School ranking has always been one of the most important references for parents and students, especially for those who are unfamiliar with foreign schools and want a convenient way to evaluate the quality of schools. School ranking is especially important in Hong Kong, we are used to all kinds of rankings, from universities to kindergartens and even playgroups.
Germans have a different view of school rankings, they do not attach importance to the so-called ranking, even if the German students in the choice of a university in Germany or international rankings is not a major factor in their consideration. Germans do not have overwhelming support for prestigious universities, they believe that the majority of German universities are state-funded, resource sharing, no one university has an absolute advantage. However, Germans also understand that every university has its strengths and weaknesses, and all have a focus on their subjects. This is why German students do not rely on overall rankings, but rather on a detailed analysis of how each university performs in their preferred subject.
The most representative assessment of German higher education is provided by the Center for Higher Education (CHE), which first published the most comprehensive and detailed analysis of German higher education in 1998, rating universities according to type of university, number of advanced degrees, electives, etc. Universities and universities of applied sciences, for example, are not compared because of their teaching methods and emphasis. For example, universities and universities of applied sciences are classified as different types of schools because of their different teaching styles and emphases, and are not compared.
The CHE University Rating assesses 39 subjects and analyses the differences between universities from different perspectives. The analysis includes not only the content of courses, teaching methods, university equipment and the university’s investment in research, but also the assessment of 200,000 students on the study conditions offered by their university and the evaluation by 15,000 professors of the reputation of their university’s academic departments. This multifaceted analysis of the rankings is based solely on the opinions of one group of people and is inclusive of different viewpoints, allowing for a comparison between subjective assessments and objective indicators.
The CHE assessment is published annually in the renowned German weekly magazine “DIE ZEIT”. The 2017/2018 assessment has been published and the following assessment focuses on academic research and teaching, including overall learning, programme choice, organisation and arrangements for learning, programme support and the ratio of theory to practice in the subjects. Let’s take a look at the assessment of the popular degree – University of Business and Management (University of Applied Sciences not included).
In addition to the internationally renowned University of Mannheim, there are many more universities on the 2017/2018 evaluation list that are rated as top. There are many public universities as well as private universities in the list:
2017/2018 Top 10 universities rated by BBA (in no particular order).
- European University Viadrina
- EBS University for Business and Law
- Frankfurt school of Finance & Management
- Georg-August-University Goettingen
- Technical University Muenchen
- Stuttgart University
- Kuehe Logistics University
- WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
- Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
- Mannheim University
