Bachelor's and consecutive Master's programmes are free of tuition for every student, EU and non-EU alike, because North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the states that charges no tuition at its public universities. The one exception is the continuing-education (weiterbildend) Master's programme "Management for Engineering and Natural Sciences", run jointly with three other universities, which charges its own fee regardless of nationality.

What every student pays instead is the semester contribution, and for winter 2026/27 that comes to 376.80 EUR, of which the largest part, 226.80 EUR, is the Deutschlandticket covering public transport nationwide. The contribution is set each semester and is due regardless of ticket use or class attendance.

No tuition does not mean no proof of funds. For the student visa you still need to show about 11,904 EUR for the year, usually in a blocked account, and that money has to be transferred months before the semester starts.

These are the deadlines for applicants from outside the EU/EEA, who apply through uni-assist rather than the university's own portal. Unlike many universities, Bochum does not publish a separate, later Master's deadline: the same non-EU date applies to Bachelor's and Master's applicants alike, and it falls a full month earlier than the 15 July date quoted on many general application pages.

Deadlines are final; late or incomplete applications are not considered.

Which of two routes you use depends on your nationality and where you earned your higher education entrance qualification. EU/EEA citizens (and a few adjacent groups, such as citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway) apply directly through the university's own portal. Applicants who are not EU/EEA citizens and obtained their school qualification abroad must apply through uni-assist, which is the route almost all non-EU applicants use.

Open the international applicants page

Bochum's own international-programmes directory lists 5 degree programmes taught partly or fully in English, out of more than 80 Bachelor's and Master's programmes in total. Three Master's programmes, Geothermal Energy Systems, Mechatronics, and Mechanical Engineering International, are taught fully in English. Two further programmes, the Bachelor's in International Business and Management and the Master's in International Management, are listed as German/English and in practice still require a strong German certificate for admission, so they are not a German-free route into the university. Almost all other programmes are taught in German.

Requirements differ sharply by programme rather than following one university-wide rule. The three fully English-taught Master's programmes ask for English at C1 level (IELTS Academic 7 with a face-to-face oral component, or TOEFL iBT 95), while the German/English dual programmes and a few others accept English at B2 level (IELTS Academic 5, TOEFL iBT 72) alongside a German requirement. A degree already taught in English is accepted as equivalent proof on the same terms as the certificates below.

The exact certificate and score are set per programme, so check the specific programme page before booking a test.

Work backwards from the lecture start rather than the official semester start. The winter semester formally runs from 1 September, but lectures do not begin until 28 September 2026, so plan to arrive in Bochum a few weeks earlier for city registration, a bank account, and housing.

A public university of applied sciences founded in 1971 out of three predecessor engineering and business schools, with its main campus in Bochum's Querenburg district next to Ruhr University Bochum, a Health Campus in the city, and a third site in Velbert/Heiligenhaus.

Its academic strengths are engineering (mechanical, electrical, civil), mechatronics, computer science, geodesy, health sciences, and business, taught with a strongly practice-oriented approach that includes mandatory internships in most Bachelor's programmes. Bochum itself sits at the heart of the Ruhr region, one of Germany's largest urban and industrial areas, which keeps internships and working-student jobs within easy reach and gives the university close, long-standing ties to regional industry.