University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is one of 11 Universities of Excellence in Germany and has also successfully secured 4 research clusters in the federal and state excellence competition. As one of the largest higher education institutions in the country, it regularly compares itself with other universities in the areas of research, teaching, studies, and governance—both nationally and internationally.
Selected rankings
University comparisons—whether in general or in connection to individual areas of activity and subjects—primarily take place through independent rankings. The first surveys date back to the 1980s. Since then, numerous different evaluations with varying topics of focus have been created. In the past several decades, the University of Hamburg has steadily improved in key national and international comparisons and now usually ranks in the top 10 nationwide.
The 5 most important rankings
The German Research Foundation (DFG) Funding Atlas provides a regular overview of the DFG’s external funding grants. In 2024, the University ranked among the top 10 German universities in DFG funding from 2020 to 2022 with more than €270 million—
an improvement of 11 places over the previous 15 years. In the humanities and social sciences (rank 4) and the natural sciences (6), the University of Hamburg is one of the universities that have achieved the highest levels of external funding nationwide.
The British Times Higher Education (THE) magazine evaluates more than 2,600 universities worldwide using numerous indicators: Publications, citations, external funding, doctorates, patents, and numerous other quantitative metrics, like an institute’s reputation based on global surveys of tens of thousands of academics are also taken into account.
Since 2018, the University of Hamburg has improved its ranking by more than 100 places and is currently ranked 132nd—thus placing it 12th in Germany. In recent years, the University has shown a drastic improvement of 74 to 85 points in the category “Research Quality,” which measures research publications and citations.
The annual QS World University Rankings provided by the company Quacquarelli Symonds measures various factors: The majority of the rankings are based on reputation surveys, citations, and faculty-student ratios. In the past 8 years, the University of Hamburg has improved its ranking by more than 40 places up to 191st and is thus ranked 10th in Germany.
For several years now, the QS Sustainability Rankings have been used to evaluate universities’ efforts in the field of sustainability. Here, the University of Hamburg is ranked 1st nationwide and 29th worldwide
The NTU World University Rankings were first published by the National Taiwan University nearly 20 years ago. The rankings are based exclusively on bibliometric indicators—namely, number of publications, citations and cooperation agreements.
The University of Hamburg is ranked as one of the 150 best universities in the world and 7th nationally.
The purely bibliometric ranking from the Dutch Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) research institute is well renowned in the university landscape. It offers a high level of transparency, and the data is available in an open access format that can be evaluated and analyzed as necessary.
The University of Hamburg is ranked as one of the 5 universities in Germany with the most publications. If publications with the most citations are counted, it is in 4th place.
Diverse criteria
Various criteria are included in the rankings. In addition to key figures from university statistics, bibliometric data on a university’s research publications are also often relevant. Among other things, the following data are recorded:
- student enrollment
- number of graduates
- human resources
- finances
- patents
- awards
- publications
- citations.
In addition, academics are often surveyed to determine the reputation of an institution. Student surveys on the quality of teaching are also sometimes included in the results.
Availability of the data and further use of the results
At the University, the Department of University Strategy coordinates participation in the various rankings. For certain rankings, the faculties—in particular the academic offices, and the relevant departments such as the Sustainability Office—provide specific content.
The results at university, faculty, and—if applicable—department level are evaluated centrally and, for example, used for reporting purposes.
