Hochschule Fulda is a state university in Hesse with no tuition fees, but application deadlines vary by degree, intake and, for some programmes, by whether you hold a foreign school-leaving certificate or a foreign first degree.

Several named programmes close earlier than the basic dates above, for applicants with a foreign school-leaving certificate or a foreign first degree:

Applicants with a foreign school-leaving certificate or a foreign first degree apply through uni-assist, regardless of nationality, for a processing cost of 75 EUR for the first programme and 30 EUR for each further one. Applicants with a German qualification can apply directly through Horstl, the university's own portal, at no extra cost.

Open the international applicants page at hs-fulda.de.

Hochschule Fulda does not publish a single total count of English-taught programmes on its own site. Named programmes taught fully in English include the Master's in Global Software Development, Data Science, International Management, Human Rights Studies in Politics, Law and Society, and International Food Business and Consumer Studies, plus the Bachelor's in International Business and Management and Global Health; several further Bachelor's programmes such as Food Technology and Industrial Biotechnology are only partly taught in English and still require German. Roughly half of the named English-medium programmes are at Bachelor's level and half at Master's, concentrated in business, food and health sciences and computer science. The fully English-taught programmes can be studied without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

Hochschule Fulda sets English requirements per programme against the Common European Framework of Reference, most commonly at B2 for English-taught Bachelor's and Master's programmes. Certificates must not be older than three years at the time of submission, counted from the end of the year of issue, and Duolingo is not accepted. Applicants who earned their entrance qualification or a degree at an English-medium institution are exempt from providing a certificate at all.

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

The winter semester formally begins on 1 October, but lectures don't start until 12 October 2026 — plan to arrive in Fulda a few weeks earlier for city registration, a bank account and a room.

Founded in 1974 as the fifth state University of Applied Sciences in Hesse, Hochschule Fulda has been, since 2016, the first German University of Applied Sciences authorised to award doctoral degrees. Its eight departments span engineering, computer science, business, law, nutrition, health, and society and culture, with particular strengths in nutrition and food science, public and global health, and renewable energy.

The compact, walkable campus sits in the historic town centre of Fulda, a small city of around 68,000 people roughly 50 minutes by train from Frankfurt's international airport, keeping travel to the rest of Germany and Europe easy while daily life stays close and manageable for a first-time international student.