Graduates from higher education institutions see a slight rise in their numbers
German Universities Award Record Number of Degrees in 2024
A significant milestone was reached in the German education sector last year, as a record-breaking 511,600 students graduated from universities across the country. The data, reported by the Federal Statistical Office, reveals a 1.9% increase compared to the previous year.
The majority of these graduates, 41%, were in the field of law, economics, and social sciences. Following engineering, the next most popular fields were mathematics and natural sciences (11%) and humanities (9%). The remaining 6% of degrees were distributed among fields such as sports, forestry, or art sciences in the field of medicine.
In the field of teaching, approximately 49,700 degrees were achieved in the past year. The number of teaching degrees, which includes bachelor's, master's, and state examination degrees, saw a 5% increase from the previous year. Specifically, there were 19,100 bachelor's degrees, 20,200 master's degrees, and 10,400 state examination degrees.
The number of master's and state examination degrees that qualify for teaching increased by 5 percent from 29,000 to 30,600 compared to the previous year. Additionally, there were 7,800 traditional university of applied sciences degrees.
Every quarter of the graduates completed a degree in engineering (25%). The number of bachelor's degrees increased by 0.8% to 245,600 compared to the previous year. The number of master's degrees also increased by 1.9% to 149,300.
The number of doctorates in total increased by 6% from the previous year, with approximately 6% of all completed exams being doctorates, totaling 28,200. In the field of teaching, the percentage of doctorates increased by 6% from the previous year.
There were 31,000 traditional university and artistic degrees, such as state examinations outside of teaching. The total number of degrees awarded in 2024 included 26,600 doctorates and about 149,292 master's degrees. However, the exact universities with the highest number of master's and doctoral graduates in 2024 are not specified in the available data.
