General Information

 

This page contains both general information on the German university system and studying in Germany.

 

Types of universities

Tertiary education establishments in Germany are collectively known as Hochschulen, and comprise universities (Universitäten) and universities of applied sciences (Hochschulen für Angewandte Wissenschaften (HaW for short), formerly Fachhochschulen, although sometimes simply called Hochschulen). The main difference is that the former can award PhDs (this is known as Promotionsrecht), while the latter cannot (although some exceptions have emerged). There is a considerable overlap between the two, with many subjects taught in both (particularly technical subjects), although universities tend to be more theoretical and academic in their teaching style, and Fachhochschulen tend to be more practical and hands-on. See here for a more in-depth explanation.

Education policy is under the purview of each individual state (Bundesland), therefore, there may be some minor differences between universities in different states.

While universities offer a wide variety of degree programmes, it should be noted that many professions in Germany do not require university degrees. Instead, they require a vocational qualification, which is acquired through a dual vocational training system. The latter group includes professions like salesperson, mechanic, optician, or nurse.

Public and private universities

Most universities in Germany are public (i.e. owned and funded by the state, through taxes). More than 90% of students in Germany study at public universities. If you search for any “list of best universities in Germany” then you will see that all of them are public.

There are also private universities, most of which charge tuition fees, usually on the order of tens of thousands of Euros a year. Private universities, with the exception of a handful of well-regarded business schools, have a somewhat dubious reputation in Germany - they are seen as places where people pay for a degree which they would have been unable to get at a public university (presumably because they were not bright or hardworking enough). While degrees from most private universities are fully accredited, employers will likely question why the candidate didn’t get their degree from a public university instead.

Private universities which teach in English and copy many of the trappings of American universities (such as mandatory on-campus housing) are the worst offenders - they are seen as a trap to fleece ignorant foreigners.

Rankings

University rankings are seen as fairly meaningless in Germany, particularly below the research (doctoral) level. The quality of the teaching is about comparable at all public universities, and while some university courses have a bit more prestige in their field (e.g. RWTH Aachen for engineering), the difference between an engineering degree from Aachen or one from another university is very slight. Whether a student has done internships or has other professional experience has a much more significant impact on their chances in the job market than the name of their university. The German system is geared towards ensuring that all students get a good education, as opposed to sorting them into “more” or “less” prestigious institutions - so asking what the “best” universities in Germany are doesn’t make a lot of sense to Germans.

At the doctoral level and above, individual professors at a university may have more or less renown in their field, and more renown often leads to more research money or more cooperations with industry.

Most of the English-language university rankings implicitly assume that all universities worldwide work just like the US/UK model, and rank them accordingly. Since German universities work differently (e.g. research often happens at dedicated research institutes as opposed to at universities, and universities don’t provide many of the amenities that the very expensive universities in other countries do), they often rank rather poorly, or are not included at all. This is not indicative of the quality of the education a student would receive at that university, or how that education is perceived in the German job market. How it’s perceived outside of Germany is a different question, and that depends on how familiar employers in other countries are with the German university system.

Degrees

Most Hochschulen offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and universities also offer doctoral degrees (e.g. PhDs). Germany switched from its own system of degrees to the Europe-wide Bachelor’s/Master’s degree system in the early 2000s; you may still find a few relics of the old system here and there (a few universities and subjects which still award Magister or Diplom degrees).

An exception are degree programmes in the areas of law, medicine (dental, human, veterinarian), pharmacy, and teacher training (in some states). These programmes usually have their own special, long-cycle degrees that do not fall into the Bachelor’s/Master’s paradigm. These programmes usually take between four and five years to complete with no break inbetween. They are also highly regulated, since most teachers and lawyers in Germany are employed by the state, and therefore, unlike with Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees, they have a final exam that is set by the state as well (the so-called Staatsexamen), which is required to obtain the permission/licence to work in that particular field.

