10/13/2025

Student numbers slightly above last year's level, increase in doctoral enrolments

The number of students enrolled at Saarland University has risen slightly compared to the previous winter semester. While 16,031 students were registered this time last year, there are now 16,114 young people studying at Saarland University. The number of first-year students is slightly below last year's level. The overall increase is primarily due to a growing number of doctoral candidates and continuing education students.

The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.

At the start of the winter semester, Saarland University is reporting stable student numbers. Currently (8 October 2025), 16,114 students are enrolled at Saarland University. This figure is slightly above the level recorded at the same time last year (16,031 on 9 October 2024). Experience shows that this figure will increase slightly by the time the final statistics are released on 30 November. The number of first-year students has fallen slightly compared to the previous year. 2,304 have already enrolled for this winter semester, compared to 2,491 in 2024. There has been a renewed increase in the number of international students, with around 3,787 (previous year: 3,610) currently enrolled, representing around 24 per cent of the student body. The number of doctoral students has increased significantly compared to previous years, from 2,627 to 2,785. There has also been a significant increase in continuing education courses. While 834 people were enrolled in one of Saarland University's continuing education programmes in the 2024/25 winter semester, the number has now risen to 1,034.

University President Ludger Santen, who is opening the academic year today with a ceremony, said of these figures: "I am very pleased that, despite an overall decline in the number of students eligible for higher education in Germany, we are able to welcome almost as many newly enrolled young people to Saarland University today as in previous years. The fact that the number of doctoral students has risen significantly is also a strong indication that we offer an attractive research environment that motivates young scientists from all over the world to come to Saarland." This is encouraging news for the university, but also for Saarland as a whole, the university president continued.

In addition to the already established subjects in the Saarland University portfolio, the following Bachelor's and Master's programmes will also start this winter semester:

•    Advance Practice Nursing 
•    Cultural Studies and Management 
•    Digital Sciences for Transformation 
•    Physiotherapy 
•    Sustainable Materials and Engineering