The University of Göttingen is an internationally renowned research university. Founded in 1737 in the Age of Enlightenment, the University is committed to the values of social responsibility of science, democracy, tolerance and justice. It offers a comprehensive range of subjects across 13 faculties: in the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and medicine. With about 28,000 students and more than 210 degree programmes, the University is one of the largest in Germany.
New press releases
Top marks for Göttingen University academic subjects
In the 2026 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, the University of Göttingen’s Ecology department is in first place in Germany again. The ranking also places Agricultural Sciences (including Forestry) in second place in Germany. Earth Sciences, Statistics and Human Biology have made it into the top ten nationwide. Ecology is in 25th place and Agricultural Sciences in 38th place in the world.
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Trees: on your marks, get set, grow!
The fight for survival in the forest is fierce: light, water and nutrients are all limited. This is particularly true in “mast years” – times when trees and shrubs produce an unusually large crop of fruits, nuts, or seeds. Then the race for growth is really on. But can differences in height between trees in their first year of life make a difference to their future, even if these differences are just one or two centimetres? The researchers' findings were published in the Journal of Ecology.
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Award for sociologist at Göttingen University
Professor of Sociology of Rural Areas, Claudia Neu at Göttingen University, has been awarded the Professor-Niklas-Medaille by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH). The prize is the BMLEH’s highest honour and Neu is one of this year’s four recipients. Alois Rainer – Germany’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Community – presented the awards on Tuesday 6 October at a ceremony in Berlin.
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Alpine peatlands under pressure
Peatlands in the Alps are mostly small, scattered and difficult to access. As a result, up-to-date information on their extent and condition is often lacking so researchers developed a cross-border approach to identifying these particular areas. A comparison with official maps shows that the model identifies many peatlands as smaller than previously mapped – particularly in areas where aerial photographs reveal visible signs of disturbance.
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Beyond deportations
In June 2026, the European Union adopted a new Return Regulation. An international research project involving the University of Göttingen has now demonstrated, through a comparison of eight European countries, the ineffectiveness of deportation policies. The authors identify that regularization – meaning granting legal rights and secure status – is a more effective alternative for managing migration flows.
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Two kinds of subduction recorded in one rock
When two tectonic plates collide, one plate sinks below the other – a process known as “subduction”. An international research team led by Göttingen University has discovered a rock in Papua New Guinea that, four million years ago, travelled over 90 km down into a subduction zone. The rock records an unusual journey, with higher-than-expected temperature conditions at a depth of around 45 km. The results were published in Nature Geoscience.
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