Read this before planning masters from Germany!

Germany is one of the best destinations for international students and the influx of students has skyrocketed in the last few years. Therefore, in this blog, I will explain the most crucial part of your application in Germany i.e. to apply for VPD. German universities consider three different types of applications that are:

1. Applying directly via university portal.

2. Applying for VPD via Uni-assist and then applying directly through university portal.

3. Applying directly via Uni-assist.

Different types of application handling in german universities

What is Uni-assist?

Uni-assist is a non-profit organization which is financed by handling fees and membership fees. Its core responsibility is the evaluation of international school and university certificates and determining their equivalence to German educational standards.

For international prospective students, uni-assist offers a central point of contact for applying to a great number of universities whereas in some cases it is used to get VPD only.

VPD (Vorprüfung dokumentation)

The VPD is a certificate issued by uni-assist. This certificate is submitted to the desired university. VPD contains information on which educational certificates you presented to uni-assist, which kind of university entrance is possible with these certificates, and how uni-assist rates your grade within the German system of grades. The processing of your VPD application usually takes 4 to 6 weeks after receipt of your application and payment of the handling fee. You may apply for a VPD at any time. It is valid for one year after the date of issue. You can apply for VPD in the following steps:

Steps to apply for VPD

Step by step using my VPD example

I shortlisted “Automotive Production Engineering”, a master's program that is offered by Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (Check this link to see how I filtered out this program). To apply for this program, I need a VPD, and this is how I managed the process:

1. Managing your timeline: In general, uni-assist takes around 4 to 6 weeks to process your application. This processing time is independent of the university application timeline and therefore it is solely the responsibility of the prospective students to manage the timeline. I applied for VPD early this week and hope to get it before the start of university applications.

A snippet of my application timeline; managed on Notion App.

2. Prepare documents: To process your application, you need to upload/ send the documents to uni-assist; documents required by uni-assist vary and therefore you must check the list on the respective university website. In my case, it was as follow:

Screen shot of required documents by university.

NOTE: Do check the requirement for your university, in some cases additional documents like language test/GRE or certified copies may also be required.

3. Apply online using my assist: Once you have prepared the documents. Now it’s time to apply.

Steps I followed while applying for VPD (using my assist; a page on uni-assist website)

4. Pay Processing fees: Once all the documents are uploaded, it’s time to pay the processing fees after which your case will be considered. I used credit card to pay the fees. If you are applying for the first desired course of study, uni-assist charges EUR 75.00 and for additional courses in the same semester, it charges EUR 30.00. This means that if you applied for VPD in winter 2022 and now you are applying again in summer 2023 then you will be charged EUR 75.00 rather than EUR 30.00 because the semester has changed. In my case, I was fortunate because Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt was still coming in the winter 2022 category which means that I had to pay EUR 30 only as I had earlier applied for another course in the same semester!

5. Send documents (not online only): This step is not for everyone - when applying on uni-assist you will find whether the application is online only (will be written) or not (if no information is provided). In the latter case, you have to send the documents by post to the uni-assist for verification. (if you need information regarding courier service then write in the comment section).

A prompt showing this application is online only.

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To summarize, there are three different types of application handling by German universities and one of the most tedious and time taking part of the application is to apply for VPD. Application for VPD can be made via uni-assist, an organization that validates and calculates your equivalent german grades. Uni-assist takes approximately 4-6 weeks to process your application therefore it is always a nice idea to apply as early as possible so that you can submit your application on the university portal before deadline.