Strong Result in Equal Opportunities Ranking

RWTH among the top universities in the 2023 CEWS Ranking

 

In terms of gender equality activities, RWTH ranks among the top higher education institutions in Germany and is the leading institution among the TU9 universities. This has now been confirmed by the “CEWS Ranking Of Higher Education Institutions By Gender Aspects” published by the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. The ranking is based on quantitative data from the Federal Statistical Office from 2021. Where the ranking considers development trends, changes over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021 are used as a basis for assessment.

Achieving nine out of a possible twelve points, RWTH improved its result by one point compared to 2021. In the list of all universities rated, RWTH thus moves up from ranking group 5 to ranking group 4. The universities are ranked on the basis of six different indicators, for each of which up to two points can be achieved. Individual indicators for assessing the proportion of women in the various academic ranks at the University use the cascade model, i.e. the proportion of women at a specific level of academic qualification is set in relation to the preceding “lower” level (e.g. proportion of women doctoral candidates to women students). Other indicators look at development trends, for example the change in the proportion of women professors over the period from 2016 to 2021.

In the current assessment, RWTH achieved one point each for the proportion of women at the professor and post-doctoral levels. RWTH also received one point for the increase in the proportion of women at the non-professorial academic staff level in the period from 2016 to 2021.

As in the 2021 CEWS Ranking, RWTH received full points for the proportion of women doctorates and for the proportion of women among academic employees below the level of tenured professors. Furthermore, RWTH Aachen scored two out of a possible two points for the increase in women professors between 2016 and 2021.

These results demonstrate that RWTH's stringent equal opportunities strategy is increasingly paying off, and that the University has been able to further build upon the good result it achieved in the previous ranking. However, according to RWTH management, further efforts are needed to further drive the cultural change towards equal opportunities in academia.