Information for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

In order to attest your higher education entrance qualification, your certificates from your country of origin have to be recognized. In most cases you need to apply for a preliminary review documentation (so-called “Vorprüfungsdokumentation” = VPD) at uni-assist. You need to pay a service fee of 75 €. There is no free application process for refugees anymore since January 2020.

Decisive for the further steps is the evaluation in the VPD.

Ukrainian study applicants usually need proof of 11 years of school education and a successful academic year for direct access to higher education. Without proof of studies a Studienkolleg usually must be attended first. The Studienkolleg Coburg is responsible for the universities of applied sciences in Bavaria.

Syrian school leaving certificates with an average better than 70 % should allow an easy access to studies in Germany.

German language skills at DSH level are required for most study degree programmes offered at the OTH Regensburg, as the teaching language is German. Exceptions are the three degree programmes that are entirely taught in English: B.Sc. International Comuputer Science (ICS), M.A. European Business Studies(MEB) and M.Eng. Electrical and Microsystems Engineering (MEM).

If you already have German language skills at a good B1 level, you may be interested in a preparatory German language course (“studienvorbereitender Deutschkurs”). For the assessment of your German skills you can take an onSET at the ZSK of the University of Regensburg.

Under www.Hochschulkompass.de, you can search specifically for English-taught study degree programmes at German universities.

Further information for refugees about study programmes at German universities can be found on the web page of the DAAD.

During Study Preparation (Preparatory German language course)

According to current information, living costs during the German courses may be financed by the Jobcenter (valid for the jobcenters in the Regensburg Region). Each case needs to be handled individually.

The Garantiefonds-Hochschule of the Otto-Benecke-Stiftung offers financial aids during the study preparation.

During the Study Degree programme (Bachelor’s / Master’s)

Refugees have the same possibilties to apply for financial support as all the other international students.

in addition refugees can apply for a so-called "Bildungskredit" (educational loan - the website is only available in German). According to your type of degree programme (Bachelor or Master) you need to meet certain requirements, e.g. proof of a certain amount of credits acquired during the first two semesters. 

There are only a few grants and scholarship programmes who explicitly address to refugees. The Federal Ministry of Education and research offers a data base where you can look for them.

Some examples of these programmes are:

• Flüchtlingsstipendien von Brot für die Welt (only avalaible in German)
• Solidaritätsfonds der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (only avalaible in German)
• Stipendienprogramm Welcome der Deutschen Universtitätsstiftung (only avalaible in German)
• Hilde Domin Programme

For information about grants and scholarships in general please contact the Career Service under careerservices(at)oth-regensburg.de.

There is an app called Integreat which summarizes all important information for refugees and asylum seekers in Regensburg. It is available in German, English, Ukrainian, Arabic, Spanish and Russian. It can be downloaded in Google Play Store for free and is compatible with IOS and Android.

Advice and help for refugees in Regensburg is also available via CampusAsyl. There you can also find the "Hochschulgruppe" where students with and without a refugee background can meet each other.