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Applying for a study place abroad, you may have lots of questions or feel anxious. On this page, you will find important questions and answers that many international applicants are concerned about. We will regularly update these FAQ to give you as much information as we can.
If you have any questions that are not listed here, please feel free to contact us by email!
Please find information on how to apply to HSBI and step-by-step instructions here.
If you obtained your educational qualifications abroad, please check in DAAD’s database on admission requirements whether they entitle you to enrol in your desired study programme at a German university.
The online database anabin also provides you with detailed information on the evaluation of degrees obtained abroad.
Due to the high number of inquiries we are not able to review your application documents (school-leaving certificate) in advance. Neither are we able to examine whether your certificates issued abroad (bachelor’s degree certificate) fulfil the requirements of the master’s degree studies you would like to take up.
No, applications can only be submitted during the application period.
Please find a list of all language certificates we recognise for English and German here.
You can only hand in your German certificate later if you apply for an open-admission study programme. If you can prove that your German skills are at B2 level and that you will take a recognised language exam at least at German level GER C1 in the near future (in addition to fulfilling all other admission requirements), we can offer you admission under the condition that you hand in the language certificate later. Please upload your registration for the language exam in this case. However, you must hand in your certificate at the latest by: 30 November (if your studies start in the winter semester) / 31 May (if your studies start in the summer semester). If you have not handed in the language certificate by this deadline, you will be deregistered.
No. The deadlines for submitting additional documents end on 30 November (for students starting in the winter semester) and 31 May (for students starting in the summer semester). No other or additional deadlines can be granted.
If you appy for an English-taught study programme, you must submit your English certificate with your application (by the application deadline at the latest). It is not possible to submit it later.
No. You must provide proof of your university entrance qualification when you apply. If you do not receive your university entrance qualification in time, please apply for the next available semester.
HSBI does not offer conditional admission. You can either apply for preparatory German courses at HSBI (starting at B2 level) or at the bibis language school.
Applicants with educational qualifications issued abroad may only apply for the first semester. In this case, it is not possible to transfer into higher semesters.
However, after your successful admission and enrolment you can request your prior achievements to be credited. The responsible faculty will review and decide whether and which achievements will be recognised. Please find information on the recognition of academic achievements here.
See answer to question “Can I apply for a higher semester of study?”
No! Uni-assist will issue your VPD certificate. You must apply independently through HSBI’s application portal. Please read the FAQ concerning “VPD”.
The application process is fully online; you do not have to submit any documents by post. In some individual cases, we may have to ask you to present original documents or their certified copies in physical form.
Please find more information on applications and step-by-step instructions here.
HSBI offers two versions of the bachelor’s degree study Industrial Engineering: a German-taught programme and an English-taught programme. The German-taught programme is offered at Bielefeld Campus. The English-taught programme is offered at Gütersloh Campus. You have applied by mistake for the German-taught programme at Bielefeld Campus. Please create a new application in the CAT portal, choosing “Gütersloh Campus” this time to make sure you apply for the correct programme.
Applying for open-admission degree studies:
Applying for restricted-admission degree studies:
No. An admission offer is only valid for the semester you applied for. If you do not accept the offer of admission within the individual acceptance period, your right to a place of study will expire. In this case, you will have to reapply for the next available semester.
VPD is a document issued by uni-assist which confirms that your certificates issued abroad meet the requirements for studying in Germany.
HSBI needs your VPD to be able to review your application fast and correctly. It does not replace your application – it is a prerequisite.
Applicants with qualifications obtained abroad who are not treated as German nationals have to apply for a VPD certificate via uni-assist before they apply at HSBI.
You are an applicant who is treated as a German national if at least one of the following statements applies to you:
If you are treated as a German national, you do not need a VPD certificate when applying through the university’s application portal. Please upload your proof of equal treatment in the applicant portal.
If none of the statements above apply to you, you require a VPD certificate from uni-assist. Unfortunately, you will not be able to apply without the certificate.
