diff --git a/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseCreatedObjective.php b/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseCreatedObjective.php
index 432aaecef82b..feeeee269f51 100755
--- a/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseCreatedObjective.php
+++ b/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseCreatedObjective.php
@@ -59,7 +59,8 @@ public function achieve(Environment $environment): Environment
         $db = \ilDBWrapperFactory::getWrapper($this->config->getType());
         $db->initFromIniFile($c->toMockIniFile());
 
-        if (!$db->createDatabase($c->getDatabase(), "utf8", $c->getCollation())) {
+        $charset = ilDBConstants::isUTF8MB4Collation($c->getCollation()) ? 'utf8mb4' : 'utf8';
+        if (!$db->createDatabase($c->getDatabase(), $charset, $c->getCollation())) {
             throw new UnachievableException(
                 "Database cannot be created."
             );
diff --git a/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseSetupConfig.php b/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseSetupConfig.php
index 226b7d2f0213..cddaa7393cdd 100755
--- a/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseSetupConfig.php
+++ b/components/ILIAS/Database/classes/Setup/ilDatabaseSetupConfig.php
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 
 class ilDatabaseSetupConfig implements Config
 {
-    public const DEFAULT_COLLATION = "utf8_general_ci";
+    public const DEFAULT_COLLATION = \ilDBConstants::MYSQL_COLLATION_UTF8MB4_520;
     public const DEFAULT_PATH_TO_DB_DUMP = "./components/ILIAS/Database/sql/ilias3.sql";
 
     protected string $type;
diff --git a/docs/configuration/install.md b/docs/configuration/install.md
index a39a97210008..db54cac738b4 100755
--- a/docs/configuration/install.md
+++ b/docs/configuration/install.md
@@ -254,15 +254,11 @@ On Debian/Ubuntu execute:
 apt install mariadb-server
 ```
 
-> [!NOTE]
-> Please note that installing ILIAS in utf8mb4-collations is currently not supported!
-> ILIAS supports utf8-collations with 3 bytes per character, such as `utf8_general_ci`, only.
-
 We **strongly recommend** using MariaDB with the following settings:
 
 * InnoDB storage engine (default)
-* `character-set-server` = `utf8mb3`
-* `collation-server` = `utf8mb3_general_ci`
+* `character-set-server` = `utf8mb4`
+* `collation-server` = `utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci`
 * `join_buffer_size` > `128K`
 * `table_open_cache` > `400`
 * `innodb_buffer_pool_size` > `2G` (depending on DB size)
@@ -279,7 +275,7 @@ systemctl restart mariadb.service
 We recommend creating a dedicated database user for ILIAS:
 
 ```shell
-mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE ilias CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;"
+mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE ilias CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;"
 mysql -e "CREATE USER 'ilias'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<db-password>';"
 mysql -e "GRANT LOCK TABLES on *.* TO 'ilias'@'localhost';"
 mysql -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ilias.* TO 'ilias'@'localhost';"