HHU in rankings

According to the Federal Statistical Office, there were 109 universities and 428 higher education institutions in Germany in 2023/2024. Within the EU, there are almost 5,000 higher education institutions (source: European Commission), while global figures vary between 21,000 and 90,000, depending on the source. These institutions have a number of socially relevant responsibilities, the successful fulfillment of which can be assessed on the basis of a wide range of characteristics - in addition to more general indicators for teaching and research such as student-teacher ratios or third-party funding, these include, for example, key figures on scientific publications, suitability of graduates for the labor market, international orientation, knowledge transfer to society and the economy, regional commitment, sustainability and many more.

University rankings each only look at a section of indicators for a part of the dimensions mentioned and attempt to evaluate these. They draw their data from a variety of sources such as publicly accessible data, surveys among various interest groups, publication databases or directly from the universities. For this reason, the results of rankings are generally not comparable with each other and cannot be regarded as universally valid statements about an institution.

The University Düsseldorf has some strengths that are not even included in the rankings due to the limited number of indicators: for example the structure as a campus university with an affiliated botanical garden brings students, lecturers, researchers and other employees together and promotes exchange across the very broad range of subjects at HHU. The univesity also gives high priority to networking with society is through the Citizens' University. All university members and affiliates can benefit from an attractive, international, economically strong and highly liveable location, as well as from the diverse international collaborations and the international university network to which HHU belongs.