Suche
Student boom in Berlin: 166,000 start the winter semester!
In the winter semester of 2025, around 166,000 students will be enrolled at Berlin's universities, an increase compared to the previous year.
Student boom in Berlin: 166,000 start the winter semester!
The start of the 2025/26 winter semester shows a positive development in Berlin's higher education landscape: around 166,000 students are enrolled at the capital's state universities, which is according to Daily Mirror represents a provisional number. The Senate Department for Science estimates that the final number will rise to almost 170,000. This corresponds to an increase of around 2,000 students compared to the previous winter semester.
The winter semester began on October 1, 2025, while the lecture period at the Free University (FU) and Humboldt University (HU) begins on October 13. However, no significant changes in the number of students are expected at non-state universities.
Student numbers in detail
| university | Number of students |
|---|---|
| Free University | around 37,000 |
| Humboldt University (HU) | around 35,000 |
| Technical University | around 34,000 |
There are currently 7,860 first-year students enrolled at the HU (as of October 2nd), while there are around 8,350 new students at the FU. The TU expects around 6,700 enrollments in bachelor's and master's degree programs.
Student statistics and trends
The student structure in Berlin is also varied. 62 percent of students are enrolled at universities, 34 percent at universities of applied sciences and 3 percent at art or music colleges - an above-average proportion in a nationwide comparison.
One of the most popular subjects is business administration, followed by medicine, computer science, psychology and law.
The psychology course in particular has seen a sharp increase in student numbers in recent years, which indicates a growing interest in this subject. Berlin is establishing itself not only as an educational location, but also as a center for various academic disciplines.