Foreign researchers are drawn to Berlin and Munich
According to an analysis by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the major university cities of Berlin and Munich continue to attract the most foreign academics in terms of numbers. For the current "Humboldt Ranking", which is available to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, data on 6,500 guest stays at German universities and non-university research institutions sponsored by the Foundation between 2018 and 2022 was evaluated.
According to the study, most foreign Humboldt Fellows conducted research at Freie Universität Berlin (251), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (226), Humboldt-Universität Berlin (236) and TU Munich (171) during this period. The university cities of Heidelberg, Göttingen, Cologne, Münster, Frankfurt (Main) and Tübingen came in fifth to tenth place.
For better comparability and to take into account the different sizes of the universities, the foundation also weights its ranking: the proportion of foreign academics is set in relation to the number of professorships at the respective institution. In addition to Berlin and Munich, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with 105 scholarship holders and the University of Konstanz (66) are also ranked highly in this calculation.
According to the Humboldt Foundation, it enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend an academic period in Germany every year. The applicants themselves select the research project and their host university in Germany. Following an application and selection process, the foundation then funds the stay with the scholarship. Because the academics choose their research institution themselves, the foundation also regards a top position in its ranking as an indication of good international contacts and a good reputation of the institution.
A look at the individual scientific fields makes it clear: engineers and natural scientists from other countries are particularly attracted to Munich, humanities scholars to Berlin and researchers in the life sciences (biology or chemistry) to Heidelberg.
Outside the universities, the institutes of the Max Planck Society are particularly attractive for scholarship holders from abroad. They account for more than half of the top ten institutions. Forschungszentrum Jülich and two Helmholtz Centers also made it into the top ten.
The attraction of Berlin and Munich for foreign researchers is largely due to their robust science and research sectors. Many foreign Humboldt Fellows engage in groundbreaking research in fields like engineering, natural sciences, and humanities at institutions such as Freie Universität Berlin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Humboldt-Universität Berlin.
Source: www.dpa.com
