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Number of Students Qualifying for Higher Education in Germany

Students qualifying for higher education are those graduates of general education and vocational schools who leave school with a general higher education entrance qualification (e.g. in Germany: Abitur) or an entrance qualification for universities of applied sciences (in Germany: Fachhochschulreife) and are thus eligible to study.  The rate of students qualifying for higher education indicates the percentage of qualifying students in an age cohort.

In 2021, the number of students qualifying for higher education (left axis) in Germany increased by 11,316 to 393,267 after a significant decline in previous years.
The rate of students qualifying for higher education (right axis), i.e. the share of qualifying students in the population of the corresponding age, recovered from 46.8 percent to 48.4 percent in 2021.1 

According to the current projection of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, after a decline in 2025 and 2026, the rate will rise again by 2030, when it will reach 50 percent.

 

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Students qualifying for higher education: school-leavers either with a general or a technical certificate of higher education (in Germany: Abitur, Fachhochschulreife). Rate of students qualifying for higher education: number of school-leavers qualifying for higher education as a percentage of the relevant age group. Since 2012, rates taking into account the results of the 2011 census.
Source of actual figures: Federal Statistical Office in Kerst et al. (2023).
Source of forecast figures: Statistical publications by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK) in Kerst et al. (2023).
© EFI – Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation 2023.

1 The sharp decline in the number of students qualifying to study in 2020 is not only due to demographic factors, but predominantly due to the special effect of Lower Saxony's return to the nine-year secondary school model. Cf. Kerst, C.; Weilage, I.; Gehrke, B. (2022): Bildung und Qualifikation als Grundlage der technologischen Leistungsfähigkeit Deutschlands 2022. Studien zum deutschen Innovationssystem. No. 1-2022. Berlin: EFI.