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Organization
German higher education institutions are for the most part public.
The university (Universität, "Uni" abreviated)
is the busiest higher education institution, where the departments
teach classic university degrees (law, business, social sciences,
mathematics, philosophy, etc) and there are separate departments
that teach degrees such as economics, history, etc. Future scientists
and engineers also attend university but their departments have
different names: Technische Universität (TU) or Technische
Hochschule (TU). For degrees in the arts, the higher education
is taught in academies such as the fine arts and music.
One can also find a similar system, that was developed in the
1970s, called Fachhochschulen. These institutions teach
disciplines that are more specialized and are combined with internships
and hands-on experience. Today 1 / 3 of German students attend
these schools of which 22,000 are foreigners.
The Medizinische or Tiermedizinesche Hochschulen (MH
ou TH) teaches future doctors and veterinarians. Degrees such
as natural science, computer science, graphics, ... are also taught
under the Hochschule institutes. Business studies are taught
in public universities as well as in private higher education
institutions. All of them award the much sought after Diplom-Kaufmann.
There are some Hochschulen schools that are private and
there are some other higher education insitutes that are either
protestant or catholic.
There are about 300 higher education institutes in Germany.
Universities are autonomous according to a charter which they
sign with the Land where they are located, and are financed by
these federal states. Due to this, there are some differences
in the teaching system from one insitution to another. Germany
is a federal country and each state (Land or Lander if plural)
have certain particularities. Therefore a university in Bavaria
can be different to one in Saxe.
University Calendar:
There is no official university calendar. Courses are generally
taught in semesters: winter semester could start from mid-October
to mid-February, and summer semester could start from mid-April
to mid-July. It is normal to have a long period of time
without any courses.
Teaching language (Language of Courses):
Courses are taught in German, however courses taught in English
are becoming more common.
Information reviewed by the DAAD
(German Academic exchange Service)
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