University courses in Germany

30 replies

SabrinaThwaite · 20/08/2023 23:34

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.

OP posts:

Original poster

SabrinaThwaite · 25/08/2023 22:42

Thanks all - have passed everything on to DS and he’s away to do some research.

OP posts:

mushroom3 · 26/08/2023 01:06

I would suggest looking at Dutch universities rather than German. There are more degrees in English, fees are low and several are highly ranked.

ehupo7 · 26/08/2023 01:37

FarEast · 21/08/2023 07:10

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.

I think the way undergraduate courses are taught in Germany is more rigorous; they teach proper writing and argument structure for essays (I graduated in 2014 in the UK and it felt like in that whole time there was no systematic method presented and every essay was squeezed out through sheer panic).

I think the A level system is also not helpful for UK students – you’re really spoon-fed answers and that formulaic box-ticking style puts a distance between you and the actual subject matter. I think people forget that it’s real stuff you’re studying and not something created purely for the purposes of the curriculum.

A lot of foreign students in Germany go over ahead of time and do a language course before making a start on their degree, and then just get on with it. I literally studied German but there were a gazillion students I met who were studying electronic engineering, or forestry, or medicine, who had learnt degree-level German on the way.

ehupo7 · 26/08/2023 01:41

SabrinaThwaite · 21/08/2023 07:51

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.

Could be a great option – a joint honours course with a language could also open up the possibility of a masters abroad later on, which could work out about £10k cheaper than doing one in the UK.

grumpycow1 · 26/08/2023 01:55

Friend did German with IT at a London uni and got a really good grad job with a big company afterwards - 70k+ starting salary back in 2009! Feel free to message me for the name of the company

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