Learn German and study in Germany!                     

Germany – your path to excellence and a tuition free study
 

TALK: Studying in Germany, Sunday, 22 March 2015, afternoon
by Dr. Guido Schnieders, Director of DAAD (German Academic Exchange Office)
 

The interest of Malaysians is focusing more and more on Germany, which is famous for having one of the strongest economies in the world. Products "Made in Germany", like cars, chemicals, engineering products, environmental technology, are valued for their high quality, making Germany one of the world's leading export countries. What is the key to Germany's economic success? It is the educational system that plays a crucial role. Germany's wealth relies entirely on the innovative potential and the dynamic of its companies, so it is hardly surprising that Germany attaches great significance to education and learning as well as to research and development.

There are about 400 institutions of higher education in Germany, offering about 16.000 degree programmes in which a total number of 2.12 million students are enrolled. Since 2010, courses at German universities have mostly been adapted to the internationally recognised Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. 265.000 students (approximately 12.5%) in degree programmes at German universities are international, making Germany the fourth most preferred host country for international students, following the United States, Great Britain and Australia. The number of Malaysian students in Germany quadrupled in the last 10 years. Currently, almost 900 young Malaysians study in degree courses in German universities. The majority of them take advantage of cutting-edge science and engineering courses.

A distinctive feature of many German universities is their very close cooperation with the industry and one of the peculiar characteristics of the German higher education system is the fact that it is mostly state-financed. As opposed to many other countries, Germans strongly believe that education is not a business. As a consequence, German universities generally do not charge tuition fees.

Malaysians have a historically grown tendency to focus on the Anglo-Saxon countries when it comes to studying abroad. This perspective might in some cases be too narrow. Germany could be an alternative and is certainly worth to be looked at. By the way: Graduates from a German university have easy access to the German employment market.

One of the prerequisites for studying in Germany is the German language. Though there are quite a few English taught programmes to choose from, it is essential to know the language and speaking German on a high level will give an applicant a much wider range of choice.

For details on study and research in Germany, refer also to http://ic.daad.de/kualalumpur

Photos courtesy and © DAAD