A quarter of degree courses in NRW have restricted admissions

University studies - A quarter of degree courses in NRW have restricted admissions

For only about 27.9 percent of study offers in North Rhine-Westphalia is there a restriction on enrollment in the upcoming winter semester 2024/25. The proportion of study programs with a numerus clausus or an aptitude test decreases from 30.4 percent the previous year, according to an evaluation by the CHE Center for Higher Education Development. North Rhine-Westphalia remains significantly below the current federal quota of 35.2 percent.

The highest shares of enrollment-restricted study programs are therefore in Hamburg, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg. As the most populous federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia ranks ninth. The most frequent enrollment restrictions are still found in the fields of law-, economics-, social- and political sciences - to 38.0 percent. According to the analysis, the proportion of enrollment-restricted study programs in engineering sciences is 13.8 percent.

The proportion of enrollment-restricted study programs in North Rhine-Westphalia varies significantly between the different cities. At the university location Cologne, around 46 percent of the offers are enrollment-restricted. Some examples: Bochum comes to the next winter semester with a share of 30 percent, Düsseldorf with 26 percent, Dortmund with 20 percent, and Bonn with 23 percent. In Paderborn, only 4 percent of the study programs are subject to enrollment restrictions.

"We have been observing a decline in enrollment-restricted study programs in Germany for years," said Study Director Cort-Denis Hachmeister. This can mainly be attributed to the decline in first-semester student numbers and the simultaneous expansion of study programs. "The prospects for students interested in a place in their desired field of study are currently as good as they have ever been."

1. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the University of Gütersloh follows the trend, as only 23.5% of its study programs have enrollment restrictions for the upcoming winter semester 2024/25, according to the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE).
2. The CHE's evaluation demonstrates that in North Rhine-Westphalia, the majority of university studies, such as those offered at universities in Duisburg-Essen and Aachen, do not require a numerus clausus or an aptitude test for the upcoming winter semester.
3. North Rhine-Westphalia's universities, such as those in Dortmund and Essen, are part of the region's regional cooperation for higher education development, which aims to improve the overall accessibility of university studies in North Rhine-Westphalia.
4. The study program at the University of Bonn, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, is one of the few exceptions as it requires an aptitude test for the upcoming winter semester 2024/25, according to the data from the CHE Center for Higher Education Development.

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