The University of Bonn is to usher in the 2026/27 academic year with an official ceremony in the main auditorium of its Main Building on Monday, October 19, 2026. The event starts at 4 pm, with doors open from 3:30 pm. Representatives of the media and anyone interested are most welcome to attend. We would be grateful if they could let us know if they are planning to come (see link below).

The University of Bonn extends its warmest congratulations to the University of Cologne and the consortium comprising Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund (“Ruhr Innovation Lab”) on their admission to the circle of Universities and Consortia of Excellence.

The world’s oceans behave like a thermometer: As the water warms, it expands and sea levels rise. Geodesy researchers at the University of Bonn are able to measure this and determine how much the oceans are warming. For individual ocean basins, their method has revealed significant deviations from model calculations—in some cases in the double-digit percentage range.

The University of Bonn has been part of the Ghana-NRW University Alliance since mid-2026. Seven higher-education institutions from North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have joined forces to pool their expertise and thus further expand academic dialogue with their Ghanaian counterparts. Researchers in Bonn are benefiting from new contacts, a higher profile and structured access to partners and grant programs, enabling collaborative projects to be launched faster and shaped reliably over the long term. The alliance is also opening up new opportunities in research and teaching: Targeted networking efforts are giving students the best possible preparation for their stays abroad, while investment is being made in establishing teaching partnerships.

What does it mean for a character to “melt” out of love or grief? Professor Thomas Kuhn-Treichel will be using a Heisenberg Grant at the University of Bonn to explore the ways in which ancient literature describes emotions. An initiative of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Heisenberg Programme enables researchers to complete high-quality projects and thus further increase their academic reputation. Thomas Kuhn-Treichel will be funded to the tune of some €830,000 from October 2026 onward.

The University of Bonn has retained its strong position in the “Times Higher Education” (THE) World University Rankings 2027, climbing three places on last year to stand 89th in the world. The University has also significantly improved its standing within Germany, jumping two whole spots to fourth. This comes hot on the heels of its very strong showing in the internationally renowned Shanghai Ranking in August, when it was one of only four German universities to make it into the world’s top 100.

Smartphones could play an important role in the early detection of eye diseases, including in settings where specialized ophthalmic infrastructure is limited. An international team of experts led by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn has comprehensively reviewed the current global landscape of smartphone-based fundus imaging. The researchers highlight the technical and clinical possibilities that already exist today, identify the limitations of these methods, and outline the conditions that must be met so that smartphone-based retinal imaging can be more widely integrated into screening, triage, and telemedicine pathways.

“Be strong!” is intended to help students to navigate their studies, acquire and consolidate specialist and methodological skills, and build up their own resources. This pioneering and comprehensive program will accompany them throughout their student journey and is now being rolled out across the board in time for winter semester 2026/27 following a pilot last year. With the program, the University of Bonn is giving yet another major boost to teaching and learning and thus implementing a key pillar of its Excellence Strategy.