Current News

In contrast to the prevailing public debate of recent months, which suggests that many companies have introduced a stronger obligation for employees to be present, data from the Konstanz home office study by Prof. Dr. Florin Kunze and his team show that this is only the case in a minority of 22 percent of companies. It is clear that stress and exhaustion are almost twice as high among employees who are subject to a greater presence obligation (21 per cent without presence obligation and 38 per…

The Initiative for a New Social Market Economy (INSM), a market-liberal lobby organisation, has launched a pop-up museum to criticise the excessive regulation and bureaucratisation in Germany. Prof. Dr. Ines Mergel points out in the newschannel Deutsche Welle that the private sector is also partly responsible for this. She explains that civil servants and politicians usually draw up fairly broad guidelines. However, the private sector lobbies for many differentiated additions, guidelines and…

The German conservative party CDU has adopted a new party programme at its party conference. In it, the party defines its position on migration and its relationship with Islam much more conservatively than in the Merkel years. For Prof. Dr. Christina Zuber, the Christian Democrats are wasting potential among many people with a history of migration who are actually close to the CDU. You can listen to her comments in German on Deutschlandfunk Kultur here and on the WDR 5 opinion podcast Politikum…

Alvin Bürck, Daniela Blumberg, David Danner, Lucas Leonhard and Larissa Möckel were honoured with the VEUK Prize of the University of Konstanz Alumni Association at the graduation ceremony on the 4th of May 2024 of the Department of Politics and Public Administration. The selection is based on excellent academic achievements. The prize is awarded at Bachelor's and Master's level and is endowed with 200 euros.The awardees received the prize for the following outstanding theses:

Alvin Karl Bürck …

On 4th of May 2024, the Department of Politics and Public Administration celebrated its successful graduates and said goodbye to them in a wonderful graduation ceremony. Our head of department Prof. Dr. Anke Hoeffler looked back on the time of study and praised the graduates. Afterwards the certificates were awarded and the best theses were presented. Some imressions can be found here. We congratulate all our graduates and wish them all the best for the future.

The Department of Politics and Public Administration is one of the eight subjects at the University of Konstanz that were re-evaluated in this year's CHE ranking. The results are excellent (as in the last CHE rankings in 2021 and 2018). In 13 out of 14 indicators, the department performs above average, often with top rankings. The assessment is particularly good in the categories of study organisation, support during the studies, support for exchange programmes and library facilities.

In their youth study, Kilian Hampel, Simon Schnetzer and Prof Klaus Hurrelmann show that young people between 14 and 29 are pessimistic about the future. This is one of the findings of the 2024 Youth Study. Mental stress is also on the rise among Gen Z: almost one in nine people of this age are receiving treatment for mental disorders. You can find the full article about the study in German here. 

Strange things have been happening to the Jamuna, a river that flows through Bangladesh, for some time now: it continues to expand. In the process, it is devouring thousands of hectares of fertile farmland and taking the homes of tens of thousands of people with it. Like a hungry animal. People are therefore leaving their villages all along the Jamuna. They are being watched closely. More than eight thousand kilometres away, Jun. Prof. Dr Lukas Rudolph and Prof. Dr Vally Koubi are tracking every…

The majority of the population is of the opinion that the government and the parties generally do not fulfil any or very few election promises. Yet 60 per cent of the governments' election promises have been at least partially implemented. In the MDR interview, Dr Deiss-Helbig reveals a gap between perception and reality. One of the reasons for this could be that sober facts sometimes only play a minor role in voters' favour. So-called "motivated thinking" is relevant: "General attitudes and…