Leuphana continues to be one of the most successful medium-sized founding universities in Germany
2025-03-04 Leuphana University Lüneburg is once again one of the most successful start-up universities in Germany. This is confirmed by the current ‘Start-up Radar 2025’ of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. In the national comparison, Leuphana achieved seventh place among medium-sized universities and thus occupies the top rank in this group in Northern Germany. A total of 191 universities were evaluated according to different categories.
Leuphana achieved the maximum number of points in the category of embeddedness of entrepreneurship and thus occupies a top position among all German universities. It is also among the leaders in the categories of entrepreneurial training and awareness-raising. ‘This result underlines the structural integration of entrepreneurship and start-ups in the university's teaching, research and transfer,’ said Vice President Prof. Dr. Markus Reihlen, pleased with the success.
The university's special study model enables students from all disciplines who are interested in founding a company to learn the basics of entrepreneurial thinking and action. As part of the complementary studies, entrepreneurship courses can be attended independently of the chosen field of study. In addition, there are specialised entrepreneurship programmes at the bachelor's and master's level.
The university is particularly strong in research on entrepreneurship – from social and sustainable entrepreneurship to digital business models, entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurship in education. A total of 14 professors are currently working in the field of entrepreneurship at Leuphana, with nine professorships explicitly designated in this area.
The concept of entrepreneurship goes beyond the classic start-up: it is rather understood as an essential future skill and fundamental orientation for action that helps students to identify social challenges, develop innovative solutions and implement them in a way that benefits the common good.
The start-up service provides comprehensive support for all university members for the entire range of start-up initiatives, e.g. those geared towards sustainability, culture, the digital space or the common good. Through its collaboration in the Startup Port network, Leuphana is part of a long-term network of universities and research institutions in the Hamburg metropolitan region, with the aim of strengthening the innovation and start-up potential of northern Germany.
Background
Since 2012, the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft has been using the Start-Up Radar to examine the profiles and efforts of German universities in promoting start-ups, both qualitatively and quantitatively. 2024 marked the seventh time that data has been collected for the Start-Up Radar. A total of 191 universities participated. The Start-up Radar is funded by the Marga and Kurt Möllgaard Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and is carried out by the Stifterverband. Until 2018, the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation funded the Start-up Radar.