Professor Dr. Thomas Puhl, the new President of the University of Mannheim, was evaluated for the first time and earned the second highest score, just a hair after Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Hoch, Rector of the University of Bonn. With a school grade of 1.51, Hoch once again earned the highest score. He was named “Rector of the Year” for the second time in a row. Puhl achieved a grade of 1.53 which makes him the most popular President in Baden-Württemberg. In total, 93.4 percent of those surveyed stated that Puhl was an “ideal” or “a very good” candidate for the office of the President. The President of the University of Hohenheim, 2016 winner Professor Dr. Stephan Dabbert, ranked third with a score of 1.57.
Puhl was surprised and very happy about the award: “I’m almost speechless. I did not expect so much encouragement. I am extremely happy to hear that my colleagues in academia seem to be really pleased with my work.” Puhl said that he sees the result as additional motivation to continue to stand up for the interests of all university members.
About the survey on “Rector/President of the Year”
The survey was conducted by the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (Deutscher Hochschulverband, DHV) that represents the profession of university teachers in Germany. The DHV has 33,000 members. 28,000 of them were eligible to participate in the survey. For the ranking of rectors and presidents, academics were asked if they see the individual holding the office in question as suitable candidate for managing the higher education institution. The survey participants could assign a school grade-type evaluation in a scheme of six choices ranging from “ideal individual” (grade 1, best) to “worst possible individual” (grade 6, worst).
Only the rectors and presidents of higher education institutions who have received at least 30 evaluations and who have been in office for at least 100 days before the survey started were evaluated. Therefore, this has been the first evaluation of the President of the University of Mannheim.
The detailed result will be published in the June issue of the “Forschung & Lehre” magazine. It is also available here:https://www.hochschulverband.de/fileadmin/redaktion/download/pdf/presse/ranking-dhv_2021.pdf.