Located in the heart of Europe, Germany is one of the world’s largest and most influential economies as well as having a world-leading domestic education system. Germany plays an influential role both as a source market of international students and as a host market for international students from other countries. According to estimates from UNESCO, just under 124,000 German students travelled abroad to study at the higher education level in 2020, making it the world’s fourth largest outbound international student market after China, India and Vietnam. The most popular international study destinations for German students include Austria, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland and the US.
While Germany has historically been a major source of international HE students in the UK, data from HESA shows that the number of students from Germany had fallen for four consecutive years by the 2021/22 academic year, with both Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic weighing on student sentiment. More recent data from UCAS shows that the number of undergraduate students applying to study in the UK has continued to fall, albeit at a slower rate, in line with broader trends across the EU; these trends are believed to be driven largely by post-Brexit changes to the UK's visa regulations, tuition fees and student funding environment for EU students. Nevertheless, Germany continues to be among the UK’s largest sources of international students.
In the 2021/22 academic year there were 12,565 students studying for UK HE qualifications in Germany via transnational education and distance learning courses, with a broadly even balance between undergraduate and postgraduate provision. This makes Germany the UK’s second largest TNE and distance learning market in Europe, behind only Greece and well ahead of other countries in the region. UK TNE in the country has roughly doubled over the last five years, with one example of this growth being the opening of the University of Lancaster's Leipzig campus, the first public UK university to establish a branch campus in Germany. However, while the UK has made significant inroads into the TNE and distance learning market in Germany over recent years, varying regulations between states make it a difficult market to navigate for UK HEIs.
There are a large number of partnerships between HEIs in the UK and Germany, including both bilateral and multilateral partnerships. In the research field, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is a strong partner of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2023 as well as reaffirming that they would continue to tackle global challenges together in the future. The UK’s recent re-entry to the multilateral Horizon Europe research partnership will also open further opportunities for cooperation between UK and German institutions.
This 24-page report gives an overview of Germany's education system and the wider demographic, economic and political context, with a focus on international education trends in the country - including both student mobility and transnational education. It aims to provide useful information to UK education institutions and other UK stakeholders considering partnerships with counterparts in Germany and to support further cooperation and engagement between the two countries.