2020 CHE Ranking Praises Very High Education Standard for Students at RWTH

The Centre for Higher Education, CHE for short, evaluated the degree programs business administration and industrial engineering at RWTH.

Numerous university rankings, both in and outside Germany, confirm RWTH's outstanding achievements in research. The current CHE ranking – published in the DIE ZEIT Student Guide from May 5, 2020 – indicates that the University also has a high standard of teaching. The Center for Higher Education, CHE for short, evaluated RWTH's courses of study in business administration as well as industrial engineering in the four different specializations of civil engineering, electrical power engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials and process engineering.

At the core of the CHE ranking is the student survey, which asks students about their studies, their university's equipment, and the teaching staff. The answers vary from "very good" to "very bad" and are subsequently combined to form indicators. According to the survey, RWTH students were particularly pleased with the organization of their courses of study, with the University given scores of 2.0 and higher throughout. This indicator takes into account group sizes in courses, coordination of the content of the courses, clash-free scheduling, and access to the courses. Students also rated the University's equipment very highly, for example the well-stocked library, the availability of software and IT infrastructure, and the condition of the rooms.

In their overall assessment of the study situation, RWTH students rated the following aspects highly: the courses of study in business administration and industrial engineering and management, majoring in electrical power engineering, each received a grade of 2.1, while students of industrial engineering and management, majoring in civil engineering, rated their course of study with the grade 2.0, and students of mechanical engineering gave their degree program a 1.8 rating. The results for the fourth subject area, industrial engineering: process engineering, were not shown for this indicator because not enough information was provided.

In addition to the students' ratings, factors comparing the conditions at the universities are included in the evaluation. Here, RWTH was praised for the support it provides at the beginning of the evaluated degree programs, for example by offering self-assessments for study orientation, tutorials, advising sessions, and courses on developing and balancing competences. Finally, the ranking particularly highlighted the fact that many industrial engineering students complete their degree program relatively quickly.