HERE AHEAD for International Students

*Semester fees depend on the university and include the Deutschlandticket.

Even though there is no tuition to pay at this stage, proof of funds is still required once a place is held — typically around 11,904 EUR for the year in a blocked account, and that transfer needs to happen well before registration.

HERE AHEAD sets its own application deadlines. These are deadlines for the preparation course, not for a Bachelor's degree, and they don't go through uni-assist.

These deadlines apply to the international applicant course. For the course for applicants with a refugee background, check dates with HERE AHEAD directly.

None. Everything at HERE AHEAD is taught in German. HERE AHEAD is not a university: it is Bremen's preparation course (a Studienkolleg) for international applicants whose school certificate isn't enough on its own to start a Bachelor's in Germany. You choose one of four subject tracks, depending on what you want to study later:

• Engineering (ING)
• Maths, Computer Science & Natural Sciences (MIN)
• Economics & Business (WiWi)
• Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (GKG)

The course ends with an entrance exam (Feststellungsprüfung). Once you pass, you can apply for a Bachelor's at the University of Bremen, Hochschule Bremen or Hochschule Bremerhaven, and from then on that university's own rules for English-taught programmes apply.

You don't need an English certificate — HERE AHEAD asks for German at B1 or C1. There are two routes in:

You also need a TestAS result of at least 190 points (paper) or 150 points (digital), plus your uni-assist assessment (VPD).

HERE AHEAD doesn't follow the universities' semester calendar. The B1 route runs for two semesters, starting in March or September; the C1 route runs for one semester. The entrance exam is held in January or July, and once you pass you can enrol at a Bremen university for the following semester.

HERE AHEAD is a joint access-and-preparation institution run cooperatively by Bremen's public higher education institutions, based on the University of Bremen campus and organisationally attached to the university, with a move to the Forum am Domshof site in Bremen's city centre under way. It does not award degrees itself: its international applicant course (called :prime) prepares non-EU applicants who have received a Studienkolleg recommendation, taking their German up to C1 and preparing them for the entrance exam (Feststellungsprüfung) that opens a Bachelor's place at any of Bremen's public institutions. A parallel free course (called :here studies) supports applicants with a refugee background.

Since 2016, more than 455 participants have completed one of the two courses. For a non-EU applicant whose secondary certificate is not directly recognised for German higher education, HERE AHEAD functions as Bremen's own Studienkolleg, and its entrance exam is explicitly valid across all of Bremen's public higher education institutions.