• About VIT University
• Biomedical Engineering
• Executive Committee
• Activities
• Archives

Higher education in Germany

(compilation and documentation by Sreejita Ghosh)

Dr. I Manjubala talk:

Are you interested in pursuing your higher education and that too in Germany? Is your vision and decision clouded by doubts and misconceptions? What’s the course structure, how to look for universities in Germany, how to apply, what are the types of degree programs available in Germany? To provide answers to all your questions germane to higher studies in Germany, IEEE EMBS VIT Chapter had organized on February 28th 2013, a talk by Dr.I Manjubala- senior Professor, SBST, VIT University, Vellore. Dr. Manjubala.
Dr Manjubala was selected for post doctoral fellowship at University of Jena, Germany, and later on at Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany, where she continued her research in field of biomaterials and bone biomimetics. In 2006, she got promoted as Group leader and continued many projects together with Charite and HZG Berlin. During her research career she has been awarded with Young Scientist Award, Biomaterial Congress Travel fellowship, Young Investigator award, Young achiever award and few more. Having lived and worked in Germany for almost a decade, Dr.Manjubala was the ideal person to enlighten our students and demystify the myths and doubts about pursuing higher education in Germany and below is an account of mam’s talk on this topic.

Biomedical Engineering in Germany has the following sub-branches:
1) Medical Physics
2) Biomaterials, Artificial organs and Tissue Engineering
3)Biomedical Instrumentation and Imaging

In Germany, Biomedical Engineering is part of Medicine; for Germans ,anything dealing with human body, is part of Medicine. Pursuing Masters degree program: If you think you can Google “MS in Germany” and from the list of universities displayed, you can just pick any, you might want to rethink. There are 2 types of universities.
a) Research Universities ( and Technical universities)
b) Universities of applied Sciences (Fachhochschule)

The latter provides short term courses and practical knowledge and hands-on exposure. However, the degrees offered by both these universities are disparate. A degree from a Fachhochschule is considered inferior to that from Research and Technical Universities. So, keep in mind, when looking at the list of universities offering masters in your desired field of study, ignore the Fachhochschule.

To choose universities and apply to them, look for . This is a consortium of 9 universities and a single application can be sent to the consortium for admission into any of the universities in the consortium. The 9 universities are: RWTH Aachen, TU Berlin, TU Braunschweig, TU Darmstadt, TU Dresden, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, TU München, Universität Stuttgart.

Admission requirements:
- A bachelors or equivalent certificate
- Proficiency in English (any 1)
TOEFL iBT=: 88
TOEFL paper based: 570
TOEFL computer based: 230
IELTS: at least band 7
TOEIC: minimum 785 (395 in each section)
Cambridge certificate of proficiency

Fees/ Financial Aids/Visa/Living expenses
• No tution fee ( or rarely) required in Federal Universities and TU
• Only administrative fees and semester ticket to be paid for
Semester ticket ensures that travel fees for the student is minimum in the 20km radius of the respective universities.
• Student ID card ensures low rents for houses
• To get Visa, one’s bank account should have 7000€
• For financial help, students can work, especially after 1st year. ‘Student Helper’ job requires approximately 40hours/month output from the student
• Living expense is around 600€/month
• When the student is in his/her 2nd year in a German University, he/she is eligible for Erasmus Mundus and Marie Curie scholarship programs.

Course structure and system:
PhD program spans over 5years. After completion of the first 2 years (Vordiploma) one is eligible to get the diploma. These 2 years deals with general studies. The next part of the program is dedicated towards specialization. Semester starts in April. The first deadline for application is in January and 2nd in mid June/July.

Evaluation system:
1) Full attendance
2) Examination pattern:
i) oral exam
(ii) written exam*
(iii) study achievement equivalent to exam ( assignments and projects)
*written examinations are conducted only for specialized courses.
A word of advice:
If you are going for higher education abroad, do not stop at MS. It is better to complete your PhD and then look for job. That way you can get a much higher paid, challenging and innovative job.