the university library has a total of about 8.5 million volumes and is the biggest university library system in germany. freie universität has over 400 partner universities all over the world, many of them through the "erasmus programme". according to various international rankings, freie universität is one of the best universities in germany. in 2007 (and 2012 again), the freie universität was one of eleven universities to be successful in the "german excellence initiative", a national competition by the german government. university alumni include five nobel prize winners and 15 winners of the national leibniz prize.