Admission

Unlike universities in some other countries (notably the US, UK, or Canada), German universities are not “selective” in their admissions in most cases. Particularly at the undergraduate level, admission is binary: if you fulfil all the formal criteria for admission, you may enrol in a degree course; if you don’t, you may not. Your personality, your extracurricular activities, or your athletic achievements, have absolutely no effect on whether you can enrol or not. The only other criterion that sometimes plays a part is your GPA.

Another difference is that you always apply for a particular programme, not a particular university in general. You have to choose the subject of your degree before you apply, and your chances of admission will depend on the subject you choose, not as much the university you want to study at. One university may, for example, have no admission restrictions for one subject and very hard restrictions for another. See the grade cut-off section of this page for details.

Please also note that should you fail an exam in your degree programme too many times (the exact number varies, usually between two and three), you will be exmatriculated without being able to finish your degree. Also, you won’t be able to study the same degree anywhere else in Germany. Note that “same” can be interpreted somewhat freely by universities, so you still might be admitted to similar programmes. But there is no general rule and usually failing a degree programme this way will lead you to being barred from most other universities in Germany for that subject.

The general admission criteria for all German universities are:

  • Fluency in the language in which the course is taught
  • A secondary school diploma equivalent to a German Abitur

And while it is not a formal requirement for admission, non-EU citizens will also need to obtain a residence permit after admission to be able to live in Germany (see the section “Residence Permit”).

Additionally, for certain programmes, a university may impose additional requirements, such as:

  • For degree programmes in the area of sports/design/music/arts: An entrance exam to prove your proficiency in that area
  • For some degree programmes particularly in the area of engineering: An internship in that area
  • For most graduate degree programmes: An undergraduate degree in the same subject area, often (but not always) with a certain grade
  • For very popular degree programmes with a limited number of places: A selection process via a grade cut-off (“Numerus Clausus”)
  • For some graduate degree programmes: A letter of motivation/recommendation or other more personalised admission information, work experience etc.

Each criterion is explained in more detail below.

Language

While this goes without saying, you must be fluent in the language the course is taught in. At the undergraduate level, 98% of degree courses are taught in German, so you must be fluent in German before you can enrol. At the graduate level (Master’s and above), there is a significant minority of courses which are taught in English, for which you have to prove your fluency in English.

Generally, universities require a CEFR C1 (or equivalent) language proficiency. Additionally, many degree courses taught in English require that students know at least B1 German, in order to make sure that they can get through daily life in Germany.

Generally, universities accept a DSH or TestDaf certificate for German, but check their website to make sure. Prospective students who did their secondary schooling in German (and completed an Abitur) generally don’t need to show a certificate of language proficiency.

For more information on how to learn German, see /r/German (and their excellent wiki) and /r/GermanPractice.

Secondary school diploma

Germany has a three-track secondary school system, and only students who complete the “highest” track (the Gymnasium) with an Abitur may attend university. Students from other countries may also attend university in Germany, provided that their secondary school diploma is equivalent to a German Abitur.

The DAAD database assesses diplomas from most countries and tell you whether they allow you to enroll at German universities. If your country is not on their list you have to go to the official Anabin database which is more complete, but is only available in German. Some diplomas allow you to enrol at university directly (“direkter Zugang”), while others allow you to attend a Studienkolleg (see below for more information), which, if you pass it, then allows you to enrol in a university. The latter are listed as “Feststellungsprüfung/Studienkolleg”.

Residence permit

Prospective students who are not German or EU citizens have to apply for and receive a residency permit to be allowed to stay in Germany to study. Most foreign nationals have to apply for a visa and residency permit in their home country first (to be allowed to travel to Germany at all), but citizens of some countries (including the USA, Canada, Taiwan, and Australia) may enter Germany without a visa, and then apply for the residence permit from within Germany.

In order to obtain a residency permit to study are, you must prove that you have enough savings (or other financial means, e.g. financial support from parents) to get you through your degree. The easiest way is to have 11,208 € (as of January 1st, 2023) per year of study in savings, which is enough to cover all your costs (including the semester fee, housing, and living costs), assuming you’re reasonably frugal. However, there are also other options, including a guarantee from your parents or a close relative that they will support you financially.

