How does the application process for a degree course in Mittweida work?

For the winter semester: the application deadline is 15 July. For the summer semester: 15 January. International applicants must apply by 15 May or 15 November at the latest to allow sufficient time for the visa application process. Tip: You can apply early – make sure you apply for your course in good time! You can submit your university entrance qualification certificate by 20 July or 20 January.

If you have chosen a degree programme with no entry restrictions, you can enrol straight away once you have uploaded all the necessary documents to the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences application portal. Only for the few degree programmes with restricted admission and a selection process (Media Management, Social Work) will you need to wait until shortly after the application period has ended. This is because we can only carry out the selection process once the application period has closed. Afterwards, the top-ranked applicants will receive their offers of admission and can enrol on a binding basis.

It is not only the Abitur, the general university entrance qualification, that entitles you to study. To begin your degree at HSMW, you will need either the general university entrance qualification, a subject-specific university entrance qualification or the Fachhochschulreife. As an international applicant, you can check for yourself on the ‘anabin’ information portal for foreign educational qualifications or the DAAD’s admissions database whether your foreign certificate is recognised or whether you need to attend a preparatory college (Studienkolleg) to gain admission.

Studying without an Abitur? It’s possible! The Saxon Higher Education Act (SächsHSG) allows you to study without a school-leaving qualification:

1. a so-called ‘upgrading course’ combined with a counselling session at the university. Upgrading courses include a master craftsman’s certificate, extensive further training under the Vocational Training Act or the Crafts and Trades Code (at least 400 hours), a ship’s officer’s certificate, a technical college qualification, and comparable further training in the care, health or social sectors.
2. Alternatively: a completed vocational training programme with at least three years’ professional experience in the trade you have learnt, a counselling session at the university and a passed entrance examination. This usually consists of an oral examination, written component examinations in mathematics, a foreign language (usually English) and German. We hold the entrance examination at the HSMW every June. If you wish to take part, you must have submitted your complete application, including the registration form, by email by 30 April.

Are you looking for numerus clausus figures? Most degree programmes at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences do not have a numerus clausus, as admission to these programmes is unrestricted. The only degree programmes at Mittweida with restricted admission are the Bachelor’s programmes in Media Management and Social Work, as the number of applications for these regularly exceeds the number of available places by a significant margin. But even here, the NC is not particularly indicative. This is because at Mittweida we carry out a selection process that takes into account not only your final school leaving certificate grades but also your previous experience and motivation.

As a state university, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences does not charge tuition fees for undergraduate programmes, either for German or international students. The only charge is a semester fee of 107 euros, which covers membership fees for the Studentenwerk (92 euros) and the Students’ Union (15 euros) and is passed on in full. Please pay the semester fee into the following account and upload proof of payment to the application portal:

Recipient: Mittweida
University of Applied Sciences Amount: €107.00
IBAN: DE22 8600 0000 0086 0015 22
Bank: Deutsche Bundesbank
Reference: BXXXXXXXX - 7040/10106-1 7095.0104.9816 plus SURNAME, FIRST NAME, COURSE
(For XXXXXXXX, you must enter the applicant number from the application portal.)

Tuition fees apply only to a few distance-learning programmes and certificates; these can be found on the programme pages, and a fee notice will be issued upon admission to the programme. The following programmes are subject to fees:

• extra occupational B.Sc. in IT Forensics/Cybercrime,
• Extra occupational B.Eng. and Dipl. (FH) in Industrial Engineering,
• Extra occupational MBA in Strategic Business Management
• Extra occupational M.Eng. in Sustainability in macroeconomic cycles,
• Extra occupational M.Sc. in Acoustical Engineering
• Extra occupational MA in Therapeutic Social Work with Children and Young People,
• Certificate in Digital Forensics Specialist,
• Certificate in Supervision and Coaching,
• as well as the degree programmes offered through Mittweida University of Applied Sciences’ mobile study programme, Campus M University, and the joint degree programmes in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Business Engineering in collaboration with Ingenium Education and the Weiz Study and Transfer Centre.

At Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, you can enrol as a guest student on a degree programme, provided that the programme has not already reached its capacity. The application to enrol as a guest student must be submitted separately for each semester, usually no later than 14 days before the start of the semester, by email to the Student Affairs Department (Studierendenservice). Please transfer the guest student fee of 39 euros per semester upon receipt of the invoice sent by email. For distance-learning programmes, a higher fee for guest students is charged per module in accordance with the university’s fees and charges regulations. Once payment has been received, the documents will be sent by post. If you wish to sit an examination, you must hold a university entrance qualification and the examiner must approve your participation.

Applying for a place at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences and enrolment are carried out entirely digitally and online via the HSMW application portal. To prepare for this, you should have some supporting documents ready as scans. There are essentially four steps – or six in the case of degree programmes with restricted admission – leading up to the start of your studies:

1. Only for the restricted-admission Bachelor’s degree programmes in Media Management and Social Work: registration at hochschulstart.de,
2. Registration on the application portal,
3. Filling in all the required fields and uploading the supporting documents,
4. Wait for the results of the application review by the Admissions Service,
5. For degree programmes with restricted admission only: Wait for the offer of admission,
6. Enrol in the degree programme.

Even before you start filling in the fields on the application portal, you can prepare by gathering all the documents required by law to enrol on your degree programme:

• Proof of eligibility for higher education (e.g. A-level certificate) as a scan 
• a recent CV in table format (contact details and work experience since leaving school are particularly important),
• a copy of your identity card or passport,
• A passport-sized photograph for the HSMW Card, your student ID card,
• proof of health insurance or a certificate of exemption from statutory health insurance (we are not permitted to accept travel health insurance),
• Proof of payment of the semester fee,
• If applying for a Master’s programme: certificate of your first academic qualification, including a list of subjects and grades.

Regarding health insurance: If you are covered by statutory health insurance at the start of your studies, please inform your health insurance provider that you will be commencing a degree programme at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. When doing so, please quote Mittweida University of Applied Sciences’ sender reference number H0001040 to your health insurance provider.

If you are covered by private health insurance at the start of your studies, please contact your most recent statutory health insurance provider, quoting our reference number H0001040. They must confirm to us that you are exempt from statutory health insurance. If you have never had statutory health insurance before, any statutory health insurance provider will issue this certificate.

For the English-taught degree programmes in Mathematics and the ‘Innovation and Business Expansion’ specialisation within the Industrial Management programme, all applicants must demonstrate English language proficiency at B2 level. This can be proven by one of the following: 

• a German Abitur certificate with a basic course in English and an average mark of at least ‘good’ (2.0 or 10 points) over the last four school terms,
• secondary school qualifications from the USA and the UK,
• a degree awarded in English; the medium of instruction (MOI) of the recognised higher education institution must state that the degree was completed entirely in English,
• or an internationally recognised language test:
  • TOEFL Internet-based Test (iBT or iBT Home Edition) with a minimum score of 76 on a scale of 0–120, taken no more than two years ago,
  • IELTS Academic with a minimum score of Band 6.0/Competent,
  • B2-First with an overall score of at least 173 (Grade B or higher), formerly known as Cambridge English: First (FCE),
  • UNIcert® Level II (AKS) with an overall result of at least ‘Good’ (grade 2.3 or higher),
  • Duolingo English Test with an overall score of at least 110 points.

For the bilingual Master’s programme in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), applicants must demonstrate proficiency in German at B2 level in addition to English language proficiency at B2 level.

If you have chosen a Bachelor’s degree programme with no entry restrictions, you can submit your enrolment application straight away once you have uploaded all the necessary documents to Mittweida University of Applied Sciences’ application portal. Once the university’s Admissions Office has checked your documents, your enrolment will then be processed automatically.

Only for the few degree programmes with restricted admission and a selection process (Media Management, Social Work) will you need to wait until shortly after the application period has ended. This is because we can only carry out the selection process once the application period has closed. Afterwards, the top-ranked applicants will receive their offer of admission and can enrol on a binding basis. 

