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Applying for a study place abroad, you may have lots of questions or feel anxious. On this page, you will find important questions and answers that many international applicants are concerned about. We will regularly update these FAQ to give you as much information as we can.
If you have any questions that are not listed here, please feel free to contact us by e-mail!
Due to the high number of inquiries we are not able to review your application documents (school-leaving certificate) in advance. Neither are we able to examine whether your certificates issued abroad (bachelor’s degree certificate) fulfil the requirements of the master’s degree studies you would like to take up.
You can only hand in your German certificate later if you apply for an open-admission study programme. If you can prove that your German skills are at B2 level and that you will take a recognised language exam in the near future (in addition to fulfilling all other admission requirements), we can offer you admission under the condition that you hand in the language certificate later. Please upload your registration for the language exam in this case. However, you must hand in your certificate at the latest by: 30 November (if your studies start in the winter semester) / 31 May (if your studies start in the summer semester). If you have not handed in the language certificate by this deadline, you will be deregistered.
HSBI does not offer conditional admission. You can either apply for preparatory German courses at HSBI (starting at B2 level) or at the bibis language school.
It is not possible to apply for a higher semester of study. You can, however, apply for the first semester and after enrolment request your prior achievements to be credited.
The application process is fully online; you do not have to submit any documents by post. In some individual cases, we may have to ask you to present original documents or their certified copies in physical form.
Please find more information on applications and step-by-step instructions on our page Applying with Certificates Issued Abroad.
HSBI offers three English-taught programmes:
No. If you have been issued an exemption as part of your enrolment, you will not be able to switch to statutory health insurance.
Private insurance providers often offer seemingly attractive rates for international students. However, they often do not cover all services. This means that you may face higher costs than expected if you fall sick or suffer an accident. We recommend you take out statutory health insurance for the best possible coverage during your studies. Statutory health insurance providers include: AOK, BARMER, DAK, Techniker Krankenkasse, IKK. Their rates are at approx. €125.– per month. This amount is almost the same for all providers. You can easily take out health insurance online with any of the providers.