Bachelor's, master's and doctoral study in Germany

Degrees follow the Bologna three-cycle structure of bachelor, master and doctorate, with ECTS credits (60 ECTS is one full academic year). Education is run by the 16 federal states (Länder), so tuition rules differ by state. The official language is German. Public universities teach mainly in German, and German-taught programmes normally require DSH or TestDaF. Most public universities charge no tuition fee, but Baden-Württemberg charges non-EU students, and a semester contribution (Semesterbeitrag) is payable everywhere. Private universities set their own tuition fees. For Indian applicants, a Class 12 qualification is generally not sufficient on its own for direct entry to a German public university; the usual routes are a one-year Studienkolleg ending in the Feststellungsprüfung, or one to two completed years of a bachelor's degree in India. The main intake is the winter semester starting in October; a smaller summer semester starts in April, though not every programme offers it. Temperatures in Berlin typically range from 0.1 to 4.9 °C in January and 14.9 to 24.4 °C in July.