According to early estimates from the German Federal Statistical Office, the number of students attending German universities decreased during the winter semester of the 2022–23 academic year (Destatis).
According to data, there were 1.0 percent fewer students enrolled in institutions across the nation in 2022–2023 than there had been the year before, the first decline in enrollment since the 2007–2008 academic year.
As per Destatis, there are 30,400 fewer students enrolled in higher education in the country during the current winter semester of 2022–23 than there were during the equivalent semester in 2021–2022, when there were 2,946,100 students enrolled.
Matthias Anbuhl, General Secretary of the Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW), commented on the decline in student enrollment in Germany by stating that students are facing the most difficult social situation in decades and are apprehensive about how they will pay for gas, electricity, and other essentials.
In the 2022/2023 winter semester, there were 1,722,000 students enrolled at universities and comparable universities, a 1.8 percent reduction from the 2021/2022 winter semester.
Additionally, additional pupils have enrolled at the following schools:
- 1,096,400 students are enrolled in universities of applied sciences, a 0.2 percent growth over the winter semester of 2021–2022.
- Administrative colleges have 59,700 students, a 1.1 percent decline.
- 37,600 students attend art colleges, an increase of 1.4%.
German universities have seen a tiny increase of first-year students compared to a year ago, up 0.4%, despite the overall decline in enrollment.According to the initial preliminary figures, 474,100 new students enrolled at German institutions between the summer semester of 2022 and the winter semester of 2022/23.
Since then, fewer first-semester students have enrolled, primarily due to a decrease in the number of children and teenagers in the age groups that are significant to university applicants. Destatis announces the decline in student enrollment in a news statement, claiming that the corona epidemic “had