A request for the VPD certificate can be made throughout the year through the uni-assist website.
No, please request the VPD certificate before HSBI’s application portal opens. Please note that it usually takes 4–6 weeks to process your VPD request. You cannot apply through HSBI’s application portal until you have your VPD certificate. You thus need your VPD certificate before the end of the application deadline.
Yes, you will need a VPD for the preparatory German courses as well.
Processing of the VPD request usually takes 4 to 6 weeks after receipt of your request and payment.
You can only hand in your VPD certificate later if you apply for an open-admission study programme. You must submit the VPD certificate 6 weeks after the end of the application deadline at the latest. We cannot enrol you until we have your VPD certificate.
You will obtain your VPD via uni-assist as a digital PDF document. You will be able to download the document in uni-assist.
Uni-assist will not forward your application to HSBI. Uni-assist will provide you with your VPD certificate for download in the uni-assist portal. You will need your VPD certificate for your application through HSBI’s application portal. Please read our step-by-step instructions.
At HSBI, your VPD certificate will be valid for two years from the issuance date.
VPD certificates are not issued for specific study programmes. You can use a VPD certificate issued for HSBI to apply for any study programme offered in the respective semester.
Yes, HSBI will accept a VPD that was issued at another university if it is not older than 2 years and you submitted it together with all the relevant certificates to the CAT portal when you applied.
Yes, HSBI will also accept an uni-assit test report if it is not older than 2 years and you submitted it to the CAT portal together with all the relevant certificates when you applied. Your application may be rejected should there be any doubt about the authenticity of the certificate. For this reason, it is recommended that you apply for a VPD for HSBI.
Processing a VPD through uni-assist curently costs €75 (status: October 2025). You will pay an additional €30 (as of October 2025) for each additional university.
Please check your uni-assist account and your email account regularly. If you have any questions regarding your VPD application, please contact uni-assist directly.
Please contact the uni-assist support team.
Yes, if you are an applicant who is not treated as a German national. If you have already completed your assessment test (FSP) and received your certificate, you can upload your FSP to uni-assist together with your school-leaving certificate. The FSP will be taken into account when uni-assist reviews your university entrance qualification (HZB).
If you are to receive your FSP results at a later date, you can still apply for your VPD right away: just upload your school-leaving certificate from your home country to uni-assist (without FSP). In this case, you will receive a VPD with a certified HZB for Studienkolleg. When you apply through the HSBI application portal, please upload your VPD, your school leaving certificate and the FSP.
Yes. If you are an appplicant who is not treated as a German national you will need a VPD certificate for your application at HSBI, even if you have obtained your university entrance qualification via an admission test. To apply for a VPD certificate, you will not need to submit your TestAS/ITB test to uni-assist, just your educational qualifications and certificates from your home country. In this case, the VPD certificate states that you meet the requirements for attending Studienkolleg. You only need to submit the TestAS/ITB test when applying to HSBI. Please find further information here.
Hochschulstart is the central point for applications, administration and allocation of study places in admission-restricted (NC) study programmes in Germany.
If you wish to apply for an admission-restricted (NC) bachelor’s study programme at HSBI, you have to register first with Hochschulstart. After your registration, you will receive an applicant ID (BID) and an application authentication number (BAN), which you will need to apply to HSBI. You will need to enter both numbers in the HSBI application portal.
You will receive your admission offer via Hochschulstart. You also have to accept the admission offer via Hochschulstart within your individual deadline.
Enrolment then takes place via the university’s application portal. Please mind your individual enrolment deadline.
You will receive your admissions letter via Hochschulstart as well. It may take a while sometimes before the document will be available for download at Hochschulstart.
However, you will not receive an admissions letter in HSBI’s application portal.
As regards university admission, the following minimum requirements apply at HSBI:
Please refer to this website for more information on university admission through TestAS.
You have to obtain a minimum pass mark in the ITB test as well:
Please refer to this website for more information on university admission through ITB test.
