FAQ for Preparatory German Course

No: You are free to study a B.A. or M.A. degree program at any other university after the preparatory German course or not to go on studying at all. But we will be happy if you should decide to stay at Stuttgart University after the course! :)

Together with your admission ("Vormerkung") to the preparatory German course by the Admissions Office, you will receive the invitation to register for the course. In order to do so, please transfer EUR 500 (deposit + placement test fee) to the university's bank account as mentioned in the invitation and within the deadline mentioned in the invitation and on this website.

As soon as your payment has been credited to our bank account (this usually takes several days and up to a week), we will send you an email that confirms to you that you have been registered and invited to the placement test and that you are guaranteed a place in the University's preparatory German language course.

Your payment of the course fees down payment (EUR 450) and the placement test fees (EUR 50), in total EUR 500, and our subsequent confirmation of your registration guarantee you a place in the preparatory German course (you may need this guarantee for your visa application). The payment is a security for us that your registration is binding. If you attend the course after the registration, we will deduct these EUR 500 from the course fees you have to pay before the course starts: You have already paid EUR 500 of the course fees and only have to pay the rest of the fees.

Example: You pay EUR 500 (course fees down payment + placement test fees) and we guarantee you a place in the course. You may need this guarantee for your visa application. In the placement test, you get a result for course level B2/C1. The B2/C1 course fees are EUR 1.600 (please note: not the actual course fees). From these EUR 1.600 we will deduct the EUR 500 your already paid. So, you still have to pay EUR 1.100 before the course starts.

Your course registration is binding. De-registration and refund of the fees is only possible in case you prove to us that cannot join the course for reasons you can not be held responsible for (e.g. illness or rejection of your visa application although you applied on time). The placement test fee (EUR 50) will not be refunded.

If you cannot join the course for such reasons that you cannot be held responsible for, you have got to ask for your deposit to be refunded (by email) within the semester that you registered for. After the end of the semester your deposit will generally not be refunded. It is not possible to shift the fees into the next semester.

No: You will not have to pay any tuition fees ("Studiengebühren") during the German language course. You will have to pay course fees ("Kursgebühren"). The course fees depend on the level that you will start the course on (B1, B2 or C1) and how many levels you will have to pass to the TestDaF exam. Your level will be found out in the placement test. You will find the course fees of the different courses on the website of the preparatoy German language couse: Please click on courses offered on the website. You will have to pay these course fees at the beginning of the course.

When you enroll at the University of Stuttgart during the preparatory German language course, you will furthermore have to pay the semester fee ("Semesterbeitrag").

You will not have to pay any tuition fees as long as you are in the preparatory German language course. Once you have passed the TestDaF exam at the end of the course and start your B.A. programme, you will have to pay a EUR 1.500 tuition fee if you come from a non-EU country. For M.A. programmes, there are different fees.

Please find here more information about the semester fee and the different tuition fees and how much they are currently

You can still try to register for the course even if it has already filled up or/and if the registration deadline has passed. In this case however, we will inform you by email that there is no place available at the moment and that therefore we can only put your name onto the waiting list.

In this case, you will have to wait until the course has started in order to see if a place is available. Places in the course may become available if other students who had already got a place in the course de-register later.

As long as you are on the waiting list, we cannot guarantee you that you will be able to join the course. Therefore, we unfortunately cannot confirm to you or the embassy that you have got a place in the university's preparatory German language course.

If you do not wish to be put onto the waiting list after we informed you that the course is full, please inform us by email: We will in this case fully refund your deposit and the placement test fee you paid.

After the course started and you fully paid the course fees, you will be enrolled as a student of the University of Stuttgart. Please note that for your enrollment, you will have to pay the semester fee (Semesterbeitrag) but no tuition fees (Studiengebühren).

As long as you did not pay the course fees in full, you cannot be enrolled.

Accomodation is not included in the course fees. Therefore, you will unfortunately have to find a room or an apartment yourself. Information and tips on how to find accomodation in Stuttgart.

The placement test will be onSET: Information on onSET placement test . On the website, you will find a sample test you can do in order to see how the test works. We recommend you to try the sample test in order to acquaint yourself with the test format. No more preparation is needed.

In addition, there will be an oral placement test.

Both tests will be online. This means you can do the placement test from home and you do not have to be in Stuttgart for the placement test.

Classes are either in the morning from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (one day per week to 12 a.m.) or in the afternoon from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. (one day per week to 5 p.m.), i.e. 24 teaching units per week..

In most groups, classes are in the morning. For organizational reasons however, in some groups classes are in the afternoon every day or on certain days.

If you should wish to have classes only in the morning or only in the afternoon, we will try to make this possible. However, we cannot guarantee to you that your classes will be only in the morning or in the afternoon: Generally, university students must be prepared to have courses in the afternoon as well.