HAW Hamburg is a public university and charges no tuition fees for its Bachelor's and almost all Master's programmes, for EU and non-EU students alike. The exception is the Master of Public Health, which costs 2,400 EUR per full-time semester. Every student pays a semester contribution of 397 EUR for winter 2026/27, which includes the Deutschlandsemesterticket for public transport across Germany.

For your student visa you also need to show 11,904 EUR for the year, usually in a blocked account, and that money has to be transferred months before the semester starts.

HAW publishes one set of dates for all applicants; some programmes have their own dates or admit only once a year. International applicants first need a uni-assist pre-check, which can take up to eight weeks, so start early. 10 percent of the study places are reserved for applicants from non-EU countries, and these places are allocated by school-leaving grade.

13 programmes are taught in English. Bachelor's: International Business, Information Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Master's: International Business, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Renewable Energy Systems – Environmental and Process Engineering, Public Health (MPH), Biomedical Engineering, Process Engineering, European Master of Medical Technology and Healthcare Business, Information and Communication Technology, Food Science and Health Sciences. The European Master is a joint programme with semesters in Hamburg, Porto and Lille. Multichannel Trade Management in Textile Business is taught in German and English, and all other programmes are taught in German.

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg) is a public university of applied sciences in Hamburg, founded in 1970, with 16,739 students, about 19 percent of them from abroad. It offers programmes in engineering, computer science, life sciences, business and social sciences, and design, media and information.