Hochschule Offenburg Once Again Ranks Among the Top Three in the Nationwide Digital Campus Index 2026

The Digital Campus Index measures the digital maturity of universities and recognizes those that demonstrate outstanding performance in the areas of digitalization and digital services. From October through December 2025, students across Germany were surveyed via UniNow GmbH’s campus apps about the level of digitalization at their universities. In total, more than 18,500 students from 179 universities cast their votes. Universities with at least 50 valid responses were included in the final evaluation for the Digital Campus Index.

The index was based on the following four dimensions, each of which was weighted equally: Attitude—How do students feel about digitization?; Competence—How confident do students feel when using digital tools?; Usage—How extensively are digital university offerings used?; and Access—How easily are digital services available and accessible? In the end, each university received an overall score on a 0–100 scale to ensure transparent comparability. The universities with the three highest overall scores were subsequently honored with the Digital Campus Index Awards at the Digital Campus Conference in Magdeburg. After achieving an overall score of 67 and second place last year, Hochschule Offenburg achieved an overall score of 72 this time and took third place in the index. First and second place went to the Technical University of Munich (73) and, solely due to a higher number of votes cast, the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (72).

“The overall score, which is five points higher than in 2025, is proof that we are constantly improving our digital offerings and a wonderful reward for the work done by the university staff involved. Above all, however, the students’ positive feedback is an incentive for us to continue developing, even as we remain a campus-based university,” said Jan Münchenberg, the prorector responsible for digitalization, expressing his delight at the recognition.

Hochschule Offenburg already provides students with a wide range of digital services that make their studies easier and more enriching. Last year, the UniNow app was customized, a chatbot was installed on the website and the intranet, and additional information and organizational details were bundled on the intranet in a process-oriented manner so that students can quickly find everything they need for their studies. In addition, the “AI for All” project provides all students with free, data-protection-compliant access to various large language models (LLMs). Furthermore, through the state-run service bwLehrpool, students have access to all virtual learning environments used in teaching from any of the University’s pool computers and can also use them around the clock from home. This solution also makes it easier to find available study spaces and organize study groups on campus. Digital security is ensured by two-factor authentication (2FA).