No. If you obtained your university entrance qualification through Studienkolleg, you can take the TestAS or ITB test instead of attending Studienkolleg. Please find more information here.
HSBI offers six English-taught programmes:
HSBI will not carry out a preliminary review of bachelor’s degrees and other qualifications. Once we receive your application, we will check whether your educational qualifications (bachelor’s degree) meet the requirements of your desired master’s degree programme.
As regards the admission requirements, please refer to the study programme’s website.
There may be various reasons for this. Often, it is because the motivation letter does not meet the requirements. In your one-page motivation letter you should primarily explain your choice of project. If you do not do so, your application will be provisionally excluded. However, you can upload a new motivation letter until the end of the application deadline.
Please note that CVs or bachelor’s theses do not count as motivation letters.
It may also be that application documents are missing or incomplete. If this is the case, the application portal will show you the affected documents.
In Germany, the grading system is reversed compared to most other countries: 1.0 is the best grade, whereas 4.0 is the worst passing grade. If the minimum grade required is 2.5, it means your bachelor’s degree grade must be between 1.0 and 2.5 in the German grading system in order to apply to the programme. Unfortunately, grades lower than 2.5 do not meet the minimum requirement.
No, only your bachelor’s degree, in particular your final grade, and the results of the admissions test are relevant for the evaluation of your application. Other evidence such as professional experience or workshops have no influence on the admissions decision.
The work-integrated English-taught study programmes “Industrial Engineering” and “Mechatronics and Automation” are new. Thus, there are currently not many companies participating in the work-integrated programmes. We expect these numbers to increase in the near future.
You can send your application proactively to companies anytime.
Yes, this is a promising option. You can refer to HSBI’s offer and provide links to the information on our websites. If the company is interested, it can contact HSBI directly. We will provide the company with further information from the relevant colleagues and assess its suitability as a partner company. Please find information on the requirements for the suitability of companies and our contact details at this link.
The collaborating company will provide you with this information.
Yes, that is possible. But please note that you will have to change location during one semester when you do the practical part in another country. Theory phases always take place in Gütersloh.
Yes, that is possible. You can also start your studies in the bachelor’s degree programme “Industrial Engineering (EN)” or “Meachatronics and Automation (EN)” and later switch to the work-integrated version when you have found a cooperating company. The application deadline for both programmes (without the work-integated part) is 15 July of each year.
No, you can only apply for work-integrated programmes if you have a cooperating company and a signed cooperation agreement.
You can take German courses from level A1 to C1 at the bibis language school in Bielefeld. Please find more information about bibis here.
You apply for your desired study programme via HSBI’s application portal CAT within the application period. This means you must already have all the required application documents ready (including the VPD). Your application will then be reviewed. If you do not have the required language certificates, we will issue a letter that you can download from CAT to register for language courses at bibis. Once you have booked your course at bibis, please send us via email the booking confirmation, a copy of your passport and your current address at admission@hsbi.de, requesting to be enrolled as a student. You will then receive a payment request from HSBI to pay the semester contribution.
Yes, bibis charges course fees for preparatory German courses. The fees must be paid to bibis.
You can be enrolled at HSBI via bibis for a maximum of two semesters. If you do not provide the required language certificates by then, you will be deregistered.
Yes, that is possible. HSBI offers preparatory German courses from level B2 onwards. Please find more information here.
Please see this website for information about the semester contribution.
No. International students pay the usual semester contribution.
You must apply for registration online via HSBI’s CAT portal by your individual registration deadline. Please transfer the semester contribution and take out health insurance afterwards. You will have a further 14 days to do this. If you cannot manage to do so, please send us a short message at admission@hsbi.de.
You will see this in your status in the application portal. Once you have successfully completed your registration, your status will change to “registered”. You will then receive your login details by post.
You will receive the access data by post after your successful registration. If you have provided an address abroad in your application, your access data will be sent to the International Office (admissions team). You can collect your letter there after your arrival. Please mind the consultation hours. And please always store the letter with your access data in a safe place.
