University President Ulrich Bartosch said: 'The University of Passau understands this good result as both a confirmation of past effort and an incentive to do more. After his unusual semester, such praise is particularly welcome. It's a team effort and I thank all the members of our university for the good cooperation.'
The Times Higher Education Rankings, which are among the most influential worldwide university league tables, see the number of participating universities increase every year. They are constructed on a comparison of 13 different indicators from the areas of research, teaching, knowledge transfer and internationalisation. Some of the data, above all indicators on the student body, staff figures and financial resources are reported by the participating universities themselves, while others are obtained from academic databases and THE-conducted surveys among international academics. The overall result is made up of five areas with different weightings: The categories 'Teaching', 'Research' and 'Citations' each carry the highest weighting of 30 percent, whereas the category 'International Outlook' has a weighting of 7.5 percent and 'Industry Income' 2.5 percent.
This year, worldwide participation in the ranking again rose significantly to 1,527 universities (2019: 1,397). The University of Oxford (UK) continues to lead the ranking, sharing the 'winners' podium' with two other English-speaking elite universities, Stanford and Harvard (both USA). As in 2019, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) is the front-runner among universities in continental Europa (14th place). Among the German universities, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (32nd place), Technische Universität München (41st) and Ruprecht-Karls-Universität zu Heidelberg (42nd) were the best performers.
The results can be viewed at www.timeshighereducation.com.