Deadlines, Admission Procedure, FAQ

Mostly in English. In particular, all compulsory courses and most elective courses are taught in English. So, it is possible to obtain enough credits for completion of the programme without taking any of the optional seminars or lectures offered in German. But your choice of options is bigger if you know or learn German. And a significant part of overall administration is in German. Therefore you are required to have (or obtain during your first year of studies) basic knowledge of the German language corresponding to CEFR Level A1.

A two-year programme. Students begin their studies in either the summer or winter term, and then typically finish two years later. Most courses are offered in only one of the two terms. So if you start in the winter term, you may begin by taking the compulsory courses in advanced macroeconomics and econometrics and should then take microeconomics and maths in your second semester. If you start in the summer term, this order gets reversed.

This depends on your background. The programme leads to a Master of Science degree which prepares you for PhD studies or for practical work that requires up-to-date theoretical and empirical methods of economics. Students must therefore have a Bachelor’s degree that has prepared them sufficiently well, especially for the quantitative parts of the programme. We recommend that you have a look at some of the material with which you will be confronted in the first weeks of the compulsory core courses

• Mathematics
• Advanced Microeconomics I
• Advanced Macroeconomics I
• Advanced Empirical Economics I

in order to get an idea of what awaits you.

Yes. But your chances of getting accepted may be very small depending on the completed curriculum. We expect more than a year's worth of overlap between your completed Bachelor's curriculum and the Bachelor's programme in Economics at the University of Bayreuth. You need a minimum of 35 ECTS in the methodological core courses — mathematics, statistics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, empirical economics/econometrics — at a sufficiently advanced technical level. These should be complemented by more applied or specialized economics courses (such as economic policy, international economics, environmental economics, industrial economics, ...).

If you have a Bachelor’s degree in, say, Business Administration, Management, Commerce, or Banking & Finance and the overlap with a quantitative BSc in Economics consists only of basic microeconomics and macroeconomics, with little calculus involved, then there is no point in applying. If, however, your degree was taught at a relatively high mathematical level (e.g., you know on how to compute the expected value of a continuous random variable, how to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint, you are familiar with the notion of a transitive preference relation, IS-LM diagrams, and OLS regression) then you definitely should apply.

Usually a disadvantage, but this depends on your job. For the great majority of our new students, knowledge of calculus, intermediate microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics is still pretty fresh. The compulsory courses on advanced microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics in the programme’s first year build on this knowledge. So if your work experience is four years of accounting, sales or Excel spreadsheets, you might have problems in following some courses. But if you did two years of econometric forecasting that likely is an advantage.

No. The programme does not involve a specific tuition fee. But students have to be enrolled at the University of Bayreuth. This comes with an administration fee of currently around 148€ per semester. See “Semesterbeitrag” at Student Registry Office.

No. You will have to fund your living expenses yourself (800-1100€/month, or more depending on your style of living).

No. But prospective employers regularly present themselves to students at conferences and workshops held at the university. There is also an Internship Service at the University of Bayreuth which can be of help to you after enrollment.

Generally not. In particular, we tend to ignore letters of recommendation, writing samples, work certificates, etc.

No. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to compare or convert grades. You’ll find some general information on German grades if you check “Academic grading in Germany” on Wikipedia. But quality of college education is so heterogeneous even within many countries – let alone between countries – that it is impossible to simply take a transcript’s percentage scores and convert them into “sehr gut”, “gut”, etc.

Our decision on whether we consider your previous qualifications as equivalent to a final grade of 2.5 obtained in our BSc programme in Economics will be based on an individual evaluation. Understand that we do this evaluation rather cautiously, especially for graduates who come from far away: there are huge costs to you and to us if you are admitted but it should then – after the hassle of obtaining a visa, finding accommodation, moving to Bayreuth,  etc. – turn out that the programme is too demanding.

In this case, you will receive an email confirmation of your admission at UBT. The admission offer also appears for download in your CAMPUSonline Account. So be sure to check your inbox, your spam folder and your CAMPUSonline Account regularly. The letter of admission contains further instructions for enrolment. 

Note that being admitted to the programme is just giving you an option – exercising it by enroling in the programme requires your own action. Therefore, accept your admission offer as soon as possible! You can do this in your CAMPUSonline Account. Upon accepting your admission offer, you will be given detailed instructions on the enrolment procedure.

Yes. In this case, you will receive an email confirmation. The result of the admission procedure also appears for download in your CAMPUSonline Account. So be sure to check your inbox, your spam folder and your CAMPUSonline Account regularly.

No. The rejection of an admission will only mention a short reason. This is either that the submitted documents haven’t allowed a definite conclusion on whether your degrees and grades provide sufficient qualification for Master’s studies in Economics at Bayreuth, or that we have concluded they do not. Given the number of applications we receive, we cannot provide more detailed explanations. Nor can we respond to mails saying that – perhaps because of some “conversion table” found on the Internet (see FAQ above) – we should regard the GPA in your Economics Bachelor’s as much better than a German 2.5, etc.

It only makes sense for you to follow up on a rejected application if you have obtained relevant new information, such as improved scores in your language or GRE tests.

The most common reason is that you did not obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and we regard the completed curriculum in your related degree program as insufficiently similar to our BSc programme in Economics. Applications from many stellar performers in accounting, management, etc., are rejected because the respective curriculum simply has not included sufficient amounts of the core economics topics which are prerequisites for our Master’s programme.

Neither. Finding accommodation in Bayreuth is not trivial, but all your predecessors succeeded. The student dorms typically have waiting lists. You can obtain more information from the University of Bayreuth’s International Office.

No. We don't maintain special relations to the Federal Foreign Office nor do we have contacts to particular German Embassies. We therefore cannot help you getting a visa appointment, etc.