For Master’s programmes, and if you are applying with a foreign qualification or for a higher semester, the following applies: first, the Admissions Office and your chosen faculty will check whether you meet the entry requirements. If they agree, you can enrol via the application portal.

In addition to the documents listed above, further requirements apply to international students. The following must be uploaded, both as originals and as officially certified translations (in German or English):

• Secondary school leaving certificate. You can check for yourself on the ‘anabin’ information portal for foreign educational qualifications whether your foreign certificate is recognised or whether you need to attend a preparatory college (Studienkolleg) to gain admission.
• Passed university entrance examination, such as the assessment test completed at the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences (if applicable)
• Transcript of marks and list of subjects from your university studies in your home country (if applicable)
• Proof of German language proficiency through one of the following examinations:
• German Language Test for University Admission (DSH-2),
• TestDaF with a minimum of 4xTDN4,
• C2 examination from the Goethe-Institut,
• Central Upper Secondary Examination (ZOP) of the Goethe-Institut,
• German Language Diploma (DSD), Level II,
• telc German C1 University,
• Examination to Certify German Language Proficiency (PNDS),
• Austrian Language Diploma (ÖSD): Certificate C2.

Anyone who has obtained the Abitur at a German school or can provide evidence of having passed the FSP assessment test is exempt from the language examination requirement. In addition, there are other European secondary school certificates which are recognised as proof of the required German language proficiency. Recognition is always subject to a case-by-case decision following an examination of the qualifications. The Feststellungsprüfung and the DSH examination can be taken at the Studienkolleg at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.

Important: We review the documents upon receipt and issue the letter of admission once the review has been successfully completed. With this letter of admission, applicants can arrange an appointment directly with the German Embassy to apply for a visa. There is no administration fee for applying for a place on the course; the fees for the Studienkolleg are 1,900 euros per semester for a DSH course and 2,900 euros per semester for an FSP course. These must be paid in full as part of the application. If your visa application is refused, we will provide reimbursement for the fees, minus the registration fee of 250 euros.

If you find yourself in an absolutely exceptional situation which, even when assessed against the strictest criteria, makes it impossible for you to wait even a single semester for admission to your chosen degree programme, you may submit an application on grounds of hardship. Mittweida University of Applied Sciences reserves up to two per cent of its places for such cases of exceptional hardship.

Not every difficulty, however hard it may be felt, justifies admission on the grounds of exceptional hardship. Rather, there must be extremely serious health, social or family reasons. The application is therefore only an option for a small number of people. To date, applications on grounds of hardship have only been approved in a few cases. In the following examples of health-related reasons, an application on grounds of hardship can generally be granted:

1. An illness with a tendency to worsen, which will, with a high degree of probability, result in the applicant being unable to cope with the demands of this degree programme in the future.
2. Disability resulting from illness; vocational rehabilitation can only be ensured through immediate admission to the degree programme, as the disability makes it impossible to bridge the waiting period in a meaningful way.
3. Restriction to a narrow professional field due to a physical disability; the intended course of study is expected to lead to successful rehabilitation.
4. The need to give up their current course of study or current occupation for health reasons; for these reasons, it is not possible to make meaningful use of the waiting period.
5. Physical disability; the disability prevents the applicant from undertaking any other reasonable activity until a place on a degree programme is allocated.
6. Restriction in the choice or pursuit of a profession as a result of illness; this prevents the applicant from meaningfully bridging the waiting period.

Any existing reason must be substantiated by an expert reviewer's report. The expert reviewer's report must provide a sufficient assessment of the individual criteria listed under the relevant point. The report should contain information on the origin, severity, progression and treatment options for the condition, as well as a prognosis regarding its future course. It should also be comprehensible to non-medical readers. Suitable additional supporting documents include, for example, a severely disabled person’s pass, the assessment notice from the pension office, or the discharge notice from the German Armed Forces.