The ranking is an important indicator of academic excellence and the lasting influence of the researchers working at the University of Passau and also reflects the international standing of the University.

Professor Jan Hendrik Schumann holds the Chair of Marketing and Innovation. Adopting highly innovative research approaches in online marketing, customer relationship management and service pricing, his work on marketing research has been published in international journals and won several awards.

Professor Dirk Totzek brings extensive expertise in price management, service management and business-to-business marketing. As holder of the Chair of Marketing and Services, he has made a decisive contribution over the years to the University's national and international standing in teaching and empirical research.

Both professors' pioneering projects and publications have not only strengthened the academic reputation of the faculty, but have also paved the way for future collaborations and interdisciplinary initiatives – of particular note is the marketing double master's degree programme offered in cooperation with the University of Metz (France). This joint programme gives students the opportunity to gain intercultural skills and excellent professional qualifications at the same time.

True to its new motto "You.Science.Future", the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems aims to inspire researchers and students alike with innovative projects, research topics at the forefront of science, and internationally oriented study programmes to prepare them for the challenges of a globalised economy.

You can find the full ranking at www.MKTBig15.com.

For more information on current research projects and the double master's programme with Metz, please visit our website at www.wiwi.uni-passau.de.

Chairman of the University Council, Professor Klaus Beckmann, said after the election: “On behalf of the University Council, I am delighted to congratulate Professor Jan Hendrik Schumann on his election win. This unanimous vote after a transparent process that spanned almost an entire year shows that Professor Schumann has the necessary backing within the university. In cooperation with the incumbent president, Ulrich Bartosch, Jan Hendrik Schumann as ‘president-elect’ and the university's governing bodies, we now have the opportunity to further focus the strategic orientation of our university. The University Council will do its utmost to help in this endeavour.”

President Professor Ulrich Bartosch said: “I warmly congratulate Mr Schumann on this great election result! We as the University Executive have succeeded in leading this university out of a divided mood and into a very strong sense of unity. The University Council has made a good decision that will enable the University of Passau to set out its long-term roadmap and lay the foundations for trustful cooperation in the University Executive for the coming 14 months. I am very pleased and grateful for that. I have already come to particularly appreciate Professor Jan Schumann as dean of the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems and have experienced, first-hand, his commitment with a holistic view of the entire university. I was happy to ask him to join the University Executive in 2023 and entrust him with the role of Vice President for Research. My remaining year in office will be characterised by a great willingness to work closely with the future president and to introduce him to existing and mature networks. I ask all members and friends of the university to support us in our joint efforts. The university is now entering a special phase that deserves every effort.”

Jan Hendrik Schumann holds the Chair of Marketing and Innovation at the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, where he served as vice dean and dean from 2018 to 2023. He has also been a member of the University Executive as Vice President for Research since April 2023. Before joining the University of Passau in 2012, he was a assistant professor at the TUM School of Management of the Technical University of Munich, where he earned his doctorate in 2009. His research focuses on digital marketing, digital business models, customer relationship management and service pricing. His research has been published in leading international journals in his field and has received numerous awards. In 2019, Professor Schumann won the prestigious Emerging Service Scholar Award of AMA SERVSIG – the Service Marketing Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association.

Professor Schumann is a long-standing, active member of several international specialist groups in his field of research, and he founded and headed the Service Marketing Special Interest Group of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) – which is now the largest European association of marketing researchers and serves as a platform connecting European researchers in this field. Professor Schumann is also a member of the review boards of several leading international scientific journals, such as the Journal of Service Research, and is a project leader in the DFG Research Training Group 2720: “Digital Platform Ecosystems” (DPE); moreover, he has been a member of the Centouris Institute’s management board since July 2012.

"Even though India is a hundred times larger than Bavaria, we are partners at eye level and we have the same ambitions: We are focussing on talent and want to develop the technologies of tomorrow. To this end, we will work even more closely together in the higher education sector, because India has enormous potential for our universities in particular. Our aim is to enable highly qualified applicants to come to Germany even more quickly", emphasised Blume in the Indian capital New Delhi.

The delegation discussed an exciting idea with India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan: "A dedicated Bavarian International Campus in India would be a perfect match", said the Science Minister. At the Ministry of Science and Technology, perspectives relating to the key technologies of the future were discussed. The aim is to work together on energy research, quantum technology and AI and to connect the start-up scene in Bavaria and India even more closely.

"For the University of Passau, such a project would be very interesting and we would be happy to contribute our experience from similar projects, such as the Turkish-German University in Istanbul", comments Vice President Schumann.

The trip, which culminated in a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Taj Mahal, was organised by the Bavarian-Indian Centre for Business and Universities (BayIND). BayIND has been coordinating exchanges between Bavarian and Indian higher education institutions for more than 15 years and, as a service centre, supports companies in their search for interns or in the coordination of research projects.