A good half of the students who want to study choose a university that is less than 50 kilometers away. However, for some courses, high school graduates also move further away.
Many students who decide to study go to universities close to home. Just over half study within 50 kilometers of their home. This emerges from data from the Federal Statistical Office, which the Center for University Development (CHE) analyzed. According to this, two thirds of students move less than 100 kilometers away. Only one in five study more than 200 kilometers from their hometown.
One reason for this is the increased energy and housing costs, says Marc Hüsch from CHE. The finding is consistent with a further analysis by the CHE. It examined how many students still live at home. “We are seeing a growing proportion of students here, currently 28 percent,” says Hüsch.
Long distances for sought-after subjects
Students move further away for courses in which it is difficult to get a place – for example for medicine and psychology. According to the analysis, they accept distances of 100 kilometers or more. In comparison, students of business administration, computer science and mechanical engineering tend to stay at home. Around 50 percent move no more than 40 kilometers away.
There are also differences between the genders. Women choose a university further away more often than men. Half of the female students chose a place of study more than 54 kilometers away, while for men it was 44 kilometers away.
The study also analyzes how many students come from abroad. When it comes to so-called migration behavior from abroad, the TU Munich is the most successful: five percent of students who did not obtain their admission in Germany study there. No other university can keep up with this value.
Background to the investigation
The CHE analyzed data from the Federal Statistical Office from the winter semester of 2022/23. From the Abitur certificates, the universities know in which districts the students went to school. With this data, the scientists can roughly calculate how far the hometown is from the respective university. The study was conducted for the first time. It cannot be directly determined from the data whether students choose a nearby university more often or less often.
The Center for University Development (CHE) is a joint, non-profit subsidiary of the Bertelsmann Foundation and the University Rectors’ Conference.