An innovative research rating by the Science Council has classified the quality of English Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart as “excellent“. Among the 60 universities assessed – 90 percent of all researching facilities in the subjects of English and American Studies in Germany – English Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart achieved the best results in the whole of Germany, closely followed by the traditional subject area at the University of Freiburg.
In a pilot study to further develop research ratings, the Science Council, the most important science policy advisory council in Germany, evaluated the subjects of English Linguistics, English: Literature and Cultural Studies as well as American Studies at the University of Stuttgart using a unique evaluation method for Humanities. The English department at the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Stuttgart achieved the evaluation “excellent“ in the categories “research quality“ , ”reputation“, “research possibilities“ and ”good/satisfactory“ in the category ”transfer of extramural addressees“.
Prof. Wolfram Ressel, Dean at the University of Stuttgart, commented on the result presented at the press conference of the Science Council in Berlin: “This evaluation “excellent“ is a source of pleasure for us for three different reasons: it proves how efficient a small university faculty can be when interdisciplinary networks are established to make one special research division, as is the case in Stuttgart. This top position again shows that it is not only the engineering and scientific subjects that are performing excellent research work in Stuttgart. And finally we can conclude that the specific Stuttgart orientation of Humanities in the environment of a technically oriented university is successful.“
Prof. Artemis Alexiadou, Institute of Linguistics, English Department: “As the head of the institute I was delighted to hear about this excellent result. This result is even more commendable when we consider that we are a comparatively small institute – up until 2012 we only had one professorship. It is for that reason that we also have to thank the research structure at the University of Stuttgart for the great result since it provides very good conditions with the special research division 732 and the interdisciplinary orientation. A result of these diverse cooperation possibilities in the special research field can also be explained in the mainly comparative aspect of our research, which is unqiue in Germany.“
Your contact persons:
Prof. Dr. Artemis Alexiadou, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Linguistics, English
Department,
tel. 0711/685-83121, email: artemis (at) ifla.uni-stuttgart.de
Dr. Hans-Herwig Geyer, University of Stuttgart, University Communication, tel.
0711/685-82555,
email: hans-herwig.geyer (at) hkom.uni-stuttgart.de