Germany

There is no single admission system in Germany. Depending on the programme and the university, you apply in one of three ways:

• directly to the university – through its online application portal,
• through uni-assist – a service that checks foreign certificates for more than 180 member universities. You pay €75 for your first programme in a semester and €30 for each additional one (some universities cover the fee for their applicants). The check usually takes 4–6 weeks,
• through hochschulstart.de – the central procedure (Zentrales Verfahren) for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pharmacy. EU/EEA citizens apply in exactly the same way as German applicants. If you are from outside the EU/EEA and do not have a German school leaving certificate, you usually apply directly to the university instead, for a limited number of places reserved for international applicants.

Deadlines: often 15 July for the winter semester and 15 January for the summer semester – but each university can set its own. At hochschulstart, the deadline for the 2026/27 winter semester was 31 May 2026 if you got your school leaving certificate before 16 January 2026 (Altabiturienten) and 15 July 2026 if you got it later (Neuabiturienten).

If you come from outside the EU/EEA, apply as early as you can: you will need your admission letter to apply for a student visa, and getting an appointment and a decision takes time (see: Residence and formalities).

Whether your secondary school leaving certificate gives you access to your chosen programme, and which documents you need (translations, certified copies), you can check with the university's admissions office or with uni-assist.