CHE Ranking 2022 of Master’s programmes in engineering sciences and psychology

The CHE Ranking with the latest assessments by Master’s students is now available online. Subjects from the field of engineering sciences and psychology were once again investigated. Universities of technology in particular are highly praised by their Master’s students for the study conditions in engineering science programmes. Ulm University, the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg also impressed their Master’s students. Universities of applied sciences (UAS) were also rated very highly. In the subject of psychology, universities in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg scored particularly highly, as did the universities of Mannheim and Münster.

“Nearly 10,000 Master’s students from all over Germany took part in the survey. No one is better placed to judge what higher education institutions (HEIs) have to offer at the Master’s level,” stated Dr Nina Horstmann, who is responsible for surveying Master’s students for the CHE Ranking. Taken together, the student responses and the facts on research and teaching provide a comprehensive overview of the study conditions in the Master’s programmes of the subjects under investigation. This overview enables Bachelor’s degree graduates to make an informed decision about their chosen Master’s programme. The entire results are available for free on ZEIT ONLINE at www.zeit.de/masterranking.

The new comparison involved Master’s students evaluating their study conditions on the basis of up to eight criteria. Among other aspects, they assessed the “overall study situation”, the “courses offered”, the “study organisation” and “research orientation”, which includes the opportunities for advanced research and the presence of innovative research in the Master’s programme. The Master’s students also rated the use of elements of online teaching for the first time.

Students from the following universities praised their Master’s programme for a large number of criteria:

Electrical and information engineering
Ulm University, TU Munich, FAU, the University of Stuttgart and TU Darmstadt received many very good ratings for the study conditions in this subject. In the case of UAS, Reutlingen University and FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences impressed their students in many criteria.

Mechanical engineering
TU Munich’s Campus Garching and the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg impressed their mechanical engineering Master’s students in all criteria: top marks for the overall study situation, support, the use of elements of online teaching, the courses offered, study organisation, support during studies, the transition to the Master’s programme, and research orientation. RWTH Aachen, TU Dresden and Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg scored well among their Master’s students. In the group of UAS, Hochschule Furtwangen University and Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences were assessed very positively in many criteria.

Materials engineering / materials science
Master’s students in this subject were very satisfied in many cases at Saarland University, RWTH Aachen and TU Darmstadt. Aalen University and Austria’s University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria were also ranked highly in many cases.

Chemical engineering
In this subject, Master’s students at Clausthal University of Technology regarded their programme as having good study conditions in many aspects.

Civil engineering at universities of applied sciences
In this subject, Master’s students particularly praised many criteria regarding their study conditions at Biberach University of Applied Sciences, TH Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences and Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart.

Psychology
The University of Mannheim impressed its psychology Master’s students in all criteria. The universities in Münster, Ulm and Constance, LMU Munich, the University of Koblenz-Landau in Landau and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt also received many very good assessments.

In addition to obtaining student responses, CHE also collected factual indicators: for universities, the “third-party funding per academic”, “publications per academic”, “citations per publication” and “doctorates per professor” were determined. These facts provide an overview of research achievements at the respective department. At universities of applied sciences (UAS), the “research funding per professor” was investigated in some subjects.

In addition, the level of intensity of contact with professional practice during the Master’s programme was assessed for both universities and UAS. The results of the facts and assessments were each classified into a top group, a middle group and a bottom group.

The student magazine ZEIT CAMPUS publishes a selection of the results. The current issue 1/23, containing the ranking results for engineering sciences at universities and UAS, is available from bookshops from 22 November 2022. The results for psychology will be presented in the next issue 2/23, due to be released in February 2023.

For more information, visit www.che.de/ranking-germany