Rankings & Awards

For 25 years, the CHE University Ranking has been one of the most comprehensive and detailed university comparisons in the German-speaking world. It is based on the feedback of around 120,000 students who took part in the survey.

All the degree programmes with which HM entered the 2026 assessment achieved better results than the benchmark groups from other universities in at least one category.

The Business Administration programme performed particularly well, achieving 4.5 out of 5 stars for the overall study experience – the highest score of all HM programmes assessed. In the Production and Automation programme, the organisation of studies was rated 4.6 out of 5 stars and the organisation of examinations 4.1 stars.

The results of the 2026 CHE Ranking confirm that HM is a university where students have a positive experience of the teaching and study conditions. In particular, the close links to professional practice, a well-organised curriculum and intensive support from lecturers are strengths that are consistently highlighted in the evaluations.

The Gründungsradar has been published regularly since 2012 by the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft in collaboration with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. In the latest Gründungsradar 2022, HM and its SCE once again took the top spot in the ‘Large Universities’ category, which covers institutions with over 15,000 students.

Seven key areas were assessed: establishing a foundation, raising awareness of start-ups, providing start-up training, offering start-up support, start-up activities, monitoring and evaluation in start-up support, and networking in start-up support.

With excellent results across the board, HM and SCE scored 58.8 out of a possible 60 points, the highest score of all participating universities.

This confirms HM’s status as Germany’s leading university for start-ups.

In the last six surveys conducted by the Gründungsradar (the largest comparison of start-up support at German universities), HM has also performed well in the overall ranking of major universities:

• 2022 1st place
• 2nd place in 2020
• 2nd place in 2018
• 1st place in 2016
• 2nd place in 2013
• 1st place in 2012

In WirtschaftsWoche’s Germany-wide ranking, over 500 HR managers from SMEs and industry provide information on the universities and higher education institutions from which they prefer to recruit their staff members. The ranking focuses on the needs of businesses, i.e. the practical relevance of the education provided.

In both 2023 and 2024, HM achieved top rankings in all assessed subjects. With another second-place finish, the Industrial Engineering programme continued its eight-year run of success in the top two, whilst in Business Informatics, HM even took first place in the 2023 employer satisfaction rankings.

In the fields of Computer Science and Business Informatics, HM 2024 came second. The subjects of Business Administration, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering were also ranked among the top ten once again, which is a testament to the Quality in Teaching and Research.

For many years, HM has consistently ranked among the top three in the overall standings of the WirtschaftsWoche university rankings.

In 2024, over 650 graduates of the HM took part in the joint survey conducted with the Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning (IHF).

Of all those surveyed in the study, HM alumni were the most satisfied with their degree programme. In the ‘skills’ category in particular, they rated the professional competencies (73%), key skills (61%) and transferable skills (80%) they had acquired at HM as particularly positive.

The ranking allows for international and national comparisons with other higher education institutions: 102 across Germany and 2,201 worldwide. The areas assessed are teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, international outlook and regional engagement.

HM 2022 scored highly in the ‘regional engagement’ category. It achieved top marks for its high proportion of ‘joint regional publications’, ranking 5th in Germany in this area. In fact, HM ranks first for its ‘regional publications with industry partners’.

Furthermore, HM received a very high rating in the area of knowledge transfer. In the category of ‘co-publications with industrial partners’, it once again took first place with a very high proportion of publications and is the fourth-best of all the universities and colleges assessed in Germany within this ranking.

This places it among the top 50 worldwide. HM also received top marks for its “spin-offs”, placing it among the top 10 in Germany.

In 2024, HM submitted an application for the fourth time to the federal and state-funded programme for female professors – and each time impressed the selection panel with its well-thought-out gender equality strategies and their implementation.

In addition, HM 2024 was awarded the newly introduced “University with a Strong Commitment to Gender Equality” distinction.

As part of the Women Professors Programme 2030, universities that demonstrate a particularly strong commitment to gender equality are awarded the new designation ‘University with a Strong Commitment to Gender Equality’. As a university that has received this designation, HM is also eligible to apply for funding to support a female early-career researcher.

In 2023, BayZiel – the Bavarian centre for innovative teaching – awarded the Bavarian University Prize “MöglichMacher²³” to outstanding figures in the field of entrepreneurship. The prize was awarded in collaboration with the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts, the vbw – Bavarian Industry Association – and the University of Applied Sciences Bavaria.

First place was awarded to Klaus Sailer, Managing Director of SCE. He received the award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to entrepreneurship and his pivotal role in the Transformation of Hochschule München into an entrepreneurial institution.

The Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act highlights the importance of start-ups at universities and promotes entrepreneurship through various measures, such as start-up centres and sabbaticals for lecturers. The ‘MöglichMacher’ university award, presented for the first time, recognised the outstanding achievements of lecturers and researchers who are highly committed to strengthening entrepreneurial thinking among students and promoting active start-up activity at universities.

Responsible entrepreneurs are shaping a future worth living in. And the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship at Hochschule München is a flagship institution that serves as a model for others.

Since 2021, the Hamburg-based Joachim Herz Foundation has been awarding its Megafon Prize to innovative, exemplary language education and language support projects for teenagers and young adults in Germany.

In 2023, the top prize in the category ‘Projects for young adults aged 17 to 25’ went to the KonTEXT reading project run by Hochschule München. Once again, the reading project was recognised for its outstanding commitment.

With the KonTEXT reading project, HM – initiated by Professor Caroline Steindorff-Classen, supported by other colleagues and in collaboration with various external partners – has developed a programme that makes a significant contribution to addressing societal challenges. The project is based on the scientifically supported assumption that reading literacy provides educational and participatory opportunities that can prevent (further) criminal behaviour.

In memory of the former Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres, the Federal Foreign Office established the Shimon Peres Prize, which is awarded in cooperation with the German-Israeli Future Forum Foundation.

In 2022, the prize, worth 10,000 euros, was awarded to the Bavaria Israel Partnership Accelerator (BIPA). Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock presented the award for the Bavarian-Israeli entrepreneurship training programme to representatives of the HM Business Incubator SCE.

The international BIPA programme is a unique action-learning experience for students and young professionals from Bavaria, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The participants work in international, interdisciplinary teams on real-world problems relevant to the companies and develop innovative solutions for them, primarily in the fields of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, smart mobility, medical technology and IT Security.

In this way, the BIPA programme uses youth education and economic cooperation to promote international understanding and combat discrimination – an approach that the Shimon Peres Prize recognises.

In 2021, the German Rectors’ Conference, ZEIT Verlag and the Robert Bosch Stiftung jointly awarded their prize, worth 25,000 euros, in recognition of the social commitment of the KonTEXT reading project.

Students read selected novels and other suitable texts alongside young people who have committed offences, and discuss the content. The aim is to spark the young people’s interest in books, promote their education, instil values and encourage self-reflection. Increasingly, juvenile court judges across Germany are now imposing reading as a ‘punishment’ – particularly as an alternative to traditional community service.

This initiative strengthens the civic engagement of all university members involved; through its integration with innovative teaching methods, it fits well within the university’s overall ethos and forges a special connection between the university and its city and the wider region.