Q1: What are the admission requirements?
The basic admission requirements across all our Master programmes is that you must have at least a Bachelor degree (programme duration must be at least three years, depending on your education background) in a closely related discipline with at least an Upper Second-class Honours or equivalent. You must also complete your Bachelor degree programme with no pending examination results on or before 30 June of the year that you are joining us, in order to be in time for enrolment.
Other minimum requirements include English proficiency and Akademische Pruefstelle (APS). Please read Questions 2 and 4 on English proficiency requirements and APS requirements respectively.
Q2: Do I need to submit an English proficiency certificate (IELTS or TOEFL)?
It depends on whether the medium of instruction throughout your entire Bachelor degree programme was English.
If the medium of instruction throughout your entire Bachelor programme was English, and this is clearly stated on either your academic transcript or your Bachelor degree certificate, you do not have to submit any additional document as proof of English proficiency. If not, then you will need to obtain an original letter from the university (bearing the round seal of your university), stating that the medium of instruction of your Bachelor degree was English. If you cannot obtain this letter, then you will have to provide an English certificate as stated below.
If the medium of instruction of your Bachelor programme was not entirely English, you must provide either a passed TOEFL (min. 88 (or 100 for TUM-NTU programmes) for an Internet-based test) or IELTS (min. 6.5) certificate.
If you are required to but you did not submit the original English proficiency certificate, your application is not complete and will not be processed.
Q3: I completed my TOEFL/ IELTS many years ago, are they still valid?
Yes, they are still valid, if they are not more than 5 years old. If not, you should retake the test.
Q4: Do I need to submit an Akademische Pruefstelle (APS) certificate?
If you hold a Bachelor degree from an university in China, Vietnam or Mongolia, it is compulsory to provide a Akademische Pruefstelle (APS) certificate for admission to a German university.
If you are required to but you did not submit the original APS certificate, your application is not complete and will not be processed.
Q5: I have not graduated from my Bachelor degree programme. Am I eligible to apply?
You are eligible to apply to our Master programmes as long as you are in your final year of Bachelor studies, and have obtained at least 6 semesters’ worth of grades and credits (for a 4-year/ 8-semester Bachelor degree programme) or at least 4 semesters’ worth of grades and credits (for a 3-year/ 6-semester Bachelor degree programme).
However, you must complete your Bachelor degree programme with no pending examination results on or before 30 June of the year that you are joining us, in order to be in time for enrolment. If you cannot graduate or obtain all your examination results before that, you may have to defer your studies.
Q6: What is a credit system? What is GPA?
The credit system is usually a system adopted by each university to calculate the number of teaching hours per module. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_credit) Usually, each module is given a certain number of credits and each student needs to fulfil a minimum number of credits before they are allowed to graduate. The Grade Point Average (GPA) is a calculation based on the grades that you have obtained for each module.
If your university does not have a credit or a GPA system, you may enter a full stop ‘.’ in the online application form.