I did some research in the embassy website and eventually I got to a site called ‘Anabin’ which evaluates if your country university degree is recognized in Germany.
The site says that it is ‘formally’ equivalent to a public school degree in Germany but not ‘materially’. ”Gleichwertig” in the other hand would be both of them. The site doesn’t explain the difference between these too.
Does it meet one of the criteria fir studying in Germany where you need a recognized University Degree or are there extra steps that I need to take.
by -itami-
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Education in germany is a bit of a minefield when it comes down to acceptance of foreign degrees and diplomas. A foreign degree can be in a similar field than degrees offered in the german system, but while it will handle the same basics, the way it handles these and the amount of additional information, as well as the way it’s structured in connection the the respective Master degree is wildly different from case to case.
While many countries treat an undergraduate degree as a seperate complete education and the graduate degree of somewhat of a field specific specialisation option there is not as much freedom in Germany. Many Master degrees demand that you have done your undergraduate in the exact same degree, meaning a master in microbiology would require an undergraduate in microbiology while if you apply with just a biology degree chances of acceptance become smaller due to general difference in details covered – biology would just be counted as an adjacent field, not as the same. A graduate degree in this system always requires the undergraduate degree to be in the same or a similar field since it’s basically treated as one complete education split in two steps, so choice really becomes limited.
There is another level to this, and that’s where your problem here probably lies. There isn’t just normal public University here, but you also have types like Fachhochschulen and Privatschulen that limit your options further. Fachhochschulen are field specific universities which different access and study structure types than a normal university. For example, someone who has done an apprenticeship in a specific trade and gained enough experience and additional education can qualify to access a Fachhochschule in his field to study while he may not study in most fields in a normal university for lack of a qualifying school education. The same goes for private schools or remote programmes. Here it depends on the individual school what a student needs to access these schools and what kind of progammes they teach. This creates a situation in which they offer degrees that are not publically recognized and not counted as a regular degree if you, for example, would try to apply with a private school undergaduate for a graduate programme at a regular university. The degrees offered here are not identical to what’s offered in a normal university although they are in a similar field.
And this is where your question comes in. Your degree may be recognized as something materially in the general field and thus close to education programmes offered in Germany on that topic, but it comes down to if your studies followed the regular requirements for a german University or an alternative type. And when they followed a specific type if this type was recognized in the regulation system in which German degrees are handled.
A better indication might be the Kultusministerium, however, since they are tasked with checking and accepting degrees form different countries. The procedure itself takes costly translations and fees, but there’s information out there for how degrees from your country may have been classified in the past. Additionally, every unviersity handles what they accept as a adjacent or fimilar field when it comes down to graduate programme access individually. If you have found a degree that you see as an option, if can be a good idea to reach out to the programme and ask how they handled applications with your degree type and from your country in the past.