Bachelor application procedure for non-EU applicants

You have to apply online via uni-assist if:

• your school leaving certificate or higher education entrance qualification has not been acquired at a German school or
• not at a school with German Abitur accreditation (examples of school leaving certificates are Abitur, Matura, A-Level, High School Diploma, Baccalauréat and others) or if
• you have the certificate of the Feststellungsprüfung (assessment test, university entrance examination). This certificate is not a German higher education entrance qualification. It is only valid in connection with the school leaving certificate/qualification for university study from your home country.

Please enquire in good time whether there are any study requirements  to be fulfilled for the study program you are interested in (test of aptitude, pre-university work placement, German skills etc.). The study requirements and also the German language certificate have to be available at the time of enrollment (acceptance of the study place), not already at the time of application.

• if you want to apply for a Master's study program 
• if you want to apply for a higher semester in a Bachelor's or Master's study program(Opens in a new tab) ; application for a Bachelor's program online at https://portal.fh-dortmund.de(Opens in a new tab) , application for a Master's program in paper form. The application deadlines are identical: February 15 - March 15 for the summer semester and August 15 - September 15 for the winter semester. Please note that in order to be placed in the second or an even higher semester, sufficient study achievements must be available,
• if you earned your higher education entrance qualification at a German school or a school with German Abitur accreditation,
• if you are from a Member State of the European Union or from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway*,
• if you are from a Member State outside the European Union but your school leaving certificate is from a state within the European Union or from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway*,
• if you live in Germany and you are not from a Member State of the European Union or from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway but one of your parents or your spouse is a member from these states and lives and works in Germany*,
• if you are already a student of Fachhochschule Dortmund and you want to change your Bachelor's program
• if you already applied for a study program at Fachhochschule Dortmund via uni-assist in the previous 4 years and uni-assist forwarded your application to Fachhochschule Dortmund
• if your school leaving certificate does not entitle you to study directly at a German university. In this case, if you want to study in North Rhine-Westphalia, please apply to the
  Ökumenische Studienkolleg Bochum (www.studienkolleg-bochum.de(Opens in a new tab) , preparatory course for engineering and science) or to the
  luso-brasilian Studienkolleg Mettingen (www.studienkolleg-mettingen.de(Opens in a new tab) , preparatory courses for humanities, medicine and biological sciences, engineering and sciences, economics and business studies)

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* Please note: application online via Fachhochschule Dortmund. 

For summer semester from the beginning of November to January 15 and for winter semester from the beginning of April by June 15. Your online application must be received completely by uni-assist by one of the aforementioned dates (depending on the semester); exception: after January 15 or June 15 exhibited assessment test certificates (Feststellungsprüfungszeugnisse) issued by a Studienkolleg. An application by the end of the deadline is necessary but the certificate (Feststellungsprüfungszeugnis) can be submitted later by e-mail to the International Office of Fachhochschule Dortmund - bewerbung-intofficefh-dortmundde  and, if possible, also upload it to uni-assist afterwards.

We strongly recommend that you apply to uni-assist as early as possible. Only then there will be time to clarify any queries or to upload further documents. Otherwise, you may not be informed by uni-assist about missing documents by January 15/June 15; unfortunately, your application can then no longer be considered due to incomplete documents.

Applicants for the Bachelor's degree programs of the Department of Design  as well as for the Bachelor's degree program in Architecture  must participate in the program-specific procedure for determining eligibility (the link only works in the 1st half of the year, starting around the end of January).

If proof of 30 ECTS/credits at a state-recognized university and from a study program that matches in content is provided, one can be exempted from the aptitude. This regulation is not valid for the bachelor's degree program Film & Sound.

Please note that you have to apply twice; once for eligibility at the department and a second time for studying at the Arbeits- und Servicestelle uni-assist.

Applicants, who would like to learn German in advance at language schools in Germany can only apply for the semester in which the desired course is offered – for technical courses e.g., only for the winter semester. In summer semester only for the Bachelor's programs Business Administration and Social Work. 

