International Students

Knowledge is international and transcends all frontiers. This is why one of Germany’s natural education policy goals is to attract qualified foreign students from abroad to complete a period of study at one of the country’s universities.

The proportion of foreign students among the total student body in Germany has risen from 7.9% in the 1995/1996 winter semester to 9% in the 2008/2009 winter semester. Besides Britain, Germany is presently the second most important european host country for international students. Preferred subjects for foreign students are economics and business administration, German studies, electrical engineering, computer science, and music.

University Partnerships

Germany′s higher education institutions already maintain around 20,300 partnerships with foreign universities today and are extending these contacts all the time. In order to make study opportunities offered in Germany even more appealing to qualified foreign students, additional efforts are planned for the future. For example, the programme called "Studienangebote deutsche Hochschulen im Ausland" (German Study Programmes Abroad) aims to offer selected German study programmes abroad in cooperation with foreign partner universities. This enables them to reach students who, for a variety of reasons, do not want to or are unable to leave their home country. The "Hochschulkompass" (Higher-Education-Compass) provides a comprehensive list of international cooperation agreements along with various search options. The "Kompass" can be accessed at: www.hochschulkompass.de or www.higher-education-compass.de.

Summer Universities

The "Internationale Sommeruniversitäten" (International Summer Universities) offered by Germany's universities frequently also represent a good way of starting to study in Germany. The German and/or English-instructed summer schools and summer courses have been specially designed for foreign students. They enable students to get to know Germany before starting a longer study stay here. Credit points (ECTS) are awarded for many of these offerings. You can find a list of the current courses on offer on the Internet at: www.daad.de (Studieren, Forschen und Lehren in Deutschland – Sprache – Sommerkurse) respectively (Study, research and teaching in Germany – Language – Summer courses).

International Degrees

Moreover, the award of internationally-recognised academic degrees (Bachelor's and Master's) encourages foreign students to gain their academic degree in Germany. Students can now graduate with a Bachelor's or Master's degree in almost 11,400 undergraduate and graduate programmes. And these programmes can be taken equally at universities, at universities of applied sciences and at other higher education institutions. If you already hold a Bachelor's degree, you can enrol for a course of (post)graduate studies. Although (post)graduate degree courses are still mainly offered by the traditional universities, Germany's universities of applied sciences also increasingly have such programmes in their course catalogue. You will generally complete these studies with a Master's degree.

International Degree Programmes

Degree programmes with an international orientation that have been specifically designed to meet the needs and interests of foreign students provide a sound specialist education and training in the subject in question, intensive guidance, counselling and supervision for students, the use of a foreign language as the language of instruction and study, intensive international cooperation as well as internationally-recognised Bachelor's and Master's degrees. In most cases, these programmes involve completion of a study section abroad and are open to German and foreign students alike. The International Degree Programmes which are offered at more than 190 universities and which, generally, admit a roughly equal share of foreign and German students are of particular interest. With but a few exceptions, English is largely or exclusively the language of instruction. This means that you do not have to pass a German language test for admission to these programmes. You learn the German that you need parallel to your academic studies. Just go to the website to search through almost 400 courses for the one that suits you best.

Further information:

www.daad.de/international-programmes Detailed information about international bachelor, master and doctoral programmes in Germany

DAAD (ed.): Degree Courses at German Universities. An Overview by Subject Area. 9th Edition, Bonn 2008

You can find the addresses of the University International Offices at www.hochschulkompass.de (under the heading "Hochschulen") or at www.higher-education-compass.de (under the heading "Higher Education Institutions")

www.daad.de/admission Information about admission to studies at German higher education institutions