contribute towards the development of their teaching and learning. Since 2011, Charité has been bestowing grants to selected students.
The University of Tübingen Eberhard Karls is a respected academic authority in humanities, natural sciences and theology. The institute is situated in one of the traditional German university towns of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, which famous for its boat trips and the marvelous architecture of its old town Hölderlin.
The first Count Eberhard of Württemberg supported the university’s foundation in 1477. A century later, its protestant theology department was a key place for the development of the astrologer Johannes Kepler. From then on, the university saw a rapid expansion, which included the establishment of the first Natural Sciences department and the first university hospital in a German higher education institution.
Today, University of Tübingen has 14 schools, which offer 280 courses at all levels from Bachelor, Master and Doctorate. As an integral part of the German excellence initiative, the university remains in the forefront of international academic institutions. Every year, The German Research Foundation funds research conducted as part of the university related to neuroscience, elementary particle physics and nanotechnology.
University of Tübingen maintains close connections with over 150 foreign institutions in over 62 states worldwide. Some of them include the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of St. Andrews. This provides students with the unique opportunity to study abroad for one year, or for foreign students to come to Tubingen and actively engage in scientific research.
Even though the University of Tübingen cannot offer a real campus life experience, the small city of Tubingen has a calendar full of events such as concerts staging famous singers and orchestras. The college also organises courses in photography, journalism and creative writing giving the chance for students to develop their skills and broaden their artistic horizons.
The universities most famous alumni include the neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer, and former EU commisioner Martin Bangemann.
The university’s leitmotif translates as ‘I dare’.
Established more than 200 years ago, in 1810, the Humboldt University of Berlin is one of the most prestigious universities not only in Germany, but in Europe. It has a world class reputation in arts and humanities fields.
Originally known simply as the University of Berlin, it was given its current name in 1949, and is named after both its founder, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and his brother, the esteemed naturalist and alumnus of the institution, Alexander von Humboldt.
HU Berlin is recognised as one of Europe’s pioneering higher education institutions. Wilhelm von Humboldt is credited with developing a model for universities that saw a closer relationship between research and teaching – a model that is still followed in higher education institutions across the world today.The institution’s academic clout is evidenced by the fact that it has educated no fewer than 29 Nobel prizewinners, including Max Born, who won the prize for physics in 1954; Theodor Mommsen, who won the prize for for literature in 1902; and Wassily Leontief who won the prize for economics in 1973.In 2006, the federal government’s German Universities Excellence Initiative began allocating additional funding to institutions that proved they were leaders in science and research. In 2012, HU Berlin, was one of 11 institutions to receive this money, enhancing its reputation as one of the country’s elite universities.Among HU Berlin’s famous alumni are Marxism founders Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as novelist Alfred Döblin, and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Composer Felix Mendelssohn was also a student there, while Albert Einstein spent time as a professor at the university.
University of Freiburg
Despite being founded more than 550 years ago, the University of Freiburg is only the fifth oldest university in Germany.
Nonetheless, its long history teaching across sciences and humanities subjects has earned its reputation as one of Germany’s elite universities worldwide.
The student population includes 120 different nationalities, with international students making up around 16 per cent of the total number of students.
Many famous intellectuals, scientists and cultural figures attended or taught at the university, including physicist Martin Heidegger, philosophers Hannah Arendt and Rudolf Carnap and biologist Paul Uhlenhurth.
Nineteen Nobel Prize winners are associated with the university, and many of the university’s academics have been awarded with highest German research prize for work done while at the university.
The university offers 180 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programmes across 11 faculties. There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary and innovative studies, with the option to add an interdisciplinary year to a bachelor’s degree.
University buildings are integrated within the city of Freiburg, on three large campuses next to the historical city centre. Some university buildings display historic architecture, like the old university library.
A new university library was erected in the 1970s and is one of the largest in the country.
In 2010, around 15 per cent of applicants were offered a place at the university – roughly 4,000 students.
Tuition is free for both EU and non-EU students, but there is a small administrative fee each year, around 200 euros.
