Germany had a record 516,820 foreign students in the 2025-2026 winter semester, according to data the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) released in August.
The number rose by 24,733 from a year earlier, and foreign students made up 18% of all enrollment. Destatis counts all students without German citizenship as foreign, even those who completed secondary school in Germany.
Engineering was the most popular field, drawing nearly 218,000 foreign students, or 42% of the total.
Computer science was the single largest major, with 51,500 students.
Economics and business ranked second among fields, led by business administration with 36,200 students.
Top 10 majors among foreign students, 2025-2026 winter semester:
|
No. |
Major |
Foreign students |
|
1 |
Computer science |
51,500 |
|
2 |
Business administration |
36,200 |
|
3 |
Electrical/electronic engineering |
25,500 |
|
4 |
Mechanical engineering |
21,400 |
|
5 |
International business/management |
20,900 |
|
6 |
Economics/business studies |
16,900 |
|
7 |
Medicine (general medicine) |
14,600 |
|
8 |
Industrial engineering |
13,900 |
|
9 |
Business informatics |
13,800 |
|
10 |
Civil/structural engineering |
12,300 |
The Technical University of Munich (TUM), which has campuses in Munich, Straubing, Garching and Weihenstephan, enrolled 21,700 foreign students.
IU International University of Applied Sciences, based in Erfurt, ranked second with 16,600 and is the only private institution in the top 10.
Seven of the 10 universities currently charge no tuition.
One of them, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), will begin charging newly enrolled non-EU students €1,000-6,000 ($1,150-6,890) per semester from summer 2027, the Nuremberg News reported.
TUM already charges non-EU students €2,000-6,000 per semester depending on the program, according to the university.
IU charges all students tuition. FernUniversität in Hagen, a public distance-learning university, bills €11 per course credit plus a €60 base fee each semester.
|
An aerial view of RWTH Aachen University. Photo courtesy of RWTH Aachen University |
Top 10 universities by foreign enrollment, 2025-2026 winter semester:
|
No. |
University |
Foreign students |
Tuition (€ per semester) |
|
1 |
Technical University of Munich |
21,700 |
2,000-6,000 (non-EU only) |
|
2 |
IU International University of Applied Sciences |
16,600 |
3,000-6,000 |
|
3 |
RWTH Aachen University |
15,900 |
Free |
|
4 |
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
11,300 |
Free |
|
5 |
Technical University of Berlin |
10,400 |
Free |
|
6 |
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg |
9,900 |
Free (non-EU fees from 2027) |
|
7 |
Free University of Berlin |
8,700 |
Free |
|
8 |
University of Duisburg-Essen |
7,600 |
Free |
|
9 |
FernUniversität in Hagen |
7,500 |
11 per credit, plus 60 base fee |
|
10 |
Ruhr University Bochum |
6,700 |
Free |
Vietnamese students in Germany numbered about 7,500 in the 2025-2026 winter semester, ranking among the 20 largest groups.
More than 45% of them study engineering, followed by economics and business, then mathematics and natural sciences.
In the 2024-2025 winter semester, 5,857 Vietnamese students had earned their university entrance qualification abroad and another 1,415 had completed school in Germany, according to the German Academic Exchange Service.