For more information, see the step-by-step guide to studying in Germany and the guide to financing your studies.

###Consecutive degrees

Nearly all Master’s degrees in Germany are consecutive, which means that they require an undergraduate degree in the same (or a similar) subject area. You therefore cannot, for example, do a Master’s degree in business if your undergraduate degree was in computing. Each degree course lists the exact requirements on their website.

In addition to being in the same subject area, your undergraduate degree must also be recognised in Germany. The Anabin database has a comprehensive list of which degrees are recognised. However, don’t panic if you can’t find your particular degree in the database. Have a look at the status of your institution, and if it says “H+” your institution should not be a problem.

Grade cut-off

Usually there are no admission interviews or the like for Bachelor’s programmes in Germany (with some exceptions such as fine arts or design). However, since some programmes are more popular than others, universities limit the places for these programmes, lest they become overcrowded. These programmes will have a set cut-off, called a Numerus Clausus (“NC”), Latin for “closed number” (referring to the number of places in a programme). Whether you will gain a place or not then depends on the final mark/GPA of your school-leaving certificate/high school diploma and so-called “Wartesemester” (“waiting semesters”), i.e. the time you have spent between finishing high school and starting your studies. The Wartesemester are accumulated automatically; the only criterion is you must not have been enrolled in a degree programme at a university.

The NC is listed in the German Abitur grading system, which goes from 1.0 (the highest possible grade) to 4.0 (the lowest passing grade). If you have a foreign secondary school diploma, you need to convert your grade into the German system. This can be done using the so-called “Modified Bavarian Formula”. You can use an online calculator, such as this one, otherwise the universities (or uni-assist) will convert your grade as part of the application process anyway.

Usually there are separate quotas for each criterion, e.g. 80% of places are distributed on the basis of your GPA, 20% on the amount of Wartesemester you have (these numbers are used in Hesse, for example). Meaning that the longer you wait, the higher your chances of getting a place in a programme. Note, however, that contrary to a very common myth, the Wartesemester DO NOT improve you GPA. Your GPA will stay the same since the day you finished high school (unless you visit a Studienkolleg, then your GPA and your final mark in the Studienkolleg will be weighed 50% each, forming a new average).

Please also note that the NC procedure only applies to students from Germany and the EU. Non-EU students are usually admitted through a separate quota just for them. In this case, Wartesemester are usually not taken into account.

Most universities publish the cut-off grades for previous years on their website. So, for example, if a university has a NC in one of their Bachelor’s programmes, you might find something like “2.5 or 4 Wartesemester” on their website. This means that the last person that got in via the GPA quota had a German grade of 2.5 (so everybody with that grade or better was admitted, everybody with a grade of 2.6 or above was rejected) and the last person in the Wartesemester quota had accumulated 4 Wartesemester. This also means that the question “what grade will I need to apply in the upcoming semester for a particular programme” is impossible to answer, since universities cannot know the grades of their applicants in advance. But you can still have a look at the last couple semesters and the grades that got you a place then to find out if you are in at least the same ballpark.

A few degree courses, notably medicine (human, veterinary, dental) and pharmacy, are so popular that they almost always have an extremely high GPA requirement, meaning that only students with near-perfect grades have any chance of being admitted.

Other admissions criteria

A few universities, particularly at the Master’s level and above, have begun to institute additional admissions steps, including requesting letters of motivation, references, or an interview. Consult the universities’ websites for more details.

Teaching

Most degree courses will have a mixture of lectures (Vorlesungen), Seminars (Seminare), practicals (Prakitka) and exercises (Übungen).

There is usually no mandatory attendance for most lectures. Lectures are usually taught by a professor in front of a huge crowd in a big lecture hall. Many universities offer recordings and/or live streams. Due to the large class size, it is unusual to get to know your professor personally in the first few semesters. Seminars and exercises, on the other hand, are held in smaller groups and have mostly mandatory attendance and class work assigned to it.