You apply for restricted and non-restricted study programs only online at: www.my.uni-assist.de (Opens in a new tab)  (this link works only during the application period).

General info can be found at: www.uni-assist.de(Opens in a new tab) 
Officially certified copies or the originals must only be submitted directly to Dortmund University of Applied Sciences at the time of enrollment.

For a restricted Bachelor's program it is important:

The allocation of study places is done in cooperation with Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung(Opens in a new tab)  (also called Hochschulstart). For the application via uni-assist you need the so-called BID (Bewerber-Identifikationsnummer) and BAN (Bewerber-Authentifizierungsnummer). You can get these two numbers from www.hochschulstart.de by registering there, not applying. 

Very important for NC study programs: When your applications have been submitted to Hochschulstart by uni-assist, please check whether the university that is your favorite is really in first place (prioritization). As soon as one university submits an admission offer for you to Hochschulstart, the other universities are automatically removed and you can no longer receive any further admission offers. Your preferred university must therefore be in first place.

Attention: The online-portal of Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung is temporarily closed for maintenance.

The following is important for non-restricted as well as restricted Bachelor's programs (if you are applying exclusively to Fachhochschule Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and no other higher education institution):

Please note that Fachhochschule Dortmund does not offer major and minor subjects. You need to apply for programs (Studiengänge) only. If you apply for restricted (Numerus clausus) or non-restricted Bachelor's programs at Fachhochschule Dortmund there is no prioritization; for non-restricted Bachelor's programs you always get an admission letter - for restricted Bachelor's programs you only get an admission letter, when it is possible by virtue of your grade(s) in your certificate(s) for university entrance qualification in Germany.

Please use this link(Opens in a new tab)  from uni-assist for references to the respective countries. 

Generally needed are:

• Certificate(s) awarded in your home country that entitle(s) you to study; in some countries it may also include an university entrance examination and/or proof of successfully passed study year(s). These documents must be uploaded in the home language and also translated into English or German. French-language documents also have to be translated into German or English. Translations done abroad must come from an institution authorized to do a sworn translation (or equivalent) in that country; e.g. foreign mission (embassy). German translations can only be recognized if they have been prepared by sworn (or sworn-in) translators/interpreters in Germany.
• If you are from P.R. of China, India or Vietnam, you have also to submit one original of the APS certificate (Akademische Prüfstelle) of your home country.
• If available: The last proof of participation in a German course or the certificate about a German exam,
• Passport (with last and first name, date of birth etc.),
• Curriculum vitae.

Under no circumstances should the secondary school leaving certificate be missing. For university admission in Germany, some countries additionally require a university entrance examination and/or proof of one or more successful years of study*. These documents must be uploaded in the home language and also translated into English or German. French-language documents must also be translated into German or English.

Unfortunately, incomplete applications cannot be forwarded to Fachhochschule Dortmund by uni-assist.

It may be missing from the online application:

• A current German course attendance certificate or a recognized language examination certificate,
• a possibly required proof of internship,
• a certificate of successful participation in an aptitude test (if required), and
• possibly the assessment test certificate (Feststellungsprüfungszeugnis - see point "When do you have to apply").

You only apply online to uni-assist without sending certified documents by post. Only at the time of enrollment, you need to present original documents or officially certified documents to Fachhochschule Dortmund. 

However, these documents must be submitted in any case at the time of enrollment for studies at our university. Please note that there are only certain date offers for the aptitude test on the websites of the faculties of Architecture and Design. If you have missed these dates, please check  whether it still makes sense to apply to uni-assist for studies at Fachhochschule Dortmund.

Officially certified documents are only to be submitted upon enrollment at Fachhochschule Dortmund; for the online application at uni-assist you can upload simple copies. Notarizations are accepted from the following offices:

• City administrations,
• citizens' offices,
• city halls,
• courts and notaries,
• parish offices as well as
• health insurance companies and general student committees (AStA), if a seal (special round stamp) is used.

In the case of certifications from abroad, the following recognitions apply:

• from diplomatic representations of Germany as well as
• by authorities and notaries authorized to make official certifications in the respective country.

