The Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) has published the 2012/2013 university ranking together with the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. The degree programmes examined included physics, which was last assessed by the CHE in 2009/2010.

Of 69 physics institutes, mainly from Germany, but also from Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, 63 took part in the ranking. Of these, Oldenburg Physics is in the top quarter of the overall ranking. It has therefore improved significantly compared to the last ranking.

Ahead of Oldenburg are large universities with a long tradition in physics, such as Göttingen, Munich, Heidelberg, Aachen, Bonn, Heidelberg and Zurich. As a young and relatively small physics institute, Oldenburg naturally finds it difficult to overtake these large institutions.

However, the manageable size of Oldenburg Physics also has decisive advantages: there is close contact between students and lecturers and between students themselves, lecturers are easily accessible to students, intensive and well-supervised small group work creates effective learning situations, and there are no overcrowded lecture theatres and laboratories. As a result of all this, Oldenburg was categorised by the CHE as one of the top universities in the category "Support from teaching staff".

Oldenburg is also in the top group for an important indicator for research, the "research funding per scientist". Once again, an excellent 7th place was achieved here.

As pleasing as the overall positive result of the ranking is, it will not lead to the Oldenburg physicists resting on their laurels. Rather, they are doing like the footballers: they are delighted with their good UEFA Cup position, but want to get even closer to the Champions League places in the coming years. To achieve this, they will be making a variety of efforts. "We want to further improve the study conditions and increase the international visibility of our research results. We are on the right track here!" says the Director of the Institute of Physics, Prof Dr Christoph Lienau, confidently.

The ranking on the Internet: ranking.zeit.de/che2012/en/

[24.05.2012]