Number of university students without ‘Abitur’ reaches record high

According to a survey by the CHE Centre for Higher Education 57,000 students currently on courses at German universities and colleges do not have a higher education entrance qualification or A-level equivalent. This number has doubled since 2010 and has now reached a record high in Germany.
For almost ten years it has been possible to enter a university or technical college through the ‘tertiary education path’, which requires students to have a professional or master craftsman qualification. An increasing number of people are taking advantage of this opportunity. The proportion of such students starting courses has now reached 2.6 per cent. Hamburg has the highest proportion of students, with 4.6 per cent and Saarland the fewest with only 0.8 per cent.
Over half the students starting tertiary education through this route are between 20 and 30 years old and approximately a third are between 30 and 40 years old. The distribution between the sexes is relatively equal, with a slightly higher percentage of men (55%) than women (45%), although older women are more likely to take up courses than their male counterparts.
Around 60 per cent of students chose technical colleges over universities. Popular courses include those related to law, economics and social studies (55%) in addition to engineering courses (20%).
Studying subjects such as medicine, where admissions are tightly restricted, is also possible through non-traditional education routes. In 2016, 146 people without A-level equivalent qualifications in relevant subjects were able to take up such courses. Of 107,000 medical students around 700 currently fall into this category.

Editorial staff (alb, at)

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Image source: picture from Wokandapix / CC0
Information source: che.de 05.04.18