Most public universities charge no tuition for bachelor's programmes, only a semester contribution such as €189.80 at Heidelberg; non-EU students pay fees in Baden-Württemberg (€1,500 per semester) and at TU Munich. In the 2025/26 winter semester 422 institutions offered 22,426 programmes, 2,383 of them in English. See how to apply, what a student residence costs (€318 a month on average) and how much you can work.
How long: there is no prescribed duration – most doctorates take several years. The classic path is the individual doctorate: you find a professor who agrees to supervise you. Structured programmes are growing: in 2024 the DFG funded 243 Research Training Groups (Graduiertenkollegs), and there are International Max Planck Research Schools and graduate schools.
Your status: many doctoral candidates work as research staff at the university, often on 65–100% of a full-time post paid on the TV-L E13 scale; others hold scholarships (around €1,200 a month, according to the University of Göttingen) or fund themselves. Universities award doctorates; universities of applied sciences can do so only under certain conditions.
How to get in: a master's degree (or the first state examination); very good bachelor's graduates can be admitted through an aptitude procedure.
Where to look: doctoral positions and calls are published on the websites of universities and their doctoral schools and on EURAXESS; the DAAD explains the routes in How to find your PhD position in Germany. Programmes in Germany in our database: Germany – 239 doctoral programmes (as of November 2026) »
Sources: Eurydice – national description of third-cycle (PhD) programmes (updated 13 May 2026); University of Göttingen – funding a doctorate. As of October 2026.
Sources: European Commission – Study in Europe (education.ec.europa.eu/study-in-europe), Eurostat, official national study and residence portals and authorities, Eurodesk, enic-naric.net, studentnews.eu. As of September 2026.
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