Please make sure that your registration has been completed. Have you transferred your semester contribution? Is your health insurance certificate still missing? It may take 2–3 days for the certificates to arrive. You will only receive your access data once your registration has been completed.
If you have not received your access data, please contact the Data Processing Centre (DVZ).
Upon registration: once your registration is complete, you can download your registration certificate from HSBI’s CAT application portal by logging in with your applicant data. However, these are the prerequisites:
As soon as you have received your access data for HSBI’s online services, you can retrieve your registration certificate in the CAT portal. Please find instructions here.
If you do not manage to arrive at your study location in time for the start of your studies and you have to start your studies later – e.g. due to delays in the visa process – a delayed start of studies will not cause any problems in most cases. Please make sure to speak with your faculty/programme director if you arrive late.
HSBI will not issue a “Late Arrival Letter” or a similar document as a precautionary measure. Your admissions letter will include a note for German diplomatic missions abroad stating that it will have no negative effects on your registration at the university if you arrive after the beginning of the semester.
In exceptional cases, embassies may request evidence concerning other topics, such as the standard duration of study, attendance-based studies or language certificates. In such cases, please contact admission@hsbi.de.
Sorry, we cannot issue such a certificate.
Yes! We cannot register you as a student at our university without your health insurance confirmation. It is irrelevant in this matter where you are at the time of enrolment or the start of your studies.
No, your health insurance provider must confirm your insurance coverage digitally. Please ask your health insurance provider to send us a digital (insurance) confirmation (M10) electronically. No type of document will be accepted as proof.
If your private health insurance’s coverage is equivalent to that of a German statutory health insurance, it will be accepted as student insurance. Since it can be difficult to compare the terms and conditions of private and statutory insurance, the statutory health insurance providers in Germany are obliged to check whether your private insurance is sufficient for study purposes. You must thus send the English- or German-language general terms and conditions of your private insurance to a statutory health insurance provider of your choice. In addition, you usually have to complete an application form. For example, Techniker Krankenkasse has an online form.
No, because you are usually already insured in your home country. For your registration at HSBI, you still need an electronic confirmation from a German statutory health insurance provider. You must thus also contact a German statutory health insurance provider in this case to arrange for the digital confirmation. Techniker Krankenkasse also has an online form on this website.
If you decide to take up employment in Germany alongside your studies, you will have to take out health insurance in Germany.
No. If you have been issued an exemption as part of your enrolment, you will not be able to switch to statutory health insurance throughout your studies.
Private insurance providers often offer seemingly attractive rates for international students. However, they often do not cover all services. This means that you may face higher costs than expected if you fall sick or suffer an accident. We recommend you take out statutory health insurance for the best possible coverage during your studies. Statutory health insurance providers include: AOK, BARMER, DAK, Techniker Krankenkasse, IKK. Their rates are at approx. €125.– per month. This amount is almost the same for all providers. You can easily take out health insurance online with any of the providers.
No, we do not offer such scholarships. However, the International Office regularly offers 1-semester scholarships for international students. Please find more information here. In addition, we recommend that you check the DAAD’s scholarship database.
BAföG is a state financial assistance in accordance with the Federal Training Assistance Act. Under certain conditions, people without German nationality, especially refugees, are also eligible for funding. Please contact Studierendenwerk Bielefeld for advice and application.
Studierendenwerk Bielefeld is responsible for allocating rooms in student residences. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that you get a room in a student residence, as there is usually a long waiting list. Please find further resources that may be helpful when you look for accommodation on your own in the Guide for International Students, which you can download here. The International Office will be happy to assist you, but you are responsible for finding accommodation.
No, HSBI does not have its own student accommodation. Unlike in many other countries, where universities often provide their own halls of residence for students, this is rather unusual in Germany. Students must therefore find their own accommodation, e.g. private halls of residence, shared flats or rented flats in the region.
The International Office’s Housing Team will be happy to support you. Please contact our colleagues at housing@hsbi.de.
