Bachelor's and consecutive Master's programmes at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences are tuition-free, for EU and non-EU students alike, because Lower Saxony funds the university as one of its public universities of applied sciences. This does not extend to every programme: some continuing-education and MBA programmes charge fees even though the underlying university is tuition-free for its regular degrees, so check the fee status of your specific programme before assuming it is free.

What every student pays is the semester contribution, and it is not a fee for teaching. For winter 2026/27 it is 443 EUR, of which 224 EUR is the Deutschlandticket that covers public transport across the whole country. The amount is set each semester, 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.

These are the non-EU deadlines. Most uni-assist windows at Osnabrück apply to every applicant with a foreign qualification regardless of EU or non-EU citizenship, so a single date covers both groups. The exception is the two English-taught Master's programmes, where non-EU applicants face a window that opens and closes earlier than the one for EU applicants with a foreign degree.

Master's applicants to the Faculty of Business Management and Social Sciences, other than the two programmes above, apply directly through the university's own portal; the deadline for that route varies rather than following the uni-assist windows above. Late or incomplete applications are not considered.

Through uni-assist, if your secondary school or university qualification was obtained outside Germany: uni-assist checks whether the academic admission requirements are met, though the admission decision itself is made by Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, not by uni-assist. Uni-assist charges a processing fee, about 75 EUR for the first application and 30 EUR for each further one. Master's applicants to the Faculty of Business Management and Social Sciences are routed differently: they apply directly in the university's own online portal, at no separate portal fee, except for the two English-taught Master's programmes (International Business and Management; Management in Nonprofit Organisations), which still go through uni-assist.

Open the application page at hs-osnabrueck.de

Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences names its own English-taught programmes: International Management (B.A.) and International Business and Management (M.A.), both delivered on the Osnabrück campus, plus International Event Management (B.A.), delivered in Shanghai, China, through a partnership rather than in Germany. That makes 3 programmes in total, split evenly between Bachelor's and Master's level, out of more than 100 programmes overall, most of which are taught in German. You can study the two Osnabrück-based English-taught programmes without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

Because the great majority of programmes are taught in German, Osnabrück's own admission pages concentrate on German proficiency (usually C1, or B2 for the university's eight-semester technology and computer science track) rather than publishing a central English score table. For the English-taught programmes, the university's general guidance is that an internationally recognised test such as IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC is the easiest way to certify English; exact thresholds are set on the individual programme pages.

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

Lower Saxony's semester period runs from 1 September to 28/29 February for winter and 1 March to 31 August for summer, earlier in the calendar than the October-to-March pattern used in some other states. Plan travel and city registration against the lecture start once it is published, rather than against the semester date.

Osnabrück is a mid-sized city of around 165,000 people with a large student population relative to its size, and rents sit below those in Germany's bigger student cities.

Student accommodation is arranged through the Studierendenwerk Osnabrück, and demand is highest for the start of the winter semester, so applying for a place as early as possible, even before admission is confirmed, is worth doing. The monthly payout from your blocked account is transferred to a German current account, which you open after you arrive — see our bank account comparison for the options that work before city registration.

Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences is the largest university of applied sciences in Lower Saxony, founded in 1971 and organised since 2003 as a foundation under public law. It teaches more than 100 Bachelor's, Master's and continuing-education programmes across engineering, agriculture, business, social sciences, health and the arts, with campuses in Osnabrück (Westerberg, Caprivi and Haste) and a further campus in Lingen, about 70 km to the west.

Teaching is strongly practice-oriented, and the university maintains partnerships with more than 200 institutions worldwide for exchange semesters and dual degrees. Osnabrück itself sits in northwest Germany, close to the Dutch border, and is a compact, walkable city that is easy to navigate by bike or bus.