For more guidance on notarizations:
Not accepted are certifications from banks, savings banks and associations as well as lawyers, auditors and accountants.

The total depends on the number of Bachelor's study programs:

€75 for the first Bachelor's program and €30 for each additional.

It does not matter how many universities you apply to, only the number of Bachelor's programs counts. Please pay attention: Bachelor's programs with or without an internship semester count as two study programs.

Example:

You apply for the Bachelor's program in computer science, business computer science and business computer science with industrial placement - no matter whether at one, two or three universities; in this case you have to pay a total amount of €135.

You can find information on this here:
https://www.uni-assist.de/en/how-to-apply/pay-all-fees/payment-options(Opens in a new tab) 

• You can use transfer voucher of your bank or online banking. Please note that you cannot forward your application to uni-assist without paying the fee. Only once uni-assist has received your money will this be displayed in your "My assist Account" as a balance and you can submit your application. To do this, click on the selection list (box icon) in your "My assist Account" and then on "Checkout".

The bank details are as follows:

account holder: uni-assist e. V.
IBAN: (International bank identification code) DE62 1002 0890 0019 0552 72
BIC/SWIFT code: HYVEDEMM488

For transfers from non-EU-states to Germany you will sometimes be asked for the address of the German bank:

Hypovereinsbank - Filiale Berlin-Charlottenburg, Leibnizstr. 100, D-10625 Berlin

Please indicate: country of origin, date of birth (dd.mm.yyyy), last  name, first name, the semester for which you wish to register and the uni-assist application number (if available).
Example: Mongolia, 12.11.2002, Baatur Iwan, SoSe 2023

Transfers in the SEPA area are basically free of charge. For other transfers, you must pay the bank charges.

• By credit card 3D Secure (Visa or Mastercard); paying with 3D Secure provides more security for credit card transactions. You must already be logged in to the 3D Secure process. Sometimes, payments with credit cards from certrain countries may not be accepted by the bank for security reasons. Also transfers may be rejected. If you have any questions about 3D Secure and/ or international transactions, please contact your bank.

Please note:
The application fee has to be completely paid to uni-assist. You must  pay any additional transaction fees. We recommend to use OUR-procedure (sender pays costs) - so you can be sure that you bear the costs and your application will be processed.

• uni-assist will inform you about the examination result of your application documents. If everything is in order, you can already apply for your visa with the letter from uni-assist. Furthermore, uni-assist will forward your application electronically to Fachhochschule Dortmund. You will be notified by the International Office about the receipt of your application at Fachhochschule Dortmund. You will receive information about admission to the degree program from "hochschulstart.de" for NC degree programs for the summer semester from around mid-February and for the winter semester from the second week in August; for degree programs with no admissions, you will be informed by FH Dortmund as early as the end of June. The rejection will be sent by e-mail around March or October.
• In case you do not fulfill formal requirements, e.g. due to missing documents (exception: the Feststellungsprüfungszeugnis of a German Studienkolleg) or do not meet deadlines, it is not possible to return your documents. You have to renew your application for the next possible semester and pay the application fee once more.
• Your data will be saved electronically for a period of four years. It is only available for your chosen universities. After that period the data will be deleted.

Please inform yourself about any still available Bachelor's and Master's study places  via

• (lottery prodecurde / Losverfahren - for restricted programs; you can find the times under the above link) and
• free study places  (vacant study places / freie Studienplätze; can be used approximately at the times indicated below: February/March and August/September/October) for non-restricted programs.

You can use this way of application, among others, if

• you missed the deadline for the first semester,
• you are not sure whether your academic performance is sufficient for a higher semester or
• you were not offered a study place in the regular application procedure due to your university entrance qualification grade.

The prerequisite for the lottery procedure is that there are still free study places available after the regular application procedure has been completed.

For the study programs for which an application is still possible under "Vacant study places", the study places are allocated in the chronological order of the online application.

Information on this can be found under the study requirement(Opens in a new tab) s.

At the latest at the time of enrollment (February/March for the summer semester or August/September for the winter semester), the German language certificate must be able to be presented together with the other documents required for enrollment.