The question “And what does this cost?” is one of the first questions one is asking or is being asked by parents when their children want to study abroad. Not only a whole degree abroad but also a single term can include costs that wouldn’t be there in the home country.
The first point of the costing as imaginable would be tuition fees. In Germany however, there are no tuition fees charged for undergraduate students in all the public universities within the country as of October 2014. Most German universities are financed by the state and government so just a small amount of their money used to come from tuition fees, until now. In the last couple of years students were required to pay tuition fees in some German provinces and the fees would vary depending on the location.
From October and on, every federation is required to abolish tuition fees and offer free higher education to native and international students alike. The federal states of Bayern, Hamburg, Niedersachsen and Nordrhein-Westfalen that were charging tuition fees up to this event are now free of charge just as any other University in the country. These previously obligatory fees account for about 500 Euros per semester, now saved, which will allegedly help German students with the living costs in the future. However, postgraduate degrees don’t fall under the same decision therefore tuitions will continue to be charged for Masters and PhD degrees as in the past.
Those who want to study at a private university have to calculate with much higher tuition fees. The private universities are financed only from tuition fees and therefore these are much higher. It is possible, that students have to pay up to 20.000 Euros per year.
Since the abolishment of tuition fees in all of Germany in October 2014, there is only a symbolic fee called the semester contribution left to be paid. It is mandatory for every student and covers administration costs and the finance of cafeterias, sports areas and residential homes. Furthermore, it includes the money for a semester bus ticket. At most universities it is possible to use the students-card as a ticket for bus and train in the area. This fee can differ from university to university and costs about 150 to 250 Euros.