In the 2026 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), Telecommunication Engineering at FAU ranks first in Germany and 75th worldwide. This makes Telecommunication Engineering the highest-ranked subject at FAU in this year’s international comparison. More than 2,000 universities from around 100 countries were evaluated in the 2026 ranking.
“Telecommunication Engineering” is the subject category used by ShanghaiRanking rather than the name of a specific degree program or organizational unit at FAU. At FAU, research and teaching in this field span several institutes, research areas, and degree programs, including Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology (EEI), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Communications and Multimedia Engineering (CME). A particularly relevant example is the former Advanced Signal Processing and Communications Engineering (ASC) program, which was offered as an Elite Master’s program within the Elite Network of Bavaria for ten years, with a strong focus on the foundations of signal processing and communications.
For the Institute for Digital Communications (IDC), the result is particularly relevant. Our research covers many of the fundamental concepts and technologies behind modern communication systems — from information theory, coding, and signal processing to wireless communications and future 6G networks. At the same time, IDC contributes substantially to teaching in these areas, including key courses in communications engineering across several of FAU’s communications-related degree programs.
The ranking reflects the strength and international visibility of communications research and education at FAU. What ShanghaiRanking groups under “Telecommunication Engineering” is, in practice, shaped by the contributions of researchers and institutes across several disciplines at the university — an academic environment in which IDC plays an important role.