University dropouts of all international and German first-year students from 2018 to 2020 in the first three study programme semesters by type of degree

The new data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on study progress now provide a more meaningful official database for calculating dropout rates and enable an annually updated and detailed analysis of dropout rates for different subgroups of students. Since 2025, Destatis has also been providing dropout data for Master’s students for the first time. When interpreting these data, it should always be noted that they do not cover the entire course of study, but only the first three semesters.
Looking first at the development of dropout rates among international and German students in the 2018 to 2020 intake cohorts, it can be seen that these rates have remained relatively stable over time. The only exception here is the comparatively sharp increase in the dropout rate among Master’s students between the 2019 and 2020 cohorts. It can be assumed that this is an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, although it is unclear why this is only evident among Master’s students.
Furthermore, there are differences in the dropout rates of German and international students. The dropout rate for international Bachelor’s students in the first-year cohorts considered is around 15 percent to 16 percent, compared to only around 13 percent for German students. The dropout rate for international Master’s students is around 8 percent to 9 percent, compared to around 5 percent to 6 percent for German students.