Student dormitories are extremely popular as they offer more affordable options than renting privately. They are run both by the university and other institutions with specific focuses.
The RWTH Aachen University was founded in 1870 after Prince William of Prussia decided to use a donation to set up an institute of technology somewhere in the Rhine Province. Funding local banks and an insurance company meant that it was eventually located in Aaachen, so building work began in 1865 and doors opened to 223 students during the Franco-Prussian War. There was a strong focus on engineering and particularly the local mining industry.
As Germany’s westernmost important city, Aachen is situated at the heart of Europe and very close to the Dutch and Belgian border, so RWTH Aachen – or Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen – benefits greatly from a mix of cultures and languages. Although faculties of philosophy and medicine were introduced in the 1960s, it is still most famous for natural sciences and engineering – and, since 2014, has joined forces with the city to give a prestigious annual Engineering Award to a prominent figure in the field.
The university has always had strong ties with industry, creating a European equivalent of Silicon Valley around it, and attracted exceptional levels of external funding to its researchers. For its size, Aachen is the dominant German city for university spin-off companies and offices of engineering firms.
The world’s first wind tunnel and particle accelerator were both developed at RWTH Aachen. Major innovations created onsite include a pioneering aircraft made entirely of metal and a diesel soot filter.
In its strategy for 2020, RWTH Aachen makes clear its commitment to interdisciplinary research, which, along with diversity, internationalization and natural sciences, forms one of the four core themes of the work being carried out at its research park. It also aims to be to the top German university of technology and one of the five best in Europe.
The University of Bonn, officially named The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn after the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm, was founded in 1818.
Established at the time of the Age of Enlightenment, the university, built on critical thinking and liberal values, expanded rapidly with many eminent scholars attending from across the whole of Germany.
By the 1930s, the Nazis had forced many Jewish intellectuals and dissidents to leave, and the wartime bombardment of Bonn that followed in 1944 led to the university’s destruction. In the post-war period, the university was rebuilt, students returned and its academics set about restoring the institution to its former glory.
Today, the University of Bonn is among the world’s leading research universities. It is home to more than 35,000 students and 4,500 academic staff, with strategic partnerships in place with 70 universities across the globe. Its strong international spirit is evident in its cohort of 4,000 international students, which, at about 12.5% of the student populace, is higher than the national average. Each year it confers approximately 800 PhDs.The university cites subject strengths in Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Economics, Biosciences, and Philosophy. Boasting two Nobel Prize winners: Wolfgang Paul in 1989 for Physics, and Reinhard Selten in 1994 for Economics, it also has associations with eight Leibniz Prize winners. Its most notable alumni include Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the composer Robert Schumann.
Offering over 90 degree programmes, the university is located across 371 buildings in the city of Bonn. Situated on the banks of the River Rhine, Bonn is a historic city and the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven.
The Free University of Berlin was founded in 1948, in the turmoil of post-war Germany, when students of the former Universität Unter den Linden, then located in the Soviet sector of the city, were facing persecution because of their views. With international support, the Free University was established, allowing scholars to pursue their teaching and learning without political interference.
Truth, justice and freedom remain the university’s core values with these words imprinted on the university seal.
In the 1960s, the university was the site of several student protests and demonstrations. In 1990, German reunification brought about changes in the management of the university, and, with it, came a newfound focus on research. Today, it is one of only eleven designated ‘German Universities of Excellence’.Set in the leafy suburb of Dahlem in southwest Berlin, the university is home to more than 32,000 students and offers over 150 degree programmes. It has 17 collaborative research centres, an academic staff of almost 5,000 and partnerships with universities the world over, as well as seven international liaison offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, and Sao Paulo.
The university also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among its staff and 17 winners of the Leibniz Prize. With women employed in 30 per cent of its professorships, the university is also at the forefront of German higher education institutions when it comes to gender representation.
Over the years, the Free University of Berlin has hosted many influential figures, including President John F. Kennedy who chose it as the location to deliver his ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in 1963.
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