Application deadlines
The next student intake will be in the Winter Semester. The application deadlines are: BA: 15th of July and MA: 15th of May.
Congratulations to all our graduates of the department!
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.
LakeMUN2024:
A successful debut in Konstanz
On 17th - 19th of May, students from our department organized the first major Model United Nations (MUN) conference in the history of our city. Model United Nations (MUN) are simulations of the United Nations in which students take on the roles of diplomats. This year, almost 170 participants took part to discuss social nd political topics. The participants were able to relax and network during an evening together at the water sports centre. The successful conclusion of the MUN was celebrated with a Diplomatic Ball. You can find a detailed report here. If you are interested in planning the next Model United Nations (MUN) in Konstanz, please contact nazan.elhadidi@uni-konstanz.de.
Top result in the Shanghai Global Ranking 2023
1st place in Germany, 38th place worldwide
In the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2023, the University of Konstanz achieved the 1st place nationwide in the category "Political Sciences". With the 38th place, the department reaches the worldwide top 50. These results reinforce the department's claim to be a top location for political science and public administration in Germany. The department was able to even surpass its very good results from the previous year (2022: 42nd place globally; 2nd place nationally). In the category "Public Administration", the University of Konstanz achieved, as in the previous year, a place in the global ranking group 51-75. Among German universities, this corresponds to ranking group 2-3 and is also an improvement compared to the previous year (2022 ranking: group 3-4 nationally).
The latest department
newsletter No. 34 is released
The department newsletter No. 34 has been published!
You can download the newsletter here.
Politics and Public Administration - Our Mission - Our Research
The Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz is one of the largest social science departments in Germany. We are recognized for excellent research and teaching in four areas of expertise: (i) democracy and public policy, (ii) international studies (iii) management and public administration, as well as (iv) data and methods. We place our students in top positions in academia, and the public, private and non-profit sectors – in Germany, Europe and worldwide.
Andrea Lailach Hennrich wins the 2019 joint prize question of Collegium Helveticum and Zukunftskolleg on “Disrupted Order?”
The joint prize question of the Collegium Helveticum and the Zukunftskolleg invited the contributors to unravel ‘order’ and to show how it can be disrupted and what consequences may result from disrupted orders. It thereby sought to address the societal, political, economic, artistic and scientific scope of order and its disruption in the past, present and future.
Andrea Lailach-Hennrich (Alumna / Politics and Public Administration) wins the 2019 prize question with her essay on “Von der Aufklärung zur Utopie”. Her article offers interpretations of how our «being-in-the-world» are framed by given social orders. She argues that disrupting such structures can be seen as an act of enlightenment, insofar as these orders help to legitimize both power structures and inequality. It can thus contribute to a better understanding of the much-discussed tensions between the individual on one side, and – what we call in German – «die Mehrheitsgesellschaft» on the other. As the jury highlighted, Andrea’s contribution meets the standards of a philosophical essay and indicates the author’s academic background, but is still accessible to non-philosophers. Andrea won a prize money of 1.300€.
Jeff Kochan (Associated Fellow / Philosophy), became second in the year’s prize question. His piece of experimental poetry – the fractal poem „One seeks to find measures” disrupts the explicitly ordered metric feet and fixed line measures of English poetry that has prevailed for centuries. However, his poem also proves that today’s free verse is no more free – artistically – than the poetry of the past. Yet poetry has not, as a result, disintegrated into chaos. Indeed, one might argue. Perhaps free verse is not really free from constraint, but instead enabled by emerging, communal structures whose measures still remain obscure.
The prize question was a joint project by Collegium Helveticum and the Zukunftskolleg. The award ceremony took place on 21 November 2019.