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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPAMESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1990 > PART1 Chapter4 5 2

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PART 1 Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education
Chapter 4 Higher Education in Other Countries
5 The Federal Republic of Germany
2 Procedures for university admission


Universities require for admission the acquisition of an Abitur certifying the completion of a Gymnasium course. There are three kinds of secondary schools: Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. Primary school children go on to one of the three types of secondary schools in accordance with the abilities and aptitudes of individuals and in the light of parents' opinions. Those children who wish to goon to universities proceed to Gymnasium. At present, some 30% of the age group advance to Gymnasium. As some of them drop out before the completion of a Gymnasium course, the number of students successfully obtaining an Abitur represents a little more than 20% of the age group.

It is a general principle that all students holding an Abitur are eligible for university admission. However, in some fields of study where the number of applicants exceeds the number of places for first-year students, some limitation is placed on the number of students to be admitted. Applicants submit an application form to the Central Office of Admissions (Zentralstelle fur die Vergabe von Studienplatzen - ZVS) with a list of several universities they wish to apply to in order of preference. The ZVS determines who should be allowed to be admitted to a university and in which university each successful applicant should be placed. This decision is made after taking account of the average grade of each applicant in the Abitur examination, the length of "waiting period" during which each applicant waited for admission after the acquisition of an Abitur, and other factors. Individual universities will not participate in the process of determining their entrants, except for some cases where universities determine some of the entrants for medicine and other certain courses by giving applicants interviews.

Colleges of arts and music usually require for admission some proof of artistic abilities and aptitudes, in addition to an Abitur. Those students who have exceptional artistic talents are not required to hold an Abitur.

No Abitur is required for admission to Fachhochschulen. Instead, the qualification for studies at Fachhochschulen (Fachhochschulreife) is required which is granted students who have passed the final examination given at the end of the two-year Fachoberschule (vocational secondary school). The length of prior primary and secondary education required for admission to Fachhochschulen is 12 years, one year shorter than the length of prior education required for admission to universities.

Not all Gymnasium students who have obtained an Abitur enter universities. While 220,.000 to 230,000 Gymnasium students get an Abitur every year, 150,000 to 160,000 enter universities. The number of students who enter universities soon after the acquisition of an Abitur is relatively small: some 30% of all students who acquire an Abitur in a year. This is partly because all young men are required to undergo military service for 15 months and partly because in recent years there has been an increasing number of students who participate in vocational training before advancing to universities. The average age of university entrants was 21.3 for the winter term of the 1986-87 academic years.


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