We list 22 Electrical Engineering master's programmes in Germany, and the top of the list makes a point worth the whole article.
By city: Hamburg (4), Bochum (2), Essen (2), Paderborn (2), with Hanover, Bayreuth and Dortmund on one each.
By institution: Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2), Universität Hamburg (2), TUHH Hamburg University of Technology (2), Universität Duisburg-Essen (2), Universität Paderborn (2), Leibniz University Hannover (1), University of Bayreuth (1).
Hamburg's four are two different degrees
Two of Hamburg's four are at Universität Hamburg, a classical research university, and two at TUHH, the Hamburg University of Technology. Same city, same subject, same level — and a genuinely different education.
A Technische Universität is built around engineering: the faculty structure, the lab access, the industry partnerships and the thesis topics all point at applied work, and German industry reads a TU degree accordingly. A classical university's electrical engineering sits inside a broader science faculty, which tends to mean more physics, more theory and an easier path into research or a doctorate.
Neither is better. They answer different questions, and the question they answer is the one you should be choosing on. If you intend to work in German industry, the TU route is the one the labour market is shaped around; if you are heading for research, the classical route often suits better.
This runs through the whole German engineering catalogue, not just Hamburg. We saw the same thing in Business Administration, where TU Berlin's management programmes sit closer to engineering than Humboldt's or Freie's. Check which kind of institution you are applying to before you check where it ranks.
English, duration and entry
19 of the 22 are taught in English, two in German and English, one in English and German. Durations: 24 months on 20, 18 months on two. The two-year norm again.
English requirements, where recorded, cluster at IELTS Academic 6.5 on six programmes, with others accepting IELTS 6.0 alongside UNIcert II, TOEFL iBT 85 or PTE Academic 55, and a group at IELTS 5.5 with Cambridge B2 First.
PTE at 55 is worth noticing. It is a cheaper and faster test to sit in India than IELTS and it is accepted here — most applicants never check, because the UK and Australia trained everyone to think in IELTS bands. We have written on choosing between the tests.
On fees, and the STEM field
We hold no verified tuition figure for any German programme, this subject included; each listing links to the page that can answer it, and the German fee structure is covered separately.
None of the 22 carries a STEM designation in our data either. That field is a US immigration construct, it is not populated for German rows, and its absence says nothing about the degree — an electrical engineering master's is a STEM degree wherever it is taught.
Who it suits
An engineering graduate who wants two full years, near-total English coverage, and access to German industry afterwards. The Ruhr region — Bochum, Essen, Dortmund — accounts for five of these 22, and that is not a coincidence: it is where the engineering employers are.
It suits you less if you want a one-year degree. There is one at 18 months and none shorter.
Browse the set: Electrical Engineering in Germany, master's only, or compare with engineering in Finland.
Catalogue figures counted from our published listings on 6 October 2026. We hold no verified tuition figure for German programmes at the time of writing. Photograph: Hamburg University of Technology by Dennis Rowedder (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.