Top German Universities for International Students [2024 Rankings]

Germany is the best choice for international students, it has an excellent education at reasonable costs and is famous for research opportunities. The country has globally ranked universities that draw students from worldwide, especially for master’s studies.��

You can take a look at our list of the eight best universities for international students below, considering several metrics, for example the Global HE Ranking Systems Score, cost of living, diversity percentage, and many more.

Here are the top German universities for international students for 2024:

Technical University of Munich

Score: 33.04

A place that promotes creativity, and values the diversity of everyone, TUM is one of the world’s best universities. The university sets the highest standards in teaching and research.

In 2019, TUM won the title “University of Excellence” for the third time. With the funding, the university plans to carry out its institutional strategy: the TUM Agenda 2030. Transformation will also happen, 15 departments will be transformed into 7 schools, which will be interconnected via Integrative Research Institutes.

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Score: 31.41

LMU developed over time to be one of the best universities in Europe, founded in 1472. The university cooperates with 600 partners over five continents. The campuses are located throughout Munich, with 10,715 international students enrolled in the 2023/2024 winter semester.��

The amount of sponsored research funds totals up to 307 million euros, (including “University of Excellence”) received by LMU and its Hospital to support research and teaching in 2022.

Heidelberg University

Score: 29.74

Heidelberg University is Germany’s oldest university, founded in 1386. It offers degrees in humanities, law and the social sciences alongside the natural and life sciences, including medicine. International students (5,636) benefit from advisory services, for example tutorials or the Buddy program. They can also get help for accommodation, visas, and finances.

RWTH Aachen University

Score: 26.92

RWTH Aachen University is proud of its international campus, with 14,437 international students. Students can benefit from advisory services, for example, help with visa, finances, or accommodation. They can also take part in the Buddy program.

The Excellence Initiative of the German federal government gave a huge boost to the university, by donating €180 million of funding. RWTH is also part of the new Robotics Institute Germany.

University of Gottingen

Score: 26.30

The University of Gottingen was founded in 1737, in the Age of Enlightenment, and is committed to tolerance and justice. The University stands out thanks to the diversity of its subjects (especially in the humanities), and its facilities in the natural sciences.

Students choose from more than 200 degree programs at Gottingen. Research-oriented studies are just as important to the university as exchange opportunities with partner universities. For those who want more: Gottingen has a matching master’s program for every bachelor’s degree.

University of Hamburg

Score: 20.22

University of Hamburg manages top-level research, in collaboration with many other partner institutions in Hamburg and worldwide. This is reflected in 4 Clusters of Excellence in the fields of astrophysics, photon sciences, climate research, and written artifacts research.

University of Hamburg wants to meet the challenges of the present and the future, focusing on climate and infection research. It shares its results with politics and business, and most importantly, society.

Humboldt University of Berlin

Score: 20.01

Two hundred years ago, in 1810, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s vision of a new type of university became reality. Every year over 5,000 young people decide to study at Humboldt-Universität in the heart of Berlin. They choose from 185 degree courses – 21 of them international Master’s with lectures and seminars held in English.

Humboldt has academic partnerships with more than 400 Erasmus partners in Europe, over 150 university partners worldwide, with partners in two Erasmus Mundus programs and four Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Windows Programmes with over 1,500 mobile students.

Free University of Berlin

Score: 13.31

Freie Universität Berlin had a successful performance three times in the German government’s Excellence competition for universities. After this success, the German Excellence Strategy, the university will receive long-term funding in 2019 as part of the Berlin University Alliance.

As a full university with 12 departments and 3 central institutes, the Free University has more than 150 courses in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Degrees for every academic qualification level, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, to state examinations and doctorates are available.

Tayyab Naseer: TUM is in Munich, which is ‘the’ international city of Germany for students as it hosts two big universities, LMU and TUM. The environment for an international student is quite friendly. It holds a number of working opportunities for students during their study for which you do not require high German language skills (always advantageous to be good at it, though). These opportunities are mostly found at the companies and the research centres of the university. []

Jana Stalevska: I started looking into foreign Masters courses in my third year of Bachelor’s and chose universities. In the end, RWTH Aachen was the only university I applied to, so I looked at the requirements and started preparing. []

Prince Fabio Krishna Ames: I loved studying at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Berlin is probably one of the best cities for being a student, and Humboldt, being in the center of Berlin, makes it easy to enjoy the city. As I believe is true of all universities in Berlin, your student ID also functions as your BVG pass (transport pass), as well as a way to get cheap seats to the opera and other arts performances. []

Methodology Behind Our Rankings of Top German Universities for International Students

To compile our list of leading German universities for international students, our team of dedicated education analysts applied a comprehensive methodology:

Global HE Ranking Systems Score: We checked universities’ positions in global ranking systems, such as , , and .��
Cost of Living: It’s important to understand the financial part of studying abroad, so we analyzed the cost of living in university cities using data from .��
Diversity Percentage: We showed the diversity of the student population at each university based on official data from university websites.��
Financial Aid for International Students: Our analysis included a review of financial aid options available for international students, as stated on official university websites.
Career Services: We examined the career support services that were offered by universities, considering seven key offerings: Personal Counseling, Job Search/Job Portal, CV Guidance, Application Counseling, Mentoring Programs, Events & Career Fairs, and Additional Career Services and Resources.
Employability Score: Incorporating data from , this score measures how universities prepare students for the job market.
Safety Index: Recognizing the importance of a safe living and studying environment, we took city safety ratings sourced from .
English-Taught Study Options: We analyzed how many study programs are offered in English.

For more information or inquiries, please contact us at [email protected].

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