27. June 2025

University of Bonn Soars Up CEWS University Rankings University of Bonn Soars Up CEWS University Rankings

University among the leading pack in five out of six gender equality categories

The University of Bonn has improved its position in the 2025 CEWS rankings, which rate universities for aspects of gender equality. It has climbed from Group 6 to Group 3 in the overall rankings, putting it in the top 25 percent of all universities in Germany. The University is now among the leading pack in five out of six categories. The rankings are drawn up every two years by the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) based on the official statistics for higher education.

The University of Bonn has improved its position in the 2025 CEWS rankings, which rate universities for aspects of gender equality.
The University of Bonn has improved its position in the 2025 CEWS rankings, which rate universities for aspects of gender equality. - The University is now among the leading pack in five out of six categories. © University of Bonn/ Volker Lannert
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“This is a very pleasing result that reflects our ongoing efforts to improve gender equality in research and teaching,” says Professor Irmgard Förster, Vice Rector for Equal Opportunity and Diversity. “At the same time, we can see that we still have work to do in terms of appointing women to W2 and W3 professorships. But the successes we’ve enjoyed over the past few years show that we’re making good progress.”

The long-term trend at the University of Bonn is clearly heading in the right direction, with the percentage of female professors having been increased significantly as part of its Excellence Strategy. Taking all professorships into consideration, i.e. including assistant professorships (W1), this has risen from around 21 percent in 2019 to its current level of around 30 percent. “This progress sends out an important signal and is the product of some targeted measures to support female researchers,” Professor Förster explains. “We’re going to stick rigorously to the course we’ve set ourselves.”

“The results of the CEWS University Rankings serve to reaffirm the University’s strengths in promoting women researchers and the progress it’s made in this area,“ agrees University Central Gender Equality Officer Gabriele Alonso Rodriguez. “But the fact that we still have some improving to do when it comes to our percentage of female professors also shows that embedding gender equality in our careers here remains the main challenge. And it’s precisely this that we’ll be focusing our next steps on, improving the compatibility of family and career and working to bring in transparent, gender-sensitive appointment procedures.”

Published every two years since 2003, the CEWS rankings have grown to become a key tool for quality assurance in gender equality policy. For the latest set, the methodology used has been fine-tuned in order to better incorporate changes in the gender equality policy debate and the gender distribution in higher education.

The full rankings can be viewed here.

Press contact
Vice Rectorate for Equal Opportunity and Diversity
prorektorat.chancengerechtigkeit@uni-bonn.de 
 +49 228 73-5065

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