Grades depend primarily on exams on the end of the semester. There are usually few if any intermediate assignments which impact your grade. There are usually few to no mid-term papers; students write papers during the winter/spring or summer semester breaks. Tests are usually long-long form essays; multiple-choice tests are very rare.

Broadly speaking, in German universities, a student is a statistic. Students are expected to do the bulk of their studying on their own, using all the resources at their disposal (including lectures and seminars) as they see fit. There are usually no reading lists (or, if they do exist, they are not comprehensive), and students are expected to find their own materials, organise their own study groups (e.g. with other students), and find their own way out of a jam if they encounter difficulties with a particular topic.

As there are few intermediate assignments, students have to set their own pace of study, and be responsible for organising their time and energy in such a way as to get through all the material in a semester. No-one at the university will check up on them to see how they are doing, to provide them with a schedule to follow, or set you intermediate problems so that they can check whether they actually understood the material. It all comes to a head at exam time, when students find out whether they have been studying “enough” to pass the exams - and many degree courses have a few particularly difficult classes in the early semesters to “weed out” the weaker students.

This contrasts starkly with, for example, American universities. There, there are tons of tutorials and organised study sessions, plenty of intermediate assignments (which students hate, but they serve to check whether a student is learning the material at a sufficient pace), and much higher faculty-to-student ratio. As a student, you can be reasonably sure that if you’ve attended all the lectures and tutorials and successfully handed in all the intermediate assignments on time, then you’re studying “enough” and can do other things (e.g. work at a side job).

This recent discussion goes into more detail on this.

Credits

The credit system is the same within Europe due to something called the Bologna process. Most classes have an equivalent of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) points.

Example: You go for a Bachelor’s degree. Most Bachelors have 180 ECTS in total. Your Bachelor might be divided into two majors or one major, one minor. It doesn’t really matter what you choose. Just make sure that the Bachelor you choose has enough ECTS in the field you want to take your Masters in, as most universities have this requirement. The 180 ECTS will be divided across the programme. For example, each module (Modul) will be a certain amount and will add up with the Bachelors thesis to the total 180 ECTS. For Masters programmes of two years, this is the same with 120 ECTS.

Transferring Credits

While it’s possible to transfer credits between universities, it’s usually not easy. So do not count on it!

The same Bachelor degree can have different courses at different universities. If you are switching universities you will have to ask every single professor in every single subject whether or not they accept your old subject and credits as equivalent. It’s their choice. If they say no, you don’t have any other options than retaking to whole course. If there are special seminars, practicals or events required in the course at the new university, you will probably have to take those.

If a course is considered equal, your old grade will be transferred. Make sure you bring a certified excerpt of your grades. Transferred grades cannot be improved by retaking the exam. If you transferred your grade, you cannnot write the exam again. So make sure you really want to transfer your bad grades, since there is no way of improving them.

For example: You one of your subjects is “math - analysis” for 6 ECTS at your old university.

Option 1: The new university also has the subject “math - analysis” for 6 ECTS. There is no extra practical required. Then your chances are great that it will be accepted.

Option 2: The new university has the subject “math - analysis” for 6 ECTS which is a required practical. You might have to retake the practical.

Option 3: The new university has the subject “math - analysis & numeric” for 10 ECTS. This is probably not going to be accepted since your course didn’t cover every part of the new course.

Option 4: The new university has the subject “math - analysis & numeric” for 10 ECTS but you also did “math 2 - numeric” at your old university for 5 ECTS. This could work, but as always the professor decides.

Calendar

The winter semester is usually from the 1st of October to the 30th of March, and the summer semester is usually from the 1st of April to the 30th of September. These times may vary a little from university to university.

There are usually no lectures between mid-February and the end of March, as well as from mid-July to the end of September (this is known as vorlesungsfreie Zeit). Instead, this is when exams (or other larger assignments) often take place.

