Nothing in tuition, for EU and non-EU students alike, for Bachelor's and consecutive Master's programmes, because Hesse funds the university as a public institution. A small number of continuing-education Master's programmes sit outside this rule and charge tuition, since they are aimed at working professionals rather than first-time students.

What every student pays is the semester contribution, and it is not a fee for teaching. For winter 2026/27 it is 424.80 EUR, and most of it is the Deutschlandticket-Semester, the nationwide public transport pass, plus a small share for the university's own bike-share scheme.

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 deadlines for applicants with a foreign university degree or foreign school-leaving certificate, and at Marburg they vary more by individual programme than at most universities, so the dates below are the general case rather than a single rule that covers every subject.

Deadlines are final; late or incomplete applications are not considered. Applicants with a foreign degree apply via uni-assist and may start their application before applicants with a German degree, even where the closing date is shared. About twenty Master's programmes, including Computer Science, Data Science, Business Informatics and most Economics and Social Science Master's, close earlier for foreign-degree applicants than the general 21 August date; check the specific programme page.

Through uni-assist, using its standard processing fee, if you hold a foreign university degree or a foreign school-leaving certificate; applicants with a German qualification apply directly through the university's own Marvin portal. Marburg does not run a separate application system for non-EU applicants beyond this uni-assist step.

Philipps-Universität Marburg lists a mix of English-taught Bachelor's and Master's programmes, concentrated in economics, political science, natural sciences and computer science, alongside its far larger German-taught catalogue of around 200 degree programmes. The English-taught Master's outnumber the English-taught Bachelor's by a wide margin, so a Bachelor applicant will need German for most of the catalogue. You can study the English-taught programmes without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT are accepted, alongside TOEIC and Cambridge certificates, and the accepted list and required level are set per programme rather than centrally, so the ranges below are indicative rather than a single university-wide threshold. Some English-taught programmes also require a basic level of German (commonly A2) alongside the English requirement, which is easy to miss when reading only the English-language admission page.

The exact score and accepted certificate list are set per programme, so check your programme page 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 Marburg a few weeks before that for city registration, a bank account and a room.

Marburg is a small, dense student city of around 80,000 residents with roughly 20,000 students, so shared flats (WGs) are the most common form of student housing and the market is noticeably tighter than in a larger city, particularly right before the winter semester starts. Apply to the Studierendenwerk halls as early as possible after admission and search the private market in parallel, since halls places are limited.

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

Founded in 1527, Philipps-Universität Marburg is the oldest university in Hesse and the oldest Protestant university in the world still in operation, with a classical, humanities-and-sciences profile spanning around 16 departments rather than an engineering focus. Its strengths sit in the natural sciences, medicine, and the social sciences and humanities, including established research in neuroscience, materials and language dynamics.

The university is built into a small medieval hill town rather than a purpose-built campus, so daily life, teaching buildings and student housing are all within walking distance of each other, and Frankfurt and Kassel are both under an hour away by train for weekend trips or part-time work.