More and more people without a university entrance qualification are successfully completing higher‑education programmes. According to the Centre for University Development (CHE), 2024 is the first year in which the number of graduates who did not hold an Abitur surpassed 10,000. Since 2009, more than 104,000 professionally qualified individuals have earned a university degree.
Currently, roughly 70,000 students enrolled at German universities lack either a general university‑entrance qualification or a technical‑college qualification-about 2.4 % of all enrolled students. The number of professionally qualified first‑year students has recently risen modestly to around 13,000, or 2.7 % of all new starters. Many of these students attend institutions in Bremen, Thuringia, and Hamburg, and the distance‑learning programme at the FernUniversität Hagen is especially popular among those without an Abitur.
Among these students, disciplines in law, economics and social sciences, as well as engineering, are in high demand. There is also strong interest from students without an Abitur in the health and nursing sectors.