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Study in Germany, explained end to end.

One session, one hour of walkthrough, then your questions for as long as you have them. We go through why Germany, how its universities are built, what a Studienkolleg is, what your curriculum needs for admission, and how the visa actually runs. Nothing is sold on the call.

Date
Saturday 19 September 2026
Time
17:00 to 19:00 UAE 16:00 to 18:00 Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait
Where
Online Joining link sent to you
Price
Free English and Arabic

Register and we send you the joining link and a reminder before we go live. Parents are welcome, and most of the questions on the night come from them.


The agenda

What we cover, minute by minute.

The walkthrough runs about an hour. The longest block is admission requirements, because that is the part that decides your route and the part most families get wrong.

00:00 to 00:05 · 5 min

Who we are, and what we are not

Five minutes so you know who is talking and why our answer to a question might be the one you did not want to hear.

  • Fifteen years inside German admissions, and ICEF Agency Status, an independently verified mark of a screened agency.
  • A consulting and application service, not a school. We do not run language courses, Studienkollegs or camps. We connect and register you with vetted partner providers.
  • One advisor on your case, from the first call to your first week in Germany. No call centre, no handoffs.
  • No guarantees and no success rates. If a programme is a long shot you hear it from us first, with the realistic alternative next to it.
00:05 to 00:15 · 10 min

Why Germany

The case for Germany in numbers rather than adjectives: what it costs, what you are allowed to do while you are there, and what happens the day you graduate.

  • Public universities charge little to no tuition, only a semester fee you pay directly to the university.
  • You can work while you study, up to 20 hours a week during term and full time through the semester breaks.
  • An 18 month job-seeker visa after you graduate, so the degree connects to a career rather than a departure date.
  • What living actually costs. In Berlin roughly 950 to 1,400 euro a month all in, with a shared room at 450 to 750 euro and nationwide transport on the Germany Ticket at 63 euro.
  • Degrees that travel. German engineering, computer science and business qualifications are respected by employers worldwide, inside Europe's largest economy.
  • English-taught study is real, not a workaround. We show you where it exists and where German is unavoidable.
00:15 to 00:20 · 5 min

How German higher education is built

Germany does not have one type of university and does not have one application portal. Five minutes on the map, so the rest of the session has somewhere to land.

  • Two routes in. A Studienkolleg leading into a public university, or direct admission to one of our partner universities.
  • Universities and universities of applied sciences. The applied side is built around internships and real company projects, which changes the teaching, the language and the cost.
  • Language of instruction is the fork most families underestimate. Public universities mostly teach in German, at about C1 through TestDaF, DSH or telc C1 Hochschule. Many partner universities teach in English.
  • Admission-free subjects and restricted programmes are not the same application, which is why subject choice and timing matter this much.
  • Three application channels: uni-assist, Hochschulstart, or direct to the university. Where uni-assist is required it charges its own fee, approximately 75 euro for the first application and 30 euro for each additional one.
00:20 to 00:25 · 5 min

What a Studienkolleg actually is

The most misunderstood year in the whole process. It is not a language school and it is not a punishment, it is the recognised bridge when your school certificate is not yet equivalent to the German Abitur.

  • Who needs one and who skips it entirely. The first step is always reading your diploma, not booking a course.
  • The tracks decide your degree. T for engineering and technology, M for medicine and biology, W for business and economics, G for humanities, with an S language variant and a combined M+T course at some colleges.
  • It ends with the Feststellungsprüfung, recognised nationwide. Pass it and you can apply across Germany, not only at the college you attended.
  • German B1 is the usual level to walk in, and you leave at a higher one. Some routes start at A2, and one partner track runs in English with no German at all.
  • The honest caveat: not every foundation year ends in the state Feststellungsprüfung. Two of the routes we work with finish with an internal exam that opens their own partner universities instead. We tell you which is which before you choose.
00:25 to 00:45 · 20 min

Admission requirements, curriculum by curriculum

The main event, and the reason it gets twenty minutes. Your curriculum, not your grades alone, decides whether you go straight into a German university or through a foundation year first. We go through each one with the actual thresholds.

  • International Baccalaureate, the German (KMK) subject conditions that turn a full Diploma into a direct entrance qualification.
  • British IGCSE and A-Levels, judged subject by subject, and why British students generally cannot take a Studienkolleg.
  • The American High School Diploma, where accreditation, unit counts and exact course names decide the outcome, plus the four AP exams a public university expects.
  • Indian Standard XII, the APS certificate, and the JEE result that removes the foundation year for technology and natural sciences.
  • The Gulf national certificates, one by one, including the country that needs two university years rather than one and the certificate German universities do not accept at all.
  • How recognition is actually decided. Not by an agency and not by a website, but by Anabin and the KMK, and by each university.
00:45 to 00:55 · 10 min

The visa, in the order it happens

Most visa problems are sequencing problems. We walk the stages in the order the process expects, with the current figures and where each one is paid.

