Bachelor's programmes and most Master's programmes at Furtwangen University are free of tuition for every student, regardless of citizenship, because Baden-Württemberg funds the university. Since a 2017 state law, however, non-EU citizens (outside the EU/EEA) pursuing a full degree in Baden-Württemberg must pay 1,500 EUR per semester, a rule that applies across the state's public universities rather than being specific to HFU.

What every student pays on top of any tuition is the semester fee, currently 176 EUR per semester. Unlike many German universities, this fee does not fund a nationwide Deutschlandticket: it covers the administrative fee (80 EUR), the student services contribution (66 EUR, which includes accident, personal liability and theft insurance on campus) and the student body contribution (30 EUR).

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.

Furtwangen University publishes a single Bachelor's deadline that applies to EU and non-EU applicants alike, so there is no separate, earlier non-EU date to plan around for most Bachelor's programmes. Master's deadlines are set individually per programme and can differ for non-EU applicants; check the specific programme page rather than assuming one date covers all of them.

These are cut-off dates; late or incomplete applications are not considered. Some restricted-admission (NC) Bachelor's programmes are coordinated through hochschulstart.de alongside HFU's own application, with deadlines set through that coordination process rather than the standard dates above.

Open the application page at hs-furtwangen.de/en/study/application

Furtwangen University offers approximately 30 degree programmes taught fully in English, concentrated in international business, international engineering and technical Master's subjects, out of a wider catalogue of around 90 Bachelor's and Master's programmes overall. English-taught programmes skew towards Master's level, where roughly 46 percent of programmes are English-only against about 10 percent of Bachelor's programmes. You can study the English-taught programmes without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

Browse the programme catalogue.

IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT are accepted, but the required score is set per programme and varies more widely here than at many universities.

The exact score is set per programme, so check your programme page before booking a test.

Summer Semester 2027 lectures run 15 March – 2 July 2027 (1st-semester start varies by campus, 15–17 March); the full semester period had not yet been published at time of writing.

Work backwards from the lecture start rather than the semester start. Furtwangen runs several campuses (Furtwangen, Schwenningen, Tuttlingen, Freiburg) and first-semester students at each start on slightly different days, so check your own campus and semester level before booking travel.

The cost of living around HFU's Black Forest campuses (Furtwangen and Schwenningen) is significantly lower than in large German university cities. Furtwangen University's own estimate puts accommodation, food and health insurance at around 800 to 900 EUR a month, below the 992 EUR a month you must still show for your visa. Student housing across HFU's campuses is run by the Studierendenwerk Freiburg-Schwarzwald; apply as soon as you are admitted, since dorm rooms are limited.

A public university of applied sciences in the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg, founded in 1850 as Germany's first clockmaking school and now spread across four locations: the main Furtwangen campus, plus Villingen-Schwenningen, Tuttlingen and a Freiburg study centre. HFU's strengths are engineering, computer science, business information systems, digital media and health sciences.

Its Tuttlingen campus sits inside one of Europe's densest medical-technology industry clusters, the so-called 'Tuttlingen Model' of university-industry cooperation, which makes internships and working student jobs easy to find. The university also belongs to the Franco-German University network and the International Lake Constance University Network, reflecting its location near the French and Swiss borders, and maintains exchange partnerships with over 140 universities worldwide.