Every Year more and more International Students want to study in Germany

Every Year more and more International Students want to study in Germany

How high the proportion of international students in Germany is, as well as further information will be discussed in the following article.

The proportion of international students in Germany is increasing year by year. This is also confirmed by the latest statistics from “Wissenschaft weltoffen”. How high the proportion of international students in Germany is, as well as further information will be discussed in the following article.

Foreign students

Before we go into more detail about the students, the term “foreign student” should first be defined. Every student in Germany with foreign citizenship is counted as a foreign student. Here is a distinction made, between Bildungsinländer and Bildungsausländer.

  • Bildungsinländer: students living in Germany with a foreign nationality.
  • Bildungsausländer: students coming from abroad with a foreign nationality.

The number of foreign students has risen steadily over the past 10 years. In 2018, 374,583 international students enrolled in Germany. Compared to 2009, this is just over 50 percent more today. Compared to the previous year, it is just over four percent more. In Germany, the mobility target was for a total of 350,000 international students to study by 2020. This target has already been exceeded by seven percent.

The following table provides a better understanding of the information. The international students were divided into Bildungsinländer and Bildungsausländer.

Year
9/10
10/11
11/12
12/13
13/14
14/15
15/16
16/17
17/18
Bildungsinländer
63.526
67.072
72.439
77.557
82.502
85.711
88.763
93.411
92.581
Bildungsausländer
181.249
184.960
192.853
204.644
218.848
235.858
251.542
265.484
282.002
Total
244.775
252.032
265.292
282.201
301.350
321.569
340.305
358.895
374.583

As can be seen, the number of foreign students has risen steadily in recent years. The number of Bildungsinländer has declined compared to last year. This means that the proportion of Bildungsausländer in the individual universities has risen. While the proportion of Bildungsinländer is just over three percent, the proportion of Bildungsausländer rose from 9.5 percent to 9.9 percent.

The most popular federal states for international students are Berlin with 17%, Sachsen with 14% and Brandenburg with 13%.

Where do most international students come from?

Germany is becoming increasingly popular with international students. As already seen in the first part of the article, the number of students is growing year by year. But from which countries do the students come?

If we summarize the data from “Wissenschaft weltoffen”, it can be clearly seen that most international students come from the Asian region. Western Europe takes second place followed by Africa. The following diagramm illustrates the data for a better understanding.

Which courses of study are popular with international students?

Germany is offering more and more courses in English. This section describes the most popular courses for international students.

The popular courses can be divided into three groups. The most important course is Engineering, the other group is Law, Economics and Social Sciences. A smaller group includes courses such as humanities and mathematics and natural sciences. If we compare these figures with those of German students, it can be seen that engineering is more popular among international students. More detailed information can be found in the diagrams.

University or University of Applied Sciences

The last section describes the difference between a university and university of applied sciences. This part shows what is more popular for the international students.

The universities are more popular. In 2018, 207,528 international students were enrolled at a university and 74,474 at a university of applied sciences. However, both have shown a positive development in recent years. The most students at a university of applied sciences spend their temporary stay in engineering (52,1%), law, economics and social sciences ranks second (35,9%). The figures are different at a university, where international students study engineering (33%) most, followed by law, economics and social sciences (22%) and humanities (16%). The difference between university and university of apllied sciences may be due to the following reasons:

  • University Ranking
  • Near to family or living with family
  • Place of work