Why choose to study at the University of Freiburg? Founded in 1457, the University of Freiburg is one of the oldest German universities and is now one of the nation’s leading research and teaching institutions. The university is dedicated to defining and pioneering new research areas and promoting a strategic interweaving of the natural and social sciences with the humanities.The university scored well with its submissions to the German Universities Excellence Initiative. The university received funding in all three categories. In the first category, funding for a new graduate school, the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, was granted; in the second, funding was granted for the excellence cluster Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss); and in the third category, Institutional Strategy Line of Funding, open only to institutions with submissions qualified in the first two categories, the university is receiving funding for “Windows for Research”, which aims to promote a high level of interdisciplinarity between research fields and attract scientists from all over the world. To that end, the university founded the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). Being selected for the third category ranks Freiburg as one of nine “excellence universities” in Germany. The university is to receive over EUR 130 million in additional funds over five years (from 2007) from this third category of funding. In 2009, the university was also successful in a nationwide competition for excellence in teaching, held by the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft. The University of Freiburg, with its plans for future innovative teaching concepts, was selected as one of 10 winners from a field of over 100 higher education institutions.

In 2012, in the third round of the Excellence Initiative, the university was able to successfully extend funding for the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, as well as bioss, while also gaining funding for a new cluster called BrainLinks-Brain Tools, an interdisciplinary neurotechnology project. Citing insufficient evidence of integration of the FRIAS concept into the university’s framework, the committee did not extend funding for the FRIAS and the institutional strategy line of funding, despite acknowledging the impressive research and advances achieved at FRIAS in the past years

Eligibility criteria for the Financial Aid for International Students at University of Freiburg.

• Applicants must be in their 4th semester of any degree study at the University of Freiburg.
• Applicants must be in the examination phase.
• Applicants must be doctoral students who are about to finish their doctorate (maximum six months until submission).
• Applicants must submit scores of the following language proficiency tests:
  • DSH (result 2 or 3) or TestDaF – 4
  • DSH 1 or TestDaF – 3
  • Liberal Arts and Sciences: certified proof of English proficiency at B2 level
  • Evidence of German language proficiency at the B2 level is required for an application for Studienkolleg.

Eligible Countries: International

Type: Bachelor, Master, or PhD