Please send applications, together with your curriculum vitae, copies of your academic records, language certificate and a statement on financing directly to the secretariats of the study programmes in which you are interested.
Please note that some courses have prepared special application forms which may be obtained from the secretariat of the respective programme or downloaded from their homepage.
You can find detailed information on the requirements and the process of application for each of the courses on their respective homepage. The link to each of the courses homepages is listed under Programmes.
If you are applying for a scholarship, you should address yourself to the relevant scholarship awarding institution and follow their respective application procedure. We have listed all relevant information for you under Scholarships.
Requirements
As mentioned above under “How to apply”, the process of application and the requirements for each of the programmes may vary – therefore we highly recommend you to visit the homepage of the programme you are interested in for the exact details.
Nevertheless there are some general requirements that have to be fulfilled if you want to study at a German university.
All students from abroad must apply for admission to a German university. This applies to freshmen, postgraduates and doctoral candidates alike. The admissions procedure ensures that applicants fulfil the necessary requirements to study at an institute of higher education.
If you wish to study at a German university, you need a so-called Hochschulzugangsberechtigung (HZB), or higher education entrance qualification. This is a secondary school-leaving certificate that corresponds to the German Abitur and entitles you to study.
Students from abroad must apply for admission from the university of their choice. For your application, you will require for a Master’s degree and PhD programmes:
- recognition of your university degree from your home country or another country.
Not all higher education entrance qualifications apply to all study programmes. There is a general qualification (“allgemeine HZB”) which entitles students to study all subjects at universities and universities of applied sciences, and a subject-specific qualification (“fachgebundene HZB”) which entitles students to study certain subjects only.
You can find out which foreign certificates correspond to which kind of university entrance qualification in the DAAD admissions data base:
Your first contact: the international office!
Important! Although there are general guidelines that govern the recognition of certificates, you should contact first of all the International Office at your chosen university. There you can find out all about the respective admission requirements and selection procedures. These can vary depending on university and course. Ultimately, it is the university that decides whether or not you are offered a place. You can find the addresses of all International Offices in the DAAD data base.
To gain admission to some universities of applied sciences, internships are also required. Make sure you find out in advance whether a pre-study internship is required for your subject at your chosen university!
Some universities also require a certain grade point average for certain subjects.
Important for appplicants wishing to take international degree programmes
At some universities, SAT / ACT scores or high school grade point averages are also recognised.
Applicants for international Master’s degree programmes should bear in mind that GRE/GMAT scores arenecessary or are advantageous for admission at an increasing number of universities. Please ask at your chosen university!
Language tests
English: Students wishing to take an international degree programme (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) do not necessarily have to take a German test. The teaching language in these courses is usually English.
Please note: To study a degree course in English, an English language certificate (e.g. TOEFL, IELTS) is often required. Each university decides what minimum number of points is required for admission.
German: If you choose to take a course of study in German, you are usually required to prove that you have an adequate knowledge of German. You can do this by taking one of two different language proficiency tests:
- the language test “TestDaF” (test of German as a foreign language) or
- the “Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang ausländischer Studienbewerber” (DSH),.
You can find out where and when you can take these tests and other important information on the subject on our German language page.
A German test does not have to be taken if…
- the applicant has passed the Abitur examinations at a German-speaking school,
- the applicant has passed the “Deutsche Sprachdiplom (Level II)” of the KMK (“Kultusministerkonferenz”) or the “Goethe-Zertifikat C2: Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom”, Goethe Institute’s “Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom” (KDS), “Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom” (GDS) or “Zentrale Oberstufenprüfung” (ZOP).