Foreign students in Germany are flocking to computer science

Computer science is the most popular major among foreign students in Germany, and the Technical University of Munich enrolls more of them than any other university, federal statistics show.

Germany had a record 516,820 foreign students in the 2025-2026 winter semester, according to data the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) released in August.

The number rose by 24,733 from a year earlier, and foreign students made up 18% of all enrollment. Destatis counts all students without German citizenship as foreign, even those who completed secondary school in Germany.

Engineering was the most popular field, drawing nearly 218,000 foreign students, or 42% of the total.

Computer science was the single largest major, with 51,500 students.

Economics and business ranked second among fields, led by business administration with 36,200 students.

Top 10 majors among foreign students, 2025-2026 winter semester:

No.	Major	Foreign students
1	Computer science	51,500
2	Business administration	36,200
3	Electrical/electronic engineering	25,500
4	Mechanical engineering	21,400
5	International business/management	20,900
6	Economics/business studies	16,900
7	Medicine (general medicine)	14,600
8	Industrial engineering	13,900
9	Business informatics	13,800
10	Civil/structural engineering	12,300

The Technical University of Munich (TUM), which has campuses in Munich, Straubing, Garching and Weihenstephan, enrolled 21,700 foreign students.

IU International University of Applied Sciences, based in Erfurt, ranked second with 16,600 and is the only private institution in the top 10.

Seven of the 10 universities currently charge no tuition.

One of them, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), will begin charging newly enrolled non-EU students €1,000-6,000 ($1,150-6,890) per semester from summer 2027, the Nürnberger Nachrichten reported.

TUM already charges non-EU students €2,000-6,000 per semester depending on the program, according to the university.

IU charges all students tuition. FernUniversität in Hagen, a public distance-learning university, bills €11 per course credit plus a €60 base fee each semester.

An aerial view of RWTH Aachen University. Photo courtesy of RWTH Aachen University

Top 10 universities by foreign enrollment, 2025-2026 winter semester:

No.	University	Foreign students	Tuition (€ per semester)
1	Technical University of Munich	21,700	2,000-6,000 (non-EU only)
2	IU International University of Applied Sciences	16,600	3,000-6,000
3	RWTH Aachen University	15,900	Free
4	Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich	11,300	Free
5	Technical University of Berlin	10,400	Free
6	Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg	9,900	Free (non-EU fees from 2027)
7	Free University of Berlin	8,700	Free
8	University of Duisburg-Essen	7,600	Free
9	FernUniversität in Hagen	7,500	11 per credit, plus 60 base fee
10	Ruhr University Bochum	6,700	Free

Vietnamese students in Germany numbered about 7,500 in the 2025-2026 winter semester, ranking among the 20 largest groups.

More than 45% of them study engineering, followed by economics and business, then mathematics and natural sciences.

In the 2024-2025 winter semester, 5,857 Vietnamese students had earned their university entrance qualification abroad and another 1,415 had completed school in Germany, according to the German Academic Exchange Service.