Rector Ranking: President Pauli Confirms Top 10 Position

02/20/2025

JMU President Paul Pauli has once again improved his position in the "Rector of the Year" poll of the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers. This time he moved up to 8th place.

Professor Paul Pauli, president of the University of Würzburg. (Image: Jonas Blank / Uni Würzburg)

81 academics from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) took part in the survey in 2025. Almost 70 per cent of them consider Paul Pauli to be a very good or even an ideal appointment. They were given grades from 1 (ideal appointment) to 6 (worst possible appointment). With an average rating of 2.26, Pauli was ranked 8th out of 50 headmasters and headmistresses, making it into the top 10 for the second time.

Shortly before the start of his fifth year in office, the good result once again confirms Paul Pauli's endeavour, already formulated in his inaugural speech, to change the university culture sustainably towards a culture "characterised by trust, appreciation and constructive communication."

Paul Pauli also sees the result as an honour for the University Board and the entire university family: "The positive result confirms the path we have taken and creates a stronger sense of unity at our university. This is only possible thanks to the cooperation of everyone. From the University Board to the deans, the University Council and the Senate, the researchers and the staff in the central administration. I would like to express my sincere thanks for this."

The Election for "Rector of the Year"

The German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (Deutscher Hochschulverband, DHV) represents the interests of academics working at universities. From November to December 2024, they were invited to vote for the best rectors for the 17th time. The term "rector" is synonymous with "president". Votes could only be cast for people who had already been in office for 100 days and whose term of office lasts until at least the end of March 2025. Voting results were only counted if there were at least 30 votes. Pauli received a total of 81 ratings. The anonymous survey was conducted by the Centre for Evaluation and Methods (ZEM) at the University of Bonn.

The winner of this year's vote, as in 2024, is Professor Manfred Bayer from TU Dortmund University. He himself is an alumnus of the University of Würzburg, where he completed his diploma and doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy. The top three places were completed by Professor Susanne Menzel-Riedl from the University of Osnabrück and Professor Kai Fischbach from the University of Bamberg.