The enrolment for most universities and programmes usually takes place in the winter semester. Some programmes and most universities accept people for the summer term, especially in a higher semester with credits to transfer. However, starting in winter is usually much easier since many classes that are mandatory for elective courses only start once per year.

Student life

German universities are largely academic institutions, and they don’t involve themselves in the non-academic life of their students. While there may be a few dorms for students, the vast majority of students find their own housing on the open market, and even the dorms treat their residents much more like adults instead of children who need chaperones. There are no prestigious university sports teams, no recreational centres, no guidance counsellors (but you can talk to your university’s Studienberatung for advice), although most universities do have a cafeteria and perhaps a library. Students are expected to sort out their own food, clothing, insurance, manage their own finances and health - essentially, to be a fully functioning adult.

Students spend most of their “social” time outside of the university. Universities are rarely in a single campus; rather, they often have buildings scattered all over a town or city.

Fraternities

Fraternities (Burschenschaften and Studentenverbindungen) provide social activities, as well as a network of former members which could be helpful in, for example, finding a job after university. A few may also facilitate access to housing. However, they only play a marginal role in the life of most students. Burschenschaften in particular have a very dubious reputation, as they often have strong links to far-right political groups. Some of them (the schlagende Verbindungen) might require you to take fencing practice and fight duels.

Cost

There are no general tuition fees to attend German public universities. Most universities charge a semester fee (usually a few hundred Euros a semster), which pays for i.A. a public transport ticket for students. Additionally, universities in the state of Baden-Württemberg charge tuition fees (1500 Euros per semester) for non-EU students, and many states charge tuition fees for second degrees or long-term students (i.e. students which take far longer than usual to complete their degree); here is an overview.

Private universities are free to charge whatever tuition fee they see fit.

For more information on the cost of studying in Germany, see our wiki page on student finances.

Internal structures

Most Hochschulen are organised into faculties (e.g. law, philosophy, math, sciences). These facultities contain institutes for the different degrees - for example, the institute for languages might be contained within the faculty for philosophy. This structure is relevant for the distribution of money between the faculties, the exam and study regulations as well as assignments of professors.

The distribution of the money is mainly organized by the Senat of the university. The Senat is comprised of professors, academic scientists (PhD candidates or other teaching or researching personal with degrees), representatives of the administrative staff and some students representatives. The Senat defines the study, admission, and exam regulations, as well as the administrative organization of the university. The Senat also appoints professors.

Most universities have a student parliament (Studierendenparlament, or “Stupa”) and a student government (Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, or “AStA”). The members of these bodies are elected in annual elections, and can decide how to spend the money which is collected via the semester fee. For example, they negotiate with local transport companies to get cheaper public transport tickets for students. They also often organize introduction weeks for incoming first-year students and other social events. Each factulty or department also has its own Fachschaftsrat (similar to the AStA).

Studienkolleg

If your school-leaving certificate/high school diplome does not quite meet the criteria for admission, you may have the option of attending a Studienkolleg, a sort of pre-university/foundation course, to make up the shortfall. Once students pass the final exams set by the Studienkolleg, they are free to enrol in a university and begin their studies.

Whether or not you have to attend a Studienkolleg depends on your school-leaving certificate/high-school diploma. You can have a look at the Anabin database to find out more.

The curriculum of the Studienkolleg is tailored towards the degree programme you want to study afterwards, so somebody wanting to study languages will have a different curriculum than a prospective engineering student.

Most Studienkollegs have an entrance exam, consisting of German on level B2, and, depending on your desired course, an exam in maths or English. Passing these exams is mandatory. If you can’t, you won’t be admitted and have to apply again next semester.

Please note that the Studienkolleg is not voluntary. Either you have to attend it, or you don’t. You can’t go there just to prepare. Nor can you skip it if your school-leaving certificate does not qualify you for direct admission.

Other websites with a good overview of the German university system, and guides for how to study in Germany, include: