The German University System Explained (rankings, degrees, types)

I'm going to explain the university system in Germany and tell you everything about the different types of universities, public vs. private ones, the degrees you can get and the truth about the university rankings. Many international students want to know what university is like in Germany to be able to successfully study here.
Enjoy!

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[maxyoko]

Get the Free “Studying in Germany Guidebook”!

[virtualinfinity]

My tip as a german: Ignore private universities. While it may be true, that they are better in other countries, it does not apply to Germany. Public universities are good to very good and private universities usually cater only the desire for exceptionalism of elitists. They may be good, but are in absolutely no way better than public universities. In Germany, education is like it should be everywhere: Free and good for all.

[muhidcs]

The types of universities are something nobody talks about on youtube. I have been researching a lot trying to find "co-op" programs but it seemed very confusing. Hoping I'll find a lot more applied science and internship focused unis and courses when I wake up tomorrow!

[radtour]

Don’t know why I got this video recommended as a German with a finished degree. But great video with good advice about ignoring the ranking and so on 👏

[tarunchauhanza]

Brother your content quality is very great when compared to your subscribers

[spielpfan]

Du hast etwas vergessen: Nach dem Doktorat gibt es noch die Habilitation. Die braucht man aber nur wenn man an der Uni bleiben will.

[justanotherpiccplayer]

rankings dont matter in the uk also, people just pretend they do, you want to look at student satisfaction and student satisfaction only

[crytan_x]

85€??? Ich zahle 250€ jedes Semster. FHS Flensburg

[Xhisorsify]

Small addition: Typically, the high Quality research in Germany is performed in research Institute (also publicly funded) like the Max Planck Society. Which makes the Rankings sort of stupid (comparing private US and UK universities with public ones, while the state funds the research societies to be Great in the rankings) So, check if your dream University is located in a City with such renowned institutes. If fields overlap, the directors from there will give lectures in the University and you can connect to them. The professor from there are a few of the Best in their field World wide and get a lot of applications for thesis' and if you vistited their lectures they might hire you because of knowing you. Also PhDs (Promotionen) in STEM (physics, chemistry, life sciene, ...) usually take 3-5 years and are badly paid!

[NavyBlueCarpet]

Contrary to the mindset of plenty of international students, I would want to address certain concepts or misconception that I used to have. Hopefully this is gonna make the selection process easier.

1. A university that is "prestigious" by ranking does not automatically denote a competitive selection process. A lot of the bachelors degree does not even have a selection process, as in if you fulfill the requirement you are guaranteed to get a seat. However, the real selection happens during the first few semesters, where a lot of the people either voluntarily drop out or is kicked out by not passing exams. So looking at acceptance rates really would not be helpful in determining your chances. It would be much better for you to go to the website of your desired degree and check what kind of admission is used, and if there are admission restrictions, do a self estimation based on your grades.

2. Choose the city, not the uni. I am currently studying at a relatively high ranked german uni, and I can assure that the undergrad courses across unis are literally the same. The discrepancy between teaching quality is wrongly implied by the difference in ranking. You could even find study materials of other unis of basically the exact same course. So I would not put too much focus on picking the "best uni" as truth be told, none of them offer a siginifcant enough advantage compared to the rest. A general rule of priority goes as follows: course offered at chosen uni > course contains specializations you are interested in > the city the uni is located in > personal preference > international rankings.

And for those who are asking what degrees are offered at which uni with english/german, just use the DAAD search engine. You can search up all different courses offered in all public german unis and FHs, then filter them by your preference like language of instruction or location. At least do some of your own research.

[tonchrysoprase]

As somebody who hires extensively from the top 1/2 tier of the US system and Europe, it's important to note a major difference: top tier US institutions don't sell education, they sell access. They provide excellent education for those who are interested in it, but it's not what their purpose is and availing yourself of it is an optional extra. The system is entirely ridiculous since selecting teenagers based on 'merit' (mostly, how rich their parents are or how much they can pay to game the admissions system) and then effectively giving them straight A+ for showing up and not actively soiling themselves in public isn't as good as a preparation for life as the elites here think it is. But that doesn't matter since rankings are as easily gamed as admissions and ultimately, if the network places even the most impressively useless grad into a well-paying job everybody wins. Well, everybody other than society, which isn't doing so hot right now. So in short, it's hard to get into prestigious universities (unless you're part of the elite), but once you're in it's very, very easy to get out with a nice degree.

In Europe, on the other hand, it's generally easier to get into universities as long as you meet the basic criteria (which does involve some social inequality and gatekeeping, but not to the same extent), but once you're in, you actually have to work to graduate, especially if you want to have decent grade. That means the top grads from Europe tend to come from a much more varied set of universities. The top people (i.e. first tier students in the US who put in the work because they choose to get an education in one of the incredibly well resourced Us and the people at the top of any one European university) tend to be about the same, except for ability to name drop famous profs. On the second rung, European universities are vastly superior, though, producing a much, much larger number of well-rounded people.

[meindorf]

Very good video. I like your objective view on different forms of universities. I got two points to ad:
1. It may seem unintuitive, but in germany going to a private university is often seen as "cheating" or less valuable. Since education is free here, people tend to think that if you have to pay for education you can't make it in the "normal" ones. It's more like: "if you can't make it, you have to buy it"
2. Doing a PhD in a science based topic will almost allways take more than 3 years. One of my professors used to say: "if you take less than 3 years for an engineering or physics PhD then you must have cheated."

