The annual key figures for research and talent development at the Faculty of Arts in 2021 have now been published. Among other things, the report shows that the proportion of female professors at the faculty continues to rise. 41 per cent of the faculty’s professors are now women. This is 2 percentage points more than last year. However, the figures also reveal differences between the faculty’s three schools: DPU has more female professors than male professors, for instance.

The level of research output was generally high in 2021, despite the serious challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of peer-reviewed publications declined only slightly in 2021 compared with the record year of 2019.

In 2021 the faculty’s researchers managed to achieve a small increase in external funding; and it’s worth noting that the level of EU support for research projects at the Faculty of Arts was higher than ever before.

Fewer new PhD students

For the first time ever, the number of PhD degrees awarded (59) exceeded the number of new PhD students admitted to the graduate school (53). One of the reasons for this is that the number of PhD students involved in externally financed projects has fallen. The low figures are also due in particular to the current financial situation. The faculty management team is acutely aware of the need to increase the number of new PhD students as soon as possible.

The pandemic has also had consequences for internationalisation, resulting in fewer unbroken periods of research abroad for PhD students. In 2019 81 per cent of all PhD graduates had studied abroad for a lengthy period, a figure which dropped to 77 per cent in 2020 and 59 per cent in 2021. However, the faculty management team expects that this was a temporary decline caused by Covid-19.

• The figures can be studied in detail here