University courses in Germany

[SabrinaThwaite]

DS is thinking he might like to study for a first degree in Germany rather than the UK. Good A level results this year (taking a gap year) and studied German to GCSE (so at least has some basics).

Does anyone have any advice or pointers where to go to find out more information?

It would be something around computer science and he has EU citizenship.

I think nearly all undergraduate programmes in Computer Science in Germany are taught through German.

The first year of the BA in Computational Linguistics in Tubingen is taught through English. Subsequent years are a combination of German and English.

Eunicas is a website that lists all uni courses taught through english in Europe. He could have a look there for options and requirements.

Great - thank you both. Will get DS to have a look at Eunicas to see if anything looks promising.

If he wants to study in English but live in the EU he could look at the Netherlands

I don't think his German would be good enough. A good German university (eg TUM) will teach at UG levels in German (high level research is different as the teams are multi-national). And there is little help offered to students, and very little of the support that UK UGs (and their parents) expect: no halls of residence in the UK sense, very few student union activities (the student Mensas are basically just cafeterias) and huge class sizes - a typical "seminar" will be taught by a postgrad PhD student of the Professor, and will have 50 students in it.

I've seen the system close up (German family) and while it appears to be cheap in comparison to the UK, you get what you pay for.

That is not to say that Geran scholarship and research is not excellent. And the undergrad degrees are also of excellent quality. But, you sink or swim. And it can take at least half as long again as a UK degree. A lot of UK students would just not cope.

That said, I do find the German system bracing; I wish some of my undergrads had half the resilience of the German students I know well, and the many more I've taught here in the UK on Erasmus programmes. My main experience of those students was that their written English was often better than the bottom half of my native speaker English students. I wish we had a bit more of the sink or swim attitude.

Look at Bremen. Nephew teaches there in English about gaming. He is not then only Emglish course though many are in German.

When dd was looking there was a standard of German required well beyond gcse or even A level. Try looking at the Goethe institute courses.

Has he looked at CODE University of applied science in Berlin?

Thanks all - lots to look at. Would definitely need to be a course taught in English (which we knew).

Maybe a UK course with a year abroad might be a better way to go.

I looked into this as an undergrad (maybe 15 years ago when I was thinking of dropping out of a German degree in the UK) and there's a specific level of German required for degree courses.

I forget the name of the qualification but from memory most universities offered this as a foundation course and you could then go on to study a normal degree in German.

That might be something to look into, especially if he is likely to stay longer term which is quite probable given that German degrees don't have the same rigid structure as ours and typically take longer with students working alongside their studies.

Maybe a UK course with a year abroad might be a better way to go.

Absolutely. He'll need to keep up his German, though.

German student in the UK here. As others have pointed out university in Germany is much less handheld than in the UK. You’re responsible for sorting out what courses you take what and when you sit your exams housing straight from the start etc. Imo people who come out of German uni courses tend to be much more mature as a result of this but it’s a big step compared to school. The education tends to be excellent no matter where you go, it matters though that you put in the work and get good grades since that’s what employers care about as opposed to Uni names. Yes top unis like TUM will have more distinguished professors and cool extracurriculars but you wouldn’t be massively harmed by going to any other uni and doing well there. Currently doing my masters at Oxford and lots of German students here from unis all across Germany here.

My ds is about to go to study in Germany as part of his MFL degree, has two years university level German and still has to take both a short German language course and sit exams at his German uni when he arrives to prove his German is good enough to study there. As others have said, GCSE German won't be anything like enough.

Levels explained here www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/spr/kon/stu.html iirc B2 was recommended level.

@mimbleandlittlemy I quite agree that GCSE wouldn’t get you anywhere unless courses were taught in English.

I remember reading this article about US students studying in Germany, so was wondering how practicable it would be.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32821678.amp

SabrinaThwaite - great name by the way - that's an interesting article, though quite old so I wonder if it's still the case for the US as so many US unis seem to have very generous contributions for students, unlike here.

For DS, with a UK passport, there are two things which are making life mildly interesting, though these would not, I think, apply to your boy with an EU passport: the cost of the health insurance and the €11208 that has to be put into a German blocked bank account (thanks, Brexit). The health insurance has definitely gone up since that article.

He is living in halls though, or German equivalent thereof, and they are far cheaper than his UK uni, and his allocated tutor at his German uni is incredibly helpful, which is just as well as the UK unis seem to wash their hands of the students going abroad for a year if the experience of DS and other kids I know are anything to go by.

Thanks mimble, that’s really helpful.

It’s just thinking about what he might like to do at the moment, and what kind of options might or might not be viable. He may just reapply to the courses he looked at previously in the UK but with grades in hand.

Hope your DS enjoys his year abroad and that it all goes well.

Remember that he is very unlikely to get a UK student loan, so you'll have to look into how he / you will finance any fees and all living and travel costs.

Most universities do offer a intensive language course for foreign students.

I was looking at these for a friend... pricey but looking well structured for undergraduate studies.

Maybe another year of working, language course and then studying?

https://www.sli.uni-freiburg.de/deutsch/intensiv/sommer-winter/september23

How about looking at the Computer Science BSc at TU Delft in the Netherlands? It's taught in English - and having EU citizenship would make it attractive from the cost perspective. There's an entrance exam involved though.

If he's resident in the UK then better to do UK based degree with a year abroad. He'll have to do German on the side but many unis allow this even if students don't have A-Level

Rocking up in Germany without at least A-Level will be v difficult indeed even if courses are taught in English. Most if not all G unis require a minimum standard of German qualification regardless of the course studied which tends to be just about Yr 13 A-a level standard.

Try the online and in person courses from the Goethe Institut - someone has already posted the link above to them. They can also advise on language requirements for studying in G.

Thanks all - Delft TU could be a good shout.

If he has good results and would like the opportunity to spend part of his course in Europe, I see that Imperial offers opportunities for a year abroad in several of its subjects.

For computing, they have a funded option in Zurich, which would be fun!

Swiss German, of course, but what an opportunity!

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/placements/student-exchanges/undergraduate-year-abroad/

B2 is A Level equivalent- not sure about German Unis but to go to a Grande Ecole in France you require C1
like a PP said many Dutch unis teach in English and lots of super Unis

Haven't got any advice, but DD did a year abroad as party of uni experience. She was at a fairly high ranked uni here, but she said the quality of teaching and support in Germany was fair superior (and she went to a uni that was far lower ranking there). The year pulled in students from all over and they had to have a reference stating they spoke fluent English!

She's graduated now (well graduated but no classified degree due to marking boycott) and if she can't succeed in getting the job she wants here, she's interested in a masters course (at a different uni in Germany to one she went to) and course is taught in English. What I'm saying, there are courses taught in English, might just need some research as to where they are.