Admission Requirements for International Bachelor and Staatsexamen Applicants
There are various requirements for admission to Bachelor and Staatsexamen studies. They are described below:
1. University Entrance Qualification Certificate
In order to be able to apply for a Bachelor's degree program or for a state examination program, you first need the authorization to attend university. This is also known as a university entrance qualification certificate or HZB (in German) for short. As a rule, you acquire the HZB by successfully completing secondary education or, in other words, by graduating from a secondary school.
Since the level of education in secondary school varies greatly from country to country, it may be that your school-leaving certificate does not yet entitle you to attend a German university. In this case, you have two options: Either you first study several semesters in your home country or you attend a preparatory college in Germany.
You can find out whether your degree entitles you to study and what requirements may have to be met on the ANABIN website. If you need more information about the preparatory colleges in Germany, please see Studienkollegs.
The overall average grade of your HZB must be at least equivalent to the German grade 2.5. If your average grade is worse than 2.5, admission to the degree program (degree programs with open admission) or participation in the allocation procedure (degree programs with restricted admission) is not possible. (EXCEPTION: Proof of TestAS - see yellow box "TestAS for Internationals")
For selected countries or HZB, we have compiled information on the admission requirements for you, which you can read below under Frequently Asked Questions.
TestAS for International Applicants
When applying for undergraduate studies, international applicants who do not have the same status as German citizens must provide proof of a university entrance qualification with an average grade of 2.5 or better when it is converted into the German grading system.
Please note: If the average grade of your university entrance qualification is worse than 2.5, you can make up for this by providing proof of the TestAS. When applying for Medicine (model study program) and Dentistry, proof of the TestAS is always mandatory.
In order to apply for a Bachelor or Staatsexamen program, you will first need a university entrance qualification certificate. This is sometimes abbreviated as HZB. You typically acquire the HZB by successfully completing secondary school or high school.
Since the level of education in secondary schools varies from country to country, it is possible that your secondary school certificate does not allow you to be admitted for studies at a German university. In this case, you have two possibilities: You can either first study for a few semesters in your home country or attend a preparatory college, that is a Studienkolleg, in Germany.
You can refer to the ANABIN website to see if your secondary school certificate allows you to begin studies and what requirements you may need to fulfill. If you would like more information about the preparatory colleges in Germany, please refer to the site Studienkolleg.
2. Proof of Language Skills
RWTH currently only offers Bachelor and Staatsexamen courses of study in German. You must therefore provide proof of German language skills at C1 level when you enroll. For some bachelor's degree programs, proof of English language skills at the B2 level is also required (for example, computer science). You can find more information at our web page about Language Skills.
3. Complete Application On Time
An extremely important requirement for a successful application is that all your documents are complete and submitted on time. You can upload all your application documents on your online application on RWTHonline. You can find out the required documents for your application, as well as the current application deadlines on our Application pages.