According to both the THE Ranking and the QS Rankings, Freie Universität is one of the best universities in Germany. The university held its own in the Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking that was just published, again ranking as the fifth highest placed university in Germany and 75 worldwide, as opposed to 72 last year.

Her linguistic area of focus was actually Spanish – that is, until her career brought Nora Jacobs to the Brazilian megacity of São Paulo almost four years ago. She has been in charge of the South American liaison office of Freie Universität there since May of this year – and took the opportunity to watch some of the events unfolding at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, only about 360 kilometers away, including the German beach volleyball team’s tournament.

An international research team has now found out that climate change already began 180 years ago, much earlier than believed up to now. To determine the earliest time of global warming, the scientists studied the so-called natural climate archives of the northern and southern hemispheres, both on land and in the oceans, from the past 500 years. These natural climate archives consist of tropical corals, sediment cores, stalagmites, tree rings, and ice cores. In addition, they analyzed models on climate development covering several thousand years.

The Einstein Foundation Berlin has announced that it will be funding the first Einstein Centre devoted to the humanities as of 2018 in Berlin. The new Einstein Centre will be called Chronoi and will build on the unique cross-institutional cooperation that exists within ancient studies research in Berlin. The initial funding is for five years. The thematic focus will be on "time and awareness of time."

Berlin will be getting 50 new professors in the field of digitalization. They will be selected from the four Berlin universities: Technische Universität Berlin, Universität der Künste Berlin as well as Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with their joint medical faculty, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The professorships are part of the new Einstein Center Digital Future, which was approved by the Einstein Foundation Berlin on 5 September, 2016. A total of 38.5 million euros will flow into the new Einstein Center.

Four German graduates of Freie Universität who are now working in another country or in the field of international relations talked about how they started their careers and about detours, strategies, coincidences, hurdles, and successes along the way. The occasion was an event for students and doctoral candidates held as part of International Week and hosted by the Alumni Network and the Career Service of Freie Universität, which helps students get their bearings and chart a course with regard to their future careers.

"There are still some cities in Syria that are supposedly safe, and the city of Hama is one of them," said Salah Al Masri, a researcher at the Institute of Veterinary Anatomy. He continues, “But the war is already raging just outside the city.” Eight years ago Al Masri, who has a doctorate in veterinary science, left Syria. This was before war and terror held the country in their grip. Al Masri maintained contact to the city of Hama, where he had studied at the university — and gave two young men from there new prospects.