Hamm-Lippstadt charges no tuition fees for its Bachelor's or Master's programmes, for EU and non-EU students alike. It is a publicly funded university of applied sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia, a state that does not levy the non-EU tuition surcharge some other German states charge.

What every student pays instead is the semester contribution, which is not a fee for teaching: 362.80 EUR for winter 2026/27, or 334.30 EUR for summer 2026.

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.

The winter application period usually opens in early April for almost all programmes, except the English-taught B.Eng. Electronic Engineering, whose period opens in December, before the respective winter semester. The summer application period normally opens in December.

Applicants with foreign educational qualifications apply in two places, not one: first to uni-assist e.V. for document evaluation, then separately to HSHL through its own online portal, Campus Office Online. Both applications must be submitted by the end of the application deadline for the application to count as complete. HSHL does not participate in a special procedure such as VPD or DoSV, so the standard uni-assist procedure applies.

Hamm-Lippstadt currently teaches two degree programmes fully in English: the B.Eng. Electronic Engineering at Bachelor level, and the M.Sc. Intercultural Business Psychology at Master level. Everything else in the catalogue is taught in German, so the large majority of applicants will need German. Both English-taught programmes can be studied without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

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

Work backwards from the lecture start rather than the semester start. The winter semester period formally begins on 1 September 2026, but lectures do not start until 28 September 2026, and international students should be in Hamm or Lippstadt earlier still for city registration, a bank account and a room.

Hamm and Lippstadt are two mid-sized towns rather than a single big student city, and HSHL's roughly 4,700 students are spread across both campuses, so competition for rooms is generally lighter than in Cologne or Munich. Housing for HSHL students is handled by the Studierendenwerk Paderborn, which also serves the University of Paderborn; apply as soon as you are admitted.

The monthly payout from your blocked account is transferred to a German current account, which you open after you arrive.

A young public university of applied sciences, founded in 2009 by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and spread across two campuses in Hamm and Lippstadt, about 45 kilometres apart. Its programmes concentrate on engineering, computer science, business and technology management, developed and taught in close cooperation with regional industry, which makes internships and working-student jobs easy to find nearby. Both towns sit in the wider Ruhr and East Westphalia region, well connected by regional rail to Dortmund, Münster and Paderborn, so students have access to the broader student scene of the surrounding cities without living in one of Germany's larger university towns.