Top marks from our students

“Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences ranked 5th in the 2016 MeinProf University Ranking and 6th in the MeinProf University Ranking for ‘Clarity of Instruction’!” The cover letter from Oliver Bialas, First Chair of MeinProf e. V., continues:“The students at your university are engaged and satisfied, as they have given their instructors good ratings for the quality of their teaching. So good, in fact, that you’ve become a permanent fixture in the MeinProf University Rankings—congratulations!”

For the third time, the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences ranks among Germany’s ten highest-rated universities. 152 universities were included in the ranking. Students were surveyed on the quality of teaching at their university. Individual instructors were also evaluated. Among the highest-rated faculty members at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences are Dr.-Ing. Jana Reinhold from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Dipl.-Soz.Arb./Soz.Päd. (FH) Sandro Hänseroth from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The president, Prof. Friedrich Albrecht, is very pleased with this result. “I am very pleased that our university has once again made it into the TOP TEN—and, above all, with such an outstanding ranking. On top of that, we are the only university in eastern Germany to be ranked. I see this as a special recognition of the achievements of our faculty and also as an incentive to continue our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of teaching. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness among both students and faculty to assess, share, discuss, and prioritize the quality of teaching,” he says. He continues: “In addition, the university now has significantly more tools and resources for quality development in teaching. Our faculty members complete continuing education in university pedagogy and evaluate their classes / courses more comprehensively and systematically. Communication between faculty and students is an integral part of daily life at all faculties. In addition, there is also the opportunity to recognize good teaching through so-called performance-based incentives. And our university’s Friends Association, for example, has established a teaching award.

The university receives additional funding from the federal and state governments through the so-called “Higher Education Pact” funds. At least a portion of these funds must be secured through competitive grants; the “Quality Pact for Teaching” is one example.

From the students’ perspective, it is clear that they have benefited greatly in recent years—particularly through measures that complement instruction —whether these are supplementary courses—for students struggling academically, but also for high-achieving students—or special advisory services that act, so to speak, as a preventive measure against academic decline or dropout. In this regard , the university relies in particular on “peer-to-peer” support, for example, through the “Students Advise Students” program. All of this and more has led to the emergence of an improved culture of quality in teaching on both sides—among faculty members and students alike. This is evident, for example, in the fact that the efforts made by faculty members are reflected in increasingly positive ratings regarding satisfaction with the teaching units offered on portals such as meinprof.de.”

For more information, visit: www.meinprof.de/hochschulranking

About MeinProf:

MeinProf.de was launched in the fall of 2005 as Germany’s first nationwide evaluation platform for classes / courses. The goals of the nonprofit organization MeinProf e.V. are to stimulate public discourse on the quality of teaching in order to give it greater attention relative to research, and to improve the quality of German higher education in the long term. Since 2007, MeinProf has published an annual university ranking that focuses exclusively on the quality of teaching.