Student numbers continue to rise

A record number of students have enrolled at German universities for 2014-15, but the number enrolling for the first time has fallen slightly.

Overall enrolments for the winter semester in 2014-15 were estimated to be 2.7 million by Destatis, Germany’s federal statistics office, on 26 November. This is an increase of 81,500, or 3.1 per cent, from the winter semester in 2013-14. In the past 10 years, the number has increased by more than a third.

However, the estimated number of first-year students enrolling for the first time at universities in 2014-15 is 1.9 per cent lower than in 2013-14. The education ministry said that this was expected, as numbers were high in 2013-14 because of a double cohort of students. The double cohort was a result of Abitur (baccalaureate equivalent) education being cut from 13 to 12 years.