  • Admission first. The visa stage only opens once the application stage is done, and the blocked account has to be confirmed before the embassy appointment.
  • The blocked account, 2026 figures. 11,904 euro for university and foundation-year students, released to you at 992 euro a month. Standalone language-course students need 13,092 euro. The amount is set by the German Federal Foreign Office and updated each year.
  • Why you transfer more than the blocked figure, roughly 12,150 euro, and how the unused buffer comes back with your first monthly payout.
  • Health insurance is a legal requirement, and the public to private choice is close to a one-way door. Foundation-year and preparatory language students are not allowed public cover in that phase at all.
  • What the process costs outside any package: the visa fee at approximately 75 euro to the embassy, and the residence permit at approximately 100 euro after you arrive.
  • The first weeks in Germany: city registration, the tax ID, a German bank account, and the residence permit appointment.
From 00:55 · open

Your questions, for as long as you have them

The part people stay for. We keep answering until the questions run out, and no question is too specific or too basic.

  • Bring your transcript. Questions about a real set of subjects and grades get a much better answer than general ones.
  • Ask in English or Arabic, whichever you are comfortable with.
  • Parents, this is your slot too. Cost, safety, timelines and what happens if something goes wrong are fair game.
  • Nothing is sold on the call. If your answer is that Germany is not the right move, that is the answer you get.

About 55 minutes of walkthrough. The question and answer then runs to the end of the two hour session.


Inside the 20 minute block

The requirements we go through, curriculum by curriculum.

This is the segment that changes what a family does next. Here is the level of detail to expect for each curriculum on the night.

International Baccalaureate Diploma

  • A full Diploma that meets the German (KMK) conditions is a direct university entrance qualification, so it skips the Studienkolleg entirely.
  • The conditions are about subject spread, not only points: two languages with at least one at Higher Level, one natural science, one mathematics, one social science, and a sixth subject of your choice.
  • Miss one of those slots and the route runs through a Studienkolleg instead, which is why we check the subject grid before anyone applies.

We confirm your subject combination against Anabin before you rely on it.

British IGCSE and A-Levels

  • A public university expects three A-Levels, each at grade C or higher, in independent subjects rather than two from the same area.
  • The right three depend on your field. Engineering wants Maths plus a science. Medicine wants three from Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Computer Science. Arts and design have no set subjects.
  • British students generally cannot take a Studienkolleg, so if the three subjects are not there we plan a different route rather than a foundation year.

Choosing A-Level subjects in Grade 10 or 11 is the single cheapest moment to fix this.

American High School Diploma

  • Judged on accreditation, unit counts and exact course names. The school must hold recognised US accreditation, and you need 16 academic units across grades 9 to 12, or 15 if you did grades 10 to 12 only.
  • The subject rules are specific. Four units of English with advanced English in grades 11 and 12, two units of one foreign language, three of social studies, maths through Algebra II and Trigonometry into Pre-Calculus or AP Calculus.
  • Only Biology, Chemistry and Physics count as science. Environmental, Earth, Forensic and Health science do not, and maths and science together need at least five units at grade C or better.
  • Direct entry then needs four AP exams matched to your field, each scored 3 or higher, from grade 11 or 12.

This is the curriculum where a transcript line most often decides the year. We check every line against yours.

Indian Standard XII, CBSE and State Boards

  • India needs an APS certificate before Germany will look at the file at all.
  • Passing JEE Main and Advanced gives direct entry to technology and natural sciences with no Studienkolleg.
  • Otherwise the Studienkolleg route asks for at least 70 percent overall, and one recognised university year gives direct entry.

Relevant to a lot of Gulf families whose children sit CBSE at school here.

The Gulf national secondary certificates

  • Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Bahrain: the General Secondary certificate is normally not a direct entrance qualification on its own. Fresh school leavers take a Studienkolleg, and one successful university year at a recognised institution gives direct entry instead.
  • Kuwait is the exception: it needs two successful university years for direct entry, not one, and the Industrial or Pre-Technician certificate is not accepted for German universities at all.
  • Qatar applies minimum grade thresholds, roughly 50 to 75 percent depending on your stream. We verify which one applies to you.
  • The university year has to be in the same field, or one closely related. A year in a different subject does not count toward direct entry.

We also cover Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Syrian and Pakistani certificates, which come up constantly in Gulf classrooms.

This is a guide, not an official assessment. Official recognition is decided by Anabin and the KMK, the German recognition databases, and by each university. Want your own case mapped before the session? Run the free admission checker, or bring the result with you to the question and answer.


Who should come

Built for three people in the room.

Students still at school

Grade 10, 11 or 12. This is the window where subject choices are still yours to make, and where the right three A-Levels or the right AP set can remove a whole foundation year.

Graduates and university students

Already finished school, or partway through a degree at home. We cover what a recognised university year does to your route, and what a completed Bachelor opens for a Master in Germany.

Parents backing the decision

You are paying for it and worrying about it. You get the real cost of a year, what the blocked account is for, how insurance works and what our role is, in plain terms.


About us

Who is running the session.

Laghbani Consulting is a German-admissions consultancy for Gulf students. We are Switzerland-based and work remotely with families across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. That focus is deliberate: we know the school systems, the documents and the questions families here ask, so the advice is specific rather than generic.

Our mission is simple to state and harder to do. Make a German degree reachable for every Gulf student ready to earn it. A German university place is one of the best opportunities a student can earn, and the process should never be the reason they miss it.

German admissions reward preparation and punish guesswork. From the Gulf it means dozens of decisions, deadlines and documents, most of them easy to get wrong and expensive to get wrong twice. A single missed step can cost a year. We turn that into a clear, ordered plan and then do the work with you.

We hold to three things on every case: clarity first, a straight read on where you stand before you spend a euro. One advisor, the same person from your first call to your first week in Germany. And done properly, documents, deadlines, the visa and your arrival handled to the standard German admissions demand, not the one that hopes for the best.

Fifteen years in

We have guided students into German universities for over fifteen years, and seen the process from every angle.

Germany only

Germany is our focus, not a sideline. We know the recognition rules for every major Gulf curriculum and the procedure that follows.

One advisor

You deal with one dedicated advisor, not a call centre. No handoffs and no repeating yourself.

Independent advice

We connect you to vetted partners, but our recommendations are never bought. We point you to what fits your profile.

What we do, and what we do not

Worth being blunt about before you spend an evening with us.

  • Consultation and assessment. We read your academic background and goals, then lay out the realistic route, including an honest answer on whether Germany is the right move.
  • Admissions and applications. University applications, the Motivationsschreiben, transcripts and certificates, through uni-assist, Hochschulstart and direct applications.
  • Visa and registrations. The student visa, blocked account and the registrations tied to your move, prepared in the order the process expects.
  • Foundation-year placement. We connect and register you with our partner colleges and handle the paperwork.
  • We do not run language courses, Studienkollegs or camps. We are a consulting and application service, not a school.
  • We are not a university, embassy or government authority, and we do not decide recognition. Anabin, the KMK and each university do.
  • We make no guarantees of admission or visa approval, and we quote no success rates.

Laghbani Consulting holds ICEF Agency Status, an independently verified mark of a screened agency. You can check the agency profile yourself.


Register

Get your joining link.

Registering is free and takes about a minute. It gets you the link and a reminder, and it tells us where the student is in their schooling so we can weight the curriculum block toward the people in the room.

Your details

Please enter your first name.

Please enter your last name.

The joining link goes here.

Please enter a valid email address.

Reminders and the joining link go out on WhatsApp, so please give a number that has WhatsApp on it. Include your country code.

Please include the country code, for example +971.

The student

If you are registering for your child, pick their curriculum. If you are the student, pick your own.

Please choose a curriculum.

Please choose a stage.

Your details stay private and are used for this session only.

You are registered. See you there.

We send the joining link to your email and your WhatsApp, with a reminder before we go live. Bring your transcript and your questions.


Before you register

The usual questions.

Is it really free?
Yes. The session costs nothing and nothing is sold on the call. If you want your own case worked through afterwards, that is a separate paid consultation, and you will hear about it once, at the end.
How long does it run?
The walkthrough is about 55 minutes. The question and answer after it is open ended, and in practice that is where a good part of the evening goes.
Which language is it in?
English and Arabic. Ask your question in whichever you are more comfortable with. German terms like Studienkolleg, Feststellungsprüfung and uni-assist stay in their original form, because that is how you will meet them on every form.
Can parents attend?
Please do. We build these sessions for Gulf students and the parents who back them, and the cost, safety and timeline questions almost always come from the parents in the room.
My child is only in Grade 10. Is it too early?
It is the best time to come. Grade 10 and 11 is when subject choices are still open, and the right A-Level combination or AP set can be the difference between direct admission and a foundation year. Everything after Grade 12 is repair work.
Can I get my own case assessed on the call?
You can ask anything in the question and answer, and we answer honestly. A full assessment of your transcript is not something we can do live for everyone, so for that, run the free admission checker or book a consultation.

One evening now, or a year later.

Most of what costs Gulf students a year is decided before they ever apply. Spend an hour with us and find out which decisions are still yours to make.

Register for the webinar