TUM is not tuition-free for every international student. Since winter semester 2024/25, the Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act allows TUM to charge tuition fees to students from outside the EU/EEA (and outside Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) who newly enrol in a Bachelor's or Master's programme. EU/EEA students, and non-EU students who were already enrolled before winter 2024/25 and are continuing in the same programme, are not affected.

What every student pays in addition, EU/EEA or not, is the semester contribution, currently 97.00 EUR per semester for the Munich, Garching and Weihenstephan campus. Unlike many German universities, this does not fund a Deutschlandticket or other transport pass, since Munich's student semester-ticket agreement has been suspended since winter 2023/24, so budget for public transport separately.

The tuition fee at Bachelor's and Master's level does not replace the proof-of-funds requirement 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.

Applications for Winter 2026/27 (Bachelor's and Master's) run through TUMonline, TUM's own application portal, rather than a single university-wide uni-assist deadline. Exact deadlines are set per programme, so check your programme page on TUMonline before applying. Programmes with restricted admission (NC/DoSV) or their own aptitude assessment — for example Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics — can run to separate, later windows.

Applications go through TUMonline, TUM's own portal. There is one extra step compared with a pure own-portal university: if your school or first degree was not obtained in the German education system, you must also have your qualification checked by uni-assist, which issues a preliminary documentation (VPD). A VPD application alone is never a substitute for the TUMonline application; both are required together for applicants who need one.

Open the international applicants page at tum.de/en/studies/application/application-info-portal/application-international

TUM runs a large number of degree programmes fully in English, concentrated in engineering, computer science, natural sciences and management, with most of the English-taught catalogue at Master's level. English-taught programmes can be studied without German, though everyday German still helps with housing, part-time work and the authorities.

IELTS Academic and TOEFL iBT are the standard English-language certificates for TUM's English-taught programmes, and TOEFL MyBest Scores are not accepted — your score has to come from a single test sitting. A prior degree taught in English can also count as proof for some programmes, based on the share of English-taught ECTS credits (commonly 12 ECTS, which can include the thesis) rather than a fixed list of English-speaking countries. The exact score and waiver rule is 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 — plan to be in Munich a few weeks before that for city registration, a bank account and finding a room, especially given Munich's competitive housing market.

Founded in 1868 and one of the nine members of TU9, TUM is consistently ranked among Germany's and Europe's strongest technical universities, with particular strength in engineering, computer science, natural and life sciences, and management. Its main campus sits in central Munich, with further locations in Garching, Freising (Weihenstephan), Straubing, Heilbronn and a branch campus in Singapore.

Munich itself is one of Germany's largest tech and industry hubs, home to the headquarters of BMW, Siemens, Allianz and others, which makes internships and working-student jobs comparatively easy to find close to campus. TUM has won every round of the German Universities Excellence Initiative since it began in 2006.