Number of international students in Germany rose in 2020, but researcher exchange declined
Germany remained the fourth most popular destination for international students in 2020, a study has shown.
Last year, despite the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of enrolled international students in Germany rose by 5,000—or 2 per cent—to 325,000. This meant Germany was behind only the United States, Australia and the UK.
However, the Wissenschaft Weltoffen (Globally Open Science) data—compiled by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies—show that the number of first-year international students in Germany fell by a fifth to 64,000. For the coming winter semester, the DAAD expects the numbers to stabilise, it said in a statement.
The high total number of international students for 2020 could be explained by the continuous increase of first-year student numbers throughout recent years, as well as the fact that some international students extended their studies due to the pandemic, the survey’s authors suggest.
Most international students in 2020 came from China (41,000), India (25,000), Syria (15,000), Austria (12,000) and Russia (10,500). More than 70 per cent of these students were enrolled at a traditional university, while 29 per cent chose a university of applied sciences.
“The current figures show that international students have placed their trust in Germany as a place to study, even during the coronavirus pandemic,” said DAAD president Joybrato Mukherjee. “This is also due to the fact that the universities have extensively promoted digitisation in the past year.”
Germany’s universities greatly expanded their digital offerings in 2020, the study shows. The proportion of international first-year students who started their studies purely digitally from their home country rose from 12 to 21 per cent.
The number of German students going abroad, however, stagnated at around 135,000 in 2018—the latest year for which data was available—which is the same as in 2015, the DAAD said.
Academic exchange
The data also show that the international exchange of academics and researchers was affected negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly three-quarters of organisations surveyed said they had seen a decrease in the number of German scientists going abroad. Around half of such organisations also reported a decline in the number of international scientists coming to Germany for research and exchange purposes.
Overall, the study estimates that 30 per cent fewer researchers came to Germany in 2020 than would have been expected without the pandemic.
The mobility of academics was included for the first time in the Wissenschaft Weltoffen report for 2021, using bibliometric data as a basis. The analysis shows that Germany was the third most important country of origin for researchers working outside their home country, and the fourth most important destination.
Most international scientists in Germany come from the US, the UK, China and Switzerland. In 2019, around 52,000 academic staff at German universities—12.7 per cent—had non-German citizenship, including around 3,500 professors (7.7 per cent), the study says.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe