Germany is the single largest destination in our catalogue, and not by a small margin. We publish 1,075 master's programmes across 52 German universities — more than the UK, USA, Canada and Ireland put together. That is worth saying plainly up front, because it shapes everything below: when a counsellor shortlists for Germany, they are choosing from a deep list rather than a handful of options.
Why Indian students look at Germany
The honest answer is tuition. Public universities in Germany charge little to no tuition fee for most master's programmes, including for international students. What you do pay at a public university is a semester contribution — an administrative fee that typically also covers a local transport pass. Private universities are a different market and do charge full tuition.
The second reason is what happens after. Germany offers an 18-month residence permit for graduates to look for work, which is long enough to convert a degree into a job rather than a flight home.
What we actually list
Every programme on our Masters in Germany page is one we hold and publish, with the university behind it named. The four subjects we hold most of are Business Administration, Computer Science, Economics and Political Science. The cities with the most behind them are Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn and Munich.
That list is counted from the catalogue, not estimated, and it is smaller than "every master's in Germany" on purpose. We would rather publish a programme we can stand behind than mirror a directory.
What it costs to live
This is where most budgets go wrong, because tuition being near zero does not make Germany cheap. The official Study in Germany portal, run by the DAAD, puts student living costs at roughly €10,800 to €14,400 a year — our figure was checked against that source on 29 September 2026. At current rates that is comfortably over ₹10 lakh a year before a single tuition euro.
You will also meet the blocked account (Sperrkonto): money you deposit in advance to show you can support yourself. The required amount is set by the German authorities and is revised, so check the current figure on the official portal rather than trusting a number in a blog post — including this one.
Our cost-of-living comparison puts Germany next to the other destinations so you can see the trade: lower tuition, not lower total cost.
Entry requirements, in practice
German universities assess your bachelor's degree for equivalence, and the match between your bachelor's subject and the master's you are applying to matters more than it does in the UK or Australia. A computer science master's will usually expect a computing bachelor's with specific coursework, not merely a good overall percentage.
Most English-taught programmes ask for IELTS, TOEFL or an equivalent. Some ask for GRE; many do not. A few programmes expect German even when taught in English, usually where there is a placement or clinical component. The programme page is the authority on this, and every programme we list links to it.
Two pieces of German admin that catch Indian applicants out
APS certification. Indian applicants to German universities generally need their documents verified by the Academic Evaluation Centre (APS) at the German Embassy before a university application can proceed. It takes time, it sits upstream of everything else, and students who discover it late lose an intake to it. The requirement and its current process are published by APS India — check it there first, because the details and timelines are theirs to change, not ours to summarise.
uni-assist. Many German universities do not take applications directly. They route them through uni-assist, a central service that checks your documents and forwards them, charging a fee per application. It is an extra step with its own deadline, usually earlier than the university's own. Which universities use it varies, so confirm per programme.
How much German do you actually need?
For an English-taught master's, usually none to get in. For everything else, more than students expect. Part-time work, a lease, a bank, a doctor and the Ausländerbehörde all run more smoothly in German, and employers hiring for the 18-month job-search window frequently want it even in technical roles.
The honest framing: English gets you the degree, German gets you the job. If staying on is the plan, start learning before you fly, not after. We run a German language track for exactly this reason.
Intakes and timing
Germany runs two intakes: Winter, starting around October, and Summer, starting around April. Winter is the larger one and carries far more programmes. Deadlines frequently fall six to nine months before the start, so a Winter 2027 intake is a conversation to have in late 2026, not mid-2027.
Funding beyond low tuition
DAAD scholarships are the best-known route and are competitive. There are also university-specific awards and India-based trusts that fund study abroad regardless of destination. Our scholarship database lists each award with its official link and what we know about its window — and says so where we have not confirmed this cycle's dates, rather than guessing.
Three mistakes worth avoiding
- Budgeting for tuition and forgetting living costs. Germany inverts the usual ratio: the degree is cheap, the years are not.
- Applying late for Winter. The deadline is the constraint, not the start date.
- Assuming any bachelor's fits any master's. Subject equivalence is assessed, and a mismatch is the most common quiet rejection.
If you want a shortlist built from the 1,075 programmes we hold rather than from a search engine, start with Masters in Germany or the full Study in Germany guide.