As in previous years' rankings, UK and US elite universities occupied the top places, starting with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, California Institute of Technology and Stanford University (both sharing 3rd place). Among the German universities, the leaders were Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (34th), Technical University of Munich (41st) and Heidelberg University (45th).
Professor Carola Jungwirth, President of the University of Passau, said: 'For many years, the University of Passau has very successfully participated in rankings in the German-speaking world. It is natural that we would seek to assert our position in international rankings, too. This requires targeted measures to position ourselves in strategic areas such as research productivity and diversity. We intend to continue along our chosen path, which is to raise the visibility of our growing research strength whilst sustaining our high quality of teaching and intensifying our knowledge transfer activities.' Naturally, as with every performance assessment, luck does play a certain role. However, irrespective of the result, the THE Rankings allow the University to see where it stands in the international arena and provide valuable information for the strategic development of the University.
The Times Higher Education Rankings, which are among the most influential university league tables worldwide, only assess excellent universities. The data collected for the purpose of the rankings are aligned along the dimensions of research, teaching and knowledge transfer. While some of the data are provided by the participating universities themselves, others – such as research, which is measured on the volume of published articles – are collected by THE via specialised databases. Other data were sourced using a THE survey of academics and scientists, predominantly in the English-speaking world.