A semester abroad can be more than a career boost

"Germany is among the winners of the competition for the world's best brains," said education minister Edelgard Bulmahn in summer, presenting a new study commissioned by the Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW), an umbrella organization of Germany's public student services.

The survey confirms that studying in Germany is becoming an increasingly attractive option for students around the globe. About 12 percent of the roughly two million students enrolled in 2004 were foreigners. Almost 9 percent of all students had come from abroad to complete their entire university career in Germany. The others are exchange and short-term foreign students. Not only the absolute number of foreign students at German universities is on the rise, but the percentage of all students has also more than doubled in the past 15 years.

"It shows that the efforts to make Germany more attractive for foreign students have paid of," said Christian Tauch, head of foreign affairs of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK), Germany's association of state and state-recognized universities and other institutions of higher education. Germany is now among the top three host countries for foreign students, along with the United States and Great Britain. About 60 percent of foreigners studying in Germany come from other European countries, about one fourth come from Asia, about 10 percent from Africa and only 5 percent from the American continent.

"The fact that there are little or no tuition fees in Germany is obviously a great advantage for students from poorer countries who could not afford to go to Great Britain or the United States," explains Tauch. "But that's certainly not the only reason. German education and research opportunities enjoy a good reputation abroad." According to Tauch, the introduction of bachelor and master courses which are partly taught in English has also attracted many foreign students: "The DSW study clearly shows that the rise in foreign students is much higher in bachelor and master degree courses."

If you do prefer a degree from your home country but are keen on some international experience, you might consider an exchange semester or an exchange year in Germany. Tauch points out that apart from getting a different perspective on your subject and learning a foreign language, spending some time at a university abroad broadens your personal horizon and helps you develop your personality. Nowadays, the credits you earned in Germany will be recognized by your home university.

With 140,000 students, four universities, seven universities of applied sciences and three arts colleges, Berlin is also Germany's higher education capital. 29 Nobel Prize winners - including Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, Emil Fischer, Max Planck and Fritz Haber - conducted research at Humboldt-Universität alone. The fact that top research is the order of the day at Humboldt-Universität is also confirmed by excellent ratings in more recent league tables - especially in the fields of mathematics, German studies, and chemistry. Founded in 1810 on Unter den Linden, the university is also regarded as the "mother of all modern universities". It was the first to put into practice the ideal of the unity of research and teaching called for by the person who gave the university its name: Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). The Charité, Europe's largest university hospital, is also world-famous. A total of 8,000 students are registered on courses in 11 medical disciplines at the Charité, which is run jointly by the Humboldt-Universität and the Freie Universität. Many famous physicians - for example, Rudolf Virchow and Ferdinand Sauerbruch - worked in Berlin and founded a medical school of world renown. With more than 40,000 students, the largest university in the German capital is the Freie Universität, an institution with an unusual history. Concerned students and professors founded the Freie Universität in the western sector of Berlin on December 4, 1948 with support from local politicians and American occupation forces after students had been denied the right to attend Universität Unter den Linden in East Berlin for political reasons. Today, with courses in some 100 subjects, the university is one of the most diverse higher education institutions in Germany. In addition to more traditional disciplines such as languages, law and natural sciences, it also offers more specialized subjects such as theatre studies and Jewish studies. The internationally renowned Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science is equally popular with students and researchers. Very specialized courses, on the other hand, are offered by Berlin's smaller higher education institutions, such as the private Europäische Wirtschaftshochschule (European School of Management) and the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts). The latter's four departments - architecture, media and design; fine arts; music; and performing arts - attract creative geniuses from all over the world. Would you like to create new designs with London fashion legend Vivienne Westwood? Berlin's Universität der Künste offers that possibility.

FACTS
Students: 140,000
Foreign students: 19,408
Universities: 4
Universities of applied science: 7
Arts colleges: 3
Population: 3.4 million

Type Of University