Freie Universität Berlin in the Excellence Initiative and the Excellence Strategy
Freie Universität Berlin performed successfully three times in the German government’s Excellence competition for universities. As a result of the latest competition, the German Excellence Strategy, the university will receive long-term funding beginning in 2019 as part of the Berlin University Alliance, which is made up of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Freie Universität was the only university in Berlin and one of six universities nationwide to be recognized as an excellent university in both rounds of the previous competition, the German Excellence Initiative, in 2006/2007 and 2012.
Interdisciplinary Work within Research Alliances
The main features of Freie Universität’s research activities include the broad variety of global academic and scientific cooperation arrangements in place as part of alliance projects and networks with other entities active in research, alongside the university’s innovative support concepts for junior scholars and scientists and the scope of the external funding the university raises.
The various areas of focus in the research conducted at Freie Universität are organized into various structures, including interdisciplinary focus areas, excellence clusters, collaborative research centers, and research centers.
Wide Variety of Academic Offerings and Excellent Support for Junior Scholars and Scientists
Freie Universität is a full-spectrum university, comprising twelve departments and three Central Institutes that together offer more than 150 different academic programs in a broad range of disciplines. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the joint medical school of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Dahlem Research School (DRS) at Freie Universität Berlin offers the framework encompassing a range of outstanding structured doctoral programs. By establishing the DRS, Freie Universität Berlin broke new ground in the field of graduate education in Germany, all with the aim of offering junior scholars and scientists the best possible conditions for their academic development. At the DRS, strategies to support doctoral candidates and postdoctoral students at Freie Universität are developed, research within interdisciplinary and international alliances is fostered, and established graduate schools and research training groups receive support alongside new initiatives.
International Alignment
Freie Universität owes its founding, in 1948, to international support, and international impulses have shaped the university’s research activities and student life ever since. As an International Network University, Freie Universität thrives on its many contacts with higher education institutions and organizations in Germany and abroad, which provide critical impetus for the university’s research and teaching activities.
Today, Freie Universität has more than 200 bilateral partnerships worldwide and more than 400 university partnerships within the Erasmus+ (EU and worldwide) mobility network. The university's various departments and research institutes themselves have over 75 partner agreements with other institutions.
Each year, about 600 international scholars and scientists contribute to the variety of teaching and research activities pursued at Freie Universität. One groundbreaking development that demonstrates the way the university takes international cooperation to the next level is the four international liaison offices of Freie Universität that were founded beginning in 2007 – in Cairo, Eastern Europe (Tbilisi, Georgia), New Delhi, and São Paulo. Another is the establishment of special arrangements with selected universities in the form of strategic partnerships.
QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024
New ranking lists Freie Universität Berlin among the four best universities in Germany / University ranks thirty-ninth in Europe
The first ever QS Europe Ranking lists Freie Universität Berlin among the top four universities in Germany. The university came in at number thirty-nine in Europe according to the survey published on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, by the higher education consulting firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Ltd. The university’s commitment to promoting networking within the international scientific community was a major factor in its success.
Education for All
Freie Universität Berlin supports its members through family-friendly policies and organization, making it easier to manage family responsibilities alongside work, study, and research. It received certification under the Family-Friendly Higher Education Audit (“audit familiengerechte hochschule”) in 2007 and helped establish the “Familie in der Hochschule e.V.” (Family in Higher Education Institutions) association in March 2018.
For several years now, Freie Universität has been considered one of the best universities in Germany when it comes to improving the representation of women at all levels of qualification in the academic system. In 2018, Freie Universität was given the “Outstanding Equal Opportunity!” distinction – one of only ten German universities awarded the honor – as part of the German federal and state governments’ female professors program. This achievement is a result of the university’s strong professional development and recruiting processes that support female academics on their way to becoming professors.
In 2020, Freie Universität Berlin received the TOTAL E-QUALITY Award for its exemplary commitment to promoting equity between women and men. This is the seventh year in a row that Freie Universität has been awarded the prize, which comprised an additional distinction for promoting diversity in 2021 for the first time.
Since 2005, Freie Universität Berlin has consistently ranked among the best German universities with regard to equality in the rankings published by the Center for Excellence Women and Science (CEWS).
An Environmentally Friendly University
Freie Universität Berlin was the first German university to declare a state of climate emergency in December 2019. This involved committing itself to taking sustainability and climate protection into consideration in all its decisions and plans, as well as the aim to become climate neutral by 2025.
Over the past two decades, Freie Universität has been able to reduce its energy consumption by 27 percent and its CO2 emissions by 80 percent.
Freie Universität Berlin was awarded the EMAS seal of approval in 2021, considered to be the seal of approval for corporate environmental management with the most stringent criteria in the world.
Ideas for the Business Sector
Knowledge and technology transfer are considered a top priority at Freie Universität. The university has been successfully offering start-up support since the 1980s. The aim is to establish entrepreneurial thinking and doing among both researchers and students.
According to the 2021 Gründungsradar (start-up radar), Freie Universität Berlin was among the ten higher education institutions in Germany with more than 15,000 students that provided exemplary start-up support.
In the 2020 Businessplan-Wettbewerb Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg business plan competition), Freie Universität Berlin was awarded the title “Ideenschmiede Berlin” (powerhouse of ideas) for the eighth time due to its notable success in supporting young businesspeople.
External Fundraising
Freie Universität Berlin’s reputation as a leader in research is also demonstrated by its success in acquiring external funding. This includes public funds as well as funding from foundations and business partners. Combined with the basic financing granted to all public universities by the government, this amounts to a significant amount of research funding.
The acquisition and expenditure of external funds by Freie Universität Berlin has risen continuously for more than ten years. The total amount of spending of external funding increased from 106,290 million euros net in 2010 to 144.218 million euros in 2022.
