Nothing in tuition, for EU and non-EU students alike, because Bavaria funds LMU as a state university. That applies to Bachelor's and consecutive Master's programmes. A 2024 change to Bavarian higher-education law (BayHIG) allows individual state universities to introduce a fee for non-EU students if they choose to, and Technical University of Munich already charges one; LMU has not introduced such a fee, so it remains free for non-EU students at the time of research.

What every student pays is the semester contribution, and here LMU is unusual in the opposite direction from most German universities: since winter semester 2023/24, the Studierendenwerk München Oberbayern has suspended the extra transport-ticket component, so your Munich semester contribution buys Studierendenwerk services only (canteens, housing administration, counselling), not a Deutschlandticket. The amount is set each semester by the Studierendenwerk, so it changes.

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.

Unlike some universities, LMU's general International Office deadline is the same for non-EU applicants as it is for EU applicants in subjects without an admission restriction: 15 July for the winter semester, 15 January for the summer semester. The distinctive point instead is that most Master's programmes, and many restricted-admission Bachelor's subjects, run a separate application directly with the responsible faculty, on its own deadline, often as early as the preceding February for an October start; this faculty deadline applies to every applicant regardless of nationality, and a non-EU applicant has to clear both it and the 15 July International Office deadline.

Individual Master's programmes, and NC-restricted Bachelor's subjects, set their own separate faculty-level deadline in addition to the dates above; these vary by subject and are not centrally published.

Through LMU's own International Office, which runs its own online application system rather than uni-assist, so there is no uni-assist account and no uni-assist processing fee of about 75 EUR. For most Master's programmes, and many restricted-admission subjects, a first application also goes directly to the faculty responsible for the programme; the International Office separately certifies that your foreign qualification meets LMU's general entry requirements, but it does not decide on programme admission itself.

Open the international applicants page at lmu.de

LMU lists 38 Master's degree programmes taught fully in English on its own programme catalogue, spanning almost every part of the university: natural sciences and geosciences, physics and mathematics, biology and biochemistry, the humanities (history, philosophy, English studies, oriental studies), and the social sciences, economics and law. There is no equivalent English-taught Bachelor's programme; German-medium Bachelor's are the norm across LMU's roughly 300 degree programmes overall. Nearly all English-taught options are at Master's level, so a Bachelor applicant will need German for the great majority of the catalogue. You can study these Master's programmes without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

Unlike some universities, LMU has no single, central English-language requirements page: IELTS and TOEFL score thresholds, and which certificates count as a waiver, are set individually by each Master's programme's own examination regulations, so what counts as sufficient varies by subject rather than being fixed university-wide. English-taught Master's programmes are, however, uniformly exempt from LMU's German-proficiency requirement, which otherwise applies to every Bachelor's, State Examination and German-medium Master's programme. Certificates should not be older than two years at enrolment, in line with standard German practice.

The exact score, and which certificates are accepted, is set per Master's programme rather than centrally; check your programme's own examination regulations before booking a test.

Work backwards from the lecture start rather than the semester start. The winter semester formally begins on 1 October, but lectures start on 12 October 2026, and you want to be in Munich a few weeks before that for city registration, a bank account and a room, particularly given how competitive the Munich housing market is.

Germany's second-largest university by enrolment and one of its oldest, founded in 1472 and a German Excellence University, with 18 faculties spanning almost the entire academic spectrum from theology and law to medicine, the natural sciences and the humanities. Its main campus sits in central Munich's Maxvorstadt district, next to the English Garden and the city's museum quarter, while its life-sciences institutes cluster around the Martinsried/Großhadern campus alongside the university hospital and neighbouring Max Planck institutes.

Munich itself is home to major employers including BMW, Siemens and Allianz, which keeps internships and working-student jobs plentiful, though the city's cost of living, especially housing, is the highest of any German university town.