A recent analysis from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reveals significant completion rates for undergraduate and graduate programs in Germany. Examining the study year 2019, approximately 30 percent of the 515,700 individuals who commenced a Bachelor’s degree program at a German higher education institution successfully completed their studies within the standard eight-semester timeframe.
The data, newly calculated by Destatis using the Study Progress Statistics, provides insight into the proportion of students finishing their degrees within a defined period, beginning with the start of their major and aligned with typical academic timelines. Importantly, this metric does not account for individual study interruptions such as exchange programs or internships; the observation period remains consistent regardless of these breaks. The report acknowledges that extending the observation period would naturally increase the overall completion rate as many students require more than eight semesters to finalize their degrees.
Completion rates varied considerably across academic disciplines. The highest reported rate after eight semesters was observed among Bachelor’s students in the fields of law, economics and social sciences, reaching 39 percent. Conversely, the lowest rate was recorded in the humanities, at 22 percent.
A notable gender disparity emerged in Bachelor’s degree completion. Female students, who began their programs in the 2019 academic year, consistently demonstrated higher completion rates within the eight-semester timeframe compared to their male counterparts. This difference was most pronounced in the humanities, where the completion rate for women was 27 percent compared to 12 percent for men, while the gap was smallest in engineering (26 percent for women and 22 percent for men).
For Master’s degree programs, the success rate is measured over a shorter six-semester period. Of the 206,200 Master’s students who began their studies in 2019, 51 percent completed their degrees within that timeframe. Similar to Bachelor’s programs, female Master’s students (54 percent) also outperformed their male peers (49 percent), although the difference in completion rates between genders was comparatively smaller at the graduate level.