[Cupcakiiiii]

Idk why this video was recommended to me but as a German who studied in one of the best ranked universities in my field of study (because I lived there already, most Germans care less about rankings but more about saving money and work opportunities for internships 😂) I can only urge you to not choose your university because of some ranking. Yes, my university was great in research but the teaching and organisation wasn't good. An international student who did a semester abroad once said to me that in her home country it felt like professors wanted you to pass while here in Germany it feels like they want you to fail. And it really does, at least at my university. Now at work people are telling me I went to a prestigious university but quite honestly I learned nothing. Many of my friends who went to universities of applied sciences learned way more useful things for on the job.

[Karma_connections]

Ahh man, after looking at your quality of content and video I thought you have more than 1m sub but it's not you deserve a lot

[sebastiangrimm]

Hey nice video :)

A small addition, you said a PhD in Germany typically takes between one and three years.
That's not entirely true and missing a big part of the picture.

In Germany, contrary to most other countries, you are not regarded a "student" but treated as someone who already has expertise. This means most of the time you will be paid while doing your PhD and a lot of the time you will have some sort of teaching duty.
Because of this teaching duty a PhD in Germany can take up to five years in total which makes the country one of the slowest in producing new researchers.

[MarkusWitthaut]

Great content! I would like to comment from my perspective. I am a German that has studied computer science, has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (both at a German University). I am lecturing part time at a private university and at a "standard" public university. I did lecture only at an University of Applied Sciences. So I have some background on the topic. I would like to congratulate for your concise description and recommendations!
Additionally, I would like to stress things you mentioned:
1. As mentioned by you and others, Rankings of Universities as a whole are not important at all. Consider rankings of German Universities only - if at all - by faculty. Note further, that most rankings favor publications in English. German journals are not so much taken into account. So German Universities score lower in international rankings. To sum it up. Forget about rankings when selecting a German University.

2. "Standard" Universities versus the other types (universities of applied science, Duales Studium, private Universities). The standard Universities give you a lot of freedom in your study. There are less rigid and require a high degree of self discipline. That has the danger that your study takes longer.
3. The duration for a PhD with 1 to 3 years is very short. On average, it takes 4 to 5 years. But usually you are working as a lecturer (assistant to a professor) during your PhD and are paid (full-time or halftime employment). You can write a PhD also while working at a research institute (check for the "Gesellschaften" named Max-Planck, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Leibniz, Helmholtz and others) or even at a Company.
4. English courses are picking up. Note however, that Germany is very bureaucratic, i.e., you have to proof your English skills first (TOEFL, IELTS und Cambridge Certificate etc.) unless you are a native speaker coming from USA, UK, Ireland, NZ, Canada and Australia.

[mopsmensch]

Personally, I would always go for a public university with only a few exceptions that would make a private university more suitable for your studies (like if you're looking for a specific (nieche) programm or certain double majors in STEM). My main reason for this is that a public school will make your life easier. They offer semester tickets for public transit, access to a wide variety of online libraries and publications like JSTOR, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, Wiley, etc. through a national public university network. This network negotiates research publication licensing for all German public universities. This is especially important if you want to study social sciences. It will make your life so much easier and save you so much money, you have no idea. Books that you might have to purchase for 100€ and more at a private university are free to download as a pdf. The online libraries of most public universities are much more extensive than the physical libraries. I never had to step foot into my university's library for a term paper or something like this. And on top of that, being a student at a public university might grant you other advantages like free entry to public museums in the city and free entry to other amusement and education places like zoos. There are discounts for renting bikes or cars. There are some private universities who might offer some of these things as well, but never all of it. That's because the AStA (student self-organization and advocating group, exists at every public university) negotiates those deals for you.
You want to go to a university to study, to learn something, but do not underestimate the importance of campus and student life. For many, it's what makes them keep going when things get though. A public university will always offer you a more complete package in this regard.

[akshaydawxr]

You are making the "Actually important" content I have been looking for before moving to Berlin.

[KaiHenningsen]

Just a small remark as to campus size: here in Münster, you could argue that the campus *is* the city - university buildings (and sometimes parts of buildings) are all over the city. Just for a very small example, I worked for the uni computing center as a student ... in a side street, in a house that looked exactly like all the "normal" houses in the street, except it was filled with computer stuff and offices. (That one was not open to the public, it was strictly back-office.) But the computing center main building, right next to the math building and across a major street from the physics building (and others) ... you can see the twin towers of the uni hospital in the distance, around it is what looks like normal housing and contains the medical faculty of the uni. I don't think you can the castle (Schloss) from there where the central administration is located (and some other faculties and the botanical garden) ... and so forth.

[Schlotzinger]

My experience: I studied at an internationally unknown University of applied science in my hometown. Studies were terribly hard, exams on almost unreachable levels. Huge amount of work. Students who failed at any exams even in high semesters got kicked out quite fast. But those who survived had all chances. Being the "German Engineer" on any construction site of this world gave me some unbeatable authority. Not kidding...
I recommend to study in Germans southern areas. Most beautiful landscape, nice people, great culture...