In the latest ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine, Freie Universität is one of the 70 most highly regarded universities in the world. As announced by THE in London, Freie Universität's reputation places the university in group 61–70 (last year: group 71-80). Along with Technische Universität München (TU Munich), which was ranked in the same group, Freie Universität is one of the five universities in Germany with the best international reputation.

The University of Zurich (UZH) and Freie Universität Berlin have established a strategic partnership. On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Prof. Dr. Michael O. Hengartner, the rector of the University of Zurich, and Prof. Dr. Peter-André Alt, the president of Freie Universität Berlin, signed an agreement to facilitate closer cooperation in research, teaching, and the promotion of young researchers. Both new and existing forms of cooperation between the two universities will be systematically promoted and expanded. The agreement also covers the structured exchange of researchers and students as well as administrative staff. In order to achieve these goals, specific funding programs will be set up and coordinated jointly by both universities.

In the 1960s, Freie Universität Berlin was the center of the student movement in West Germany. On board was Knut Nevermann, who, at 22 years old, was voted to become the head of the General Students’ Committee (AStA) at Freie Universität Berlin and, in this role, organized events such as discussions and protests. After graduation and years of working in academia, he held different high-ranking positions as a public servant, among others, in the German Federal Chancellery and as the State Secretary for Science and Research in the Berlin Senate Administration. In an interview, he thinks back on an eventful time.

According to a study conducted by paleontologists and archaeologists, the diets of prehistorical and early historical hunter-gatherer societies were more diverse than previously thought. As the archaeobotanical investigation of remains from an archaeological site in northern Japan shows, there was already a special form of hybrid subsistence farming in the Okhotsk culture in the first millennium AD. This was characterized by hunting and gathering on the one hand and the cultivation of completely domesticated plants such as barley on the other hand.

The German Internet Institute is coming to Berlin. On May 23, 2017, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced who will run the new institute, which will explore the interplay of digitalization and society under the official title “Internet-Institut für die vernetzte Gesellschaft.” Behind the Berlin-Brandenburg proposal is a consortium of seven institutions, which submitted a joint bid for the internet institute as part of a national competition. One of the institutions involved is Freie Universität Berlin.

While midtown Manhattan was immersed in warm evening light and the street traffic continued to roar tirelessly 23 floors below, Homi K. Bhabha was speaking on the top floor of the New Yorker German House. The cultural theorist from Harvard University discussed questions that humanities scholars ask themselves these days: How can representatives from these disciplines react to cur-rent global crises? What kind of social relevance do humanities have today?

There was no holding back when the 75-year-old U.S. politician finally entered the Max Kade Auditorium in the Henry Ford building amid thunderous applause after a half-hour delay. Like a pop star, Bernie was greeted by all 1,200 members of the audience chanting “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” loudly. The occasion for the American’s visit to Dahlem was the introduction of the German translation of his book “Our Revolution,” having been invited by the book publisher Ullstein Verlag and ZEIT Magazine in cooperation with Freie Universität.