The nine best German universities in the world, according to the THE Ranking are: Technische Universität München (rank 26), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (rank 38), Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (rank 47), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (rank 84), the University of Bonn (rank 89), RWTH Aachen (rank 92), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (rank 93), the University of Tübingen (rank 100), and Freie Universität Berlin (rank 104). Freie Universität fell two places in the worldwide rankings, and one place nationwide. Regionally, the university’s ranking remained generally unchanged. THE lists Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin as if it were an independent university, even though it is in fact the joint medical faculty of Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität. This means that its research publication output is not attributed to either university.

Freie Universität Berlin scored very well in terms of its research environment, placing eighty-sixth globally. In particular, it ranked highly in the areas “research productivity” and “research income.” In the teaching category it was also ranked 126th worldwide.

The Times Higher Education ranking is based in part on a global survey among researchers that takes into account universities’ reputations, their research, teaching, international orientation, citation frequency of publications, and other statistical indicators. In total 2,092 universities took part in the most recent THE ranking.