Despite the new record number of students, admission restrictions at German universities have once again fallen slightly, by one percentage point. This was revealed by the latest statistics from the German Rectors' Conference (HRK).
For the current 2017/2018 winter semester, admission restrictions applied to 44.2 per cent of the more than 10,000 undergraduate courses on offer. This figure is down from the previous year's 45.2 per cent. The result means that the universities have managed to continue the trend of recent years.
Hamburg once again had the highest percentage of admission restrictions, at 73 per cent, although this figure had actually fallen compared with the previous winter semester (75.2 per cent). Saarland was in second place, at 64.7, which in fact signified an increase of 2.7 per cent. Thuringia has the most favourable ratio by far, at 13.6 per cent (compared to 11.4 per cent).
The proportion of course options leading to a bachelor's or master's qualification stabilised at over 91 per cent. The remainder mainly fall into the categories of state or church qualifications.
The proportion of graduates who are awarded a bachelor’s or master's degree is continually increasing. According to the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office, the figure for the 2016 academic year was 80.9 per cent.
The HRK publication “Statistical Data on Study Opportunities at Universities in Germany – Winter Semester 2017/2018” (available only in German) contains comprehensive data on many aspects of studying in Germany. It was based on information entered by universities in the HRK database www.hochschulkompass.de/en about their degree programmes as at 1 September, and also additional statistical material.
The publication is available online at www.hrk.de. The print version was published as part of the HRK series "Statistiken zur Hochschulpolitik" (Statistics on Higher Education Policy), and can be ordered free of charge from: publikationenhrk.de.
