Start of the semester – record: more students than ever before in Bavaria – Bavaria

Munich (dpa/lby) – At the start of the 2024/2025 winter semester, more students are enrolled in Bavaria than ever before. With around 413,000 students, the highest number of the last winter semester has been exceeded, said Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) after a cabinet meeting in Munich.

Almost two thirds of them are students at universities and a good third at technical universities or universities of applied sciences. According to Blume, the proportion of male and female students is almost equal.

There is also a record among new students – at a good 70,000, almost four percent more than in the previous year. The numbers in the Free State continued to develop positively, contrary to the nationwide trend, said Blume. Bavaria as a university location is “once again proving to be a magnet for students and teachers from all over the world”.

New study offerings

Among other things, the Free State is continuing to expand the range of medical courses available. The new “Medicine Lower Bavaria” course with 110 places is starting at the University of Regensburg – “a real milestone and the starting signal for comprehensive medical training in all administrative districts,” emphasizes the ministry.

According to the ministry, adjustments were made and the range of courses taught in English was expanded, also in view of the increasing proportion of international students. For example, with the new bachelor’s degree program “Digital Business Management” from the OTH Regensburg and the “Master of Digital Futures” from the TH Nuremberg. According to Blume, the number of international students is higher than ever before. At the TU Munich, TH Deggendorf and TH Ingolstadt there are at least 40 percent foreign applicants. Blume was also pleased: “Two thirds actually stay here and will be available in the job market as skilled workers in the future.”

“Milestones” in university construction

A few weeks ago there was the groundbreaking ceremony for the new geosciences building at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich – a project worth more than 300 million euros. Blume also mentioned, among other things, the construction of a new teaching building for the medical faculty in Augsburg, the opening of the first building on the future campus of the Nuremberg University of Technology and the topping-out ceremony for the “digital building” at the Ingolstadt University of Technology.

In view of the tight housing market, according to Blume, the Free State has also “organized” a financial injection of over 50 million euros for the Bavarian student unions. These funds will be used to build in the area. The goal is “still that we create 5,000 dormitory places for students, renovated or newly connected, at least in this legislative period,” said Blume.

Blume: 90 percent of the new professorships filled

Five years after its launch, Blume drew a positive interim conclusion from the state government’s “High-tech Agenda”: “It was a fitness program for our Bavarian universities, for the Bavarian research landscape.” 2,500 new positions, including 1,000 new professorships, and 13,000 new study places made Bavaria a success The ministry emphasized that it is a top location for cutting-edge research in Europe and the world.

Almost 90 percent of the positions for professors have already been filled, of which 29 percent are given to women. 53 percent of all newly appointed people had previously worked outside Bavaria. “That means we are internationally attractive with the right programs and actually manage to attract the best minds and brightest talents to us,” said Blume.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:241015-930-260878/2