Master's degree in Germany

In this post, we summarised all the essential information about the Master’s degree in Germany for international students. If you are aiming to do your Master’s degree in Germany but in English, continue reading this post. Here we summarised all the essential information for English-speaking students who wish to pursue their graduate studies in Germany.

Despite the common wisdom, German universities offer a variety of international study programs at the undergraduate level in English. That makes Germany one of the top destinations for students who are aiming to pursue their studies abroad. Studying in Germany is particularly interesting as there is no tuition fee or very little. Given the fact that living expenses in Germany are among the lowest in rich countries. So that international students even with not a good financial situation can afford to live and study there. For details of living expenses, read our earlier post on the cost of living in Germany.

How can you study MSc/PhD in Germany without Funding?

To find the right university for your Master’s, besides the subject of research, the location of the university is also important. If the university is located in a large city such as Munchen, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf or Hamburg, the accommodation costs (rent) can be very high. On the other hand, choosing a university in smaller cities such as Kiel, or even Berlin can be a viable choice as the cost of living would be lower. As a rule of thumb, the cities (and corresponding universities) located in the eastern part of the country are economical choices. In a conclusion, the renting costs are lower than in the middle or western part of the country.

Some International Master’s degree Programmes in Germany

Here, in the following list, you can find five Master’s degree programmes in Germany at different German Universities:

Biochemistry (Master of Science) at Freie Universität Berlin
Law and Economics (EMLE) at Hamburg University
Air Quality Control Solid Waste and Waste Water Process Engineering (Master of Science) at the University of Stuttgart
Computer Science (Master of Science) at Freie Universität Berlin
Electronic Engineering (Master of Science) at the University of Stuttgart

What are the admission requirements for a Master’s degree in Germany?

In Germany, the application for a study program at a university can have one of the following forms:

The students directly send their applications to the dedicated website/email provided by the host faculty of the university. This is particularly the case for MSc/PhD programs and the application is free of charge. For instance, the international master’s study program of materials science at the University of Kiel is categorized under this format of application (for details see the website of the program).
The second type of application to study programs is to send the application to the central system known as the Uni-assist web portal (which costs around 75 euro and every additional application costs 15 euro).
The third type of application is solely for particular study programs (special subjects) in which the application differs for EU or non-EU citizens. This is the case for the majority of Medicine and Pharmacy programs where the restriction is imposed because of the large number of applicants (In Germany these subjects are known as “bundesweiter Numerus clausus” (NC)). For applying in NC subjects the EU citizen applicants should submit their application to the trust for admission to higher education (application is free of charge). The non-EU citizen should send their application to Uni-assist if their prospective university is a member of uni-assist otherwise the application would be similar to the first case mentioned above.

The typical application documents for study programs in Germany

The typical application documents for study programs in Germany include (but are not limited to) the certified translation of university entrance qualification, all university certificates and transcripts, a copy of the passport, personal photo and language certificates. For those programs where the admission is done through Uni-assist, the application period for the winter semester is from the 30th of May to the 15th of July and For the summer semester, it is from the 1st of December to the 15th of January. But for the programs that are not centralized through Uni-assist, the application deadline does not follow special rules (details of each particular program have to be found on the website of that program).

How to apply to a German Language study programme?

In order to apply for any study program in German, you should have a German proficiency certificate, either a DSH or TestDaF. There are two possibilities:

You just take German language courses in your home country and get the required certificates before applying (Goethe institute in your home country can be the best option to learn and take the German test).
If you just reached the basic level of German (known as B1), you can apply to universities and get admission to the German course language program of the host university through Uni-assist. In the majority of German university, this option is for free. That means you will be admitted to the university to learn German for 2-4 semesters. Then, you will take the required German test in order to be eligible to enter university. Here you can learn 15 practical German words for new students in Germany

How to apply to an English Language study programme?

If you have an English language certificate such as TOEFL, or IELTS, you can apply for several English study programs in many German universities. You should take into account that Non-EU and non-EEA international students should apply for a Student Visa and need to have financial support (a minimum of €8,640 in a blocked bank account) for a Visa to handle the cost of studying and living.

Academic Year

The academic year (first of October till the 30th of September) in Germany consists of two semesters Winter semester (first of October till the end of March) and the Summer semester (first of April till the end of September).

Scholarships and Awards in Europe: