Requirements for admission to a Bachelor's degree program

For admission to German universities, a foreign secondary school leaving certificate is required (higher education entrance qualification), which corresponds to a German higher education entrance qualification. Please check the anabin database(Opens in a new tab)  of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen) to see whether you have direct access to higher education in Germany with your certificate documents.

Applicants whose secondary school leaving certificate does not directly entitle them to study must attend a preparatory college for two semesters. Care must be taken to ensure that the focus course chosen for the preparatory college (e.g. Technology, Business Studies, Social Studies, Medicine or Design) corresponds to the desired course of study. The preparatory college visit ends with the successful completion of the assessment test (test to determine the aptitude of foreign applicants to study at universities in the Federal Republic of Germany).
This examination proves that you meet both the language and subject requirements and are suitable to study at a German university. Special feature: Some universities still require an additional language test; this does not apply to Fachhochschule Dortmund.

Proof of a language examination recognized by us must be submitted at the time of enrolment.

Language examinations recognized by us are e.g:

• DSH 2 or 3 (taken at a university, not at a private language school),
• telc C1 Hochschule,
• TestDaF with a minimum score of 16 in all four parts of the exam (level 3 may have been achieved twice if this can be compensated for by achieving level 5 twice).
• The Goethe Certificate C1 is only recognized for applications for the study programs of the Faculty of Design.

Upon request, the enrolment deadline can be extended until the end of March or September (depending on the semester) due to a missing German language test. Enrolment without proof of a language examination recognized by us is not possible.

Further information on proof of German language skills can be found under this link .

If you are unsure about recognition, please contact: International-Officefh-dortmundde

For the following Bachelor's degree programs, an internship is required at the beginning of the degree program:

• Social Work (400 hours total, 200 hours at enrollment), not older than 10 years (based on intended start date),
• in all Bachelor's degree programs in the Faculty of Design (12 weeks in total, 6 weeks upon enrollment; exception Film & Sound: 6 months, 3 months upon enrollment)

The certificate of suitable professional work (relevant internship) in a company/ in a company/ in retail is only required at the time of enrollment (approx. February/March or August/September, not at the time of application). Upon request, the enrollment deadline can be extended until the end of March or the end of September due to a missing internship certificate. Internships from abroad as well as from Germany are recognized.

Internships cannot be arranged.

It is not possible to enrol on one of the above-mentioned study programs without proof of practical experience.

Further information on the respective study programs can be found on the website linked below, which gives you an overview of our Bachelor's degree programs .

From the winter semester 2023/24, proof of internship is no longer required for the following Bachelor's degree programs in the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Business Studies:

• Vehicle Development
• Mechanical Engineering
• Business Administration
• Business Logistics
  (also new: this study program is free of admission from winter semester 2023/24)
• Finance, Accounting, Controlling and Taxes - FACT
• International Business
• International Business Management

The work must always be carried out under the guidance/supervision of

• state-recognized educators
• State-recognized curative education nurses
• State-recognized social workers/social education workers (Bachelor or Diplom)
• Pedagogues (diploma) or
• state-recognized childhood educators

can be provided. For internships from Germany, please use our standard form (Opens in a new tab) of the Faculty of Applied Social Studies to have it filled out by the employer; you can find it under the "Documents" section.

Please note that the practical activities must not date back more than 10 years from the intended start of your studies.

There is no standard form for social internships from abroad. A certificate from the employer providing the internship must contain the following information

• Period (e.g. 01.06. - 31.07.2022),
• the number of hours,
• which activities you carried out or in which area/department you were employed (the activities must have been relevant to social work/social education or education)
• who supervised you (name and professional qualification, e.g. social worker, youth worker or comparable professional groups with social workers, social pedagogues, educators, etc.)

The activities must not date back more than 10 years from the intended start of studies.

The Faculty of Applied Social Studies decides on the recognition of the internship. For this reason, please send your internship certificate in your home language as well as a scanned German or English translation by e-mail to praxisbuero-fb8fh-dortmundde You will also be informed of the decision by e-mail. If you are finally enrolled in the degree program, please enclose the e-mail from the internship office with your enrollment documents.

Applicants for the Bachelor's degree course in Architecture require a course-related aptitude assessment; the aptitude procedure takes place exclusively in digital form. The dates and information on the aptitude assessment procedure can be found under this link(Opens in a new tab) .

If you can provide proof and recognition of 30 ECTS/credits at a state-recognized German or foreign university and from a study program with suitable content, you can be exempted from the aptitude test. If you would like to check whether you can be exempted, please send your academic achievements and any degree certificate (home language and German or English translation) in a PDF file by email to international-officefh-dortmundde.

Please note that you must apply online twice:

1. For eligibility at the faculty and
2. for the study program at the employment and service office uni-assist (by 15 June; further information on the application procedure can be found at this link(Opens in a new tab) .

Applicants for the Bachelor's degree programs in the Faculty of Design must take part in the program-related aptitude procedure to determine their artistic and creative aptitude. You can find information on this procedure as well as on portfolio and course guidance under this link(Opens in a new tab) .

If you can provide proof and recognition of 30 ECTS/credits at a state-recognized university and from a course of study with a suitable content, you can be exempted from the examination for the Communication Design and Photography study programs (this is not possible for the Film & Sound study program). If you would like to check whether you can be exempted, please send your academic achievements and any degree certificate (home language and German or English translation) in a PDF file by e-mail to international-officefh-dortmundde.

Please note that you must apply online twice:

1. For the aptitude at the Faculty (with different application deadlines for the respective study programs of Design) and
2. for the Bachelor's study program at the employment and service office uni-assist (until June 15; further information on the application procedure can be found under this link(Opens in a new tab) .

For the Bachelor's degree programs in International Business and International Business Management, in addition to the required German language skills, you must also provide proof of English language skills at B2 level. This English language proficiency can be proven by the

• Abitur certificate,
• academic achievements in English or
• an examination at a language institute.

For advice, please contact the following e-mail address: international-officefh-dortmundde

Due to the obligatory semester(s) abroad, an application for the International Business Bachelor's degree programs is generally only advisable for citizens of the European Union (due to possible visa problems for non-EU applicants).