The Center of Excellence Women and Science awards the university top marks for its share of women in professorships, academic positions and Postdoc positions.
The Hertie School is proud to announce that it has been recognised among the top performing university in Germany for gender equality universities in the new “Hochschulranking nach Gleichstellungsaspekten 2025” conducted by the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS). The independent ranking, based on data from the official higher education statistics from 2023, assesses universities across several indicators, including the proportion of women in professorships, junior professorships, and promotion rates.
The Hertie School stands out with 11 out of 12 points, a performance matched only by the universities of Duisburg–Essen, Hildesheim, Marburg, Bundeswehr Munich, Potsdam and Saarbrücken. This year’s study, published on 25 June, analyses a total of 307 universities and provides information on 79 universities, 148 universities of applied sciences and 45 universities of art and music.
Hertie School President Cornelia Woll comments on the ranking:
“The result of the CEWS ranking reflects our sustained commitment to equal opportunity. I’m especially proud of our faculty gender balance, which demonstrates our university’s success in attracting and promoting outstanding female academics at all levels of their careers.”
From Postdocs to Professors: Hertie School academic staff has strong female share
The ranking recognises the strong representation of women at all academic levels at the Hertie School, particularly in senior and mid-career stages. The university was especially strong in three categories:
• Share of women in professorships 2018-2023: 56.52% (27.2% – 28.8% overall 2021-2023 according to Statista)
• Share of women in academic/artistic staff below tenured professorship 2018-2023: 48.65%
• Share of women in junior professorships: 42.86%
• Students : 54.19% (50.2%-50.9% 2021-2023 according to Statista)
The share of women in professorships at the Hertie School is especially positive considering that women only made up between 27.2% to 28.8% of full professors in Germany between 2021 and 2023, according to the statistics portal Statista.
This strong performance reflects the Hertie School’s exceptional commitment to gender equality, especially in senior academic positions, where gender disparities traditionally persist. Among other efforts, the university launched a Gender Equality Plan 2022-2023, as well as a follow-up plan for 2024-2025. The plan represents the school’s strategy to become a gender-equitable place to study, research and work and is embedded in the Hertie School’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy.
About the ranking and the CEWS Kompetenzzentrum Frauen in Wissenschaft und Forschung
The ranking by CEWS evaluates seven equality related metrics, including female participation in doctoral and junior professorship levels compared to broader student ratios, and changes in professorship gender composition over five years. When the ranking was first published in 2003, the proportion of female professors was still 11 per cent and a fifth of the universities assessed had a proportion of women below five per cent. In 2023, the proportion of female professors was 29 per cent, but at four universities less than one in ten professorships was still held by a woman.
The CEWS (Centre of Excellence for Women in Science and Research) is hosted at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and was established in 2000. It is a leading German think tank dedicated to gender equity in academia. CEWS initiates and evaluates transformative measures, advises academic and political organisations, and promotes international best practice. Since its integration into GESIS in 2006, CEWS has combined scientific rigour with policy engagement to influence both national and European policy.
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Susann Park-Gessner, Director Quality Management and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion