What do Albanians in Germany most often study?

Germany is a favourite country for students from Albania and Kosovo. But what challenges do they have, and where might they be interested in being oriented there? DAAD expert Anjet Schlamm explains about Deutsche Welle.

Deutsche Welle: A report from DAAD for 2019 confirms that Germany has returned to a very popular country for students from around the world, but for students from Albania and Kosovo there are numbers?

Aunt Schlamm: Even for students from Albania and Kosovo, Germany is a preferred destination, but of course, if you look at it as a whole, they make up a small part of students from around the world. We have close to 2,000 students from Albania, and from Kosovo we have 2313 students. These are the current student figures for the 2017-2018 academic year. It's interesting to note, in statistics we distinguish between foreign students who lived in Germany and those from abroad. If we look at students from Albania and Kosovo, it reflects the recent political history and migration history.

What is specific about these statistics?

Aunt Schlamm: We see that Kosovo students in German universities come in large numbers from Germany, more than 80% of them living in Germany prior to studies. Only around 20% of them have come straight from Kosovo. In Albania, however, students are the opposite. Most Albanian students at German universities have come straight from Albania, close to 90%. This means that their educational biography has been shaped in Albania, they have been raised in Albania, they have attended school in Tirana, Shkodra or Elbasan and have received access to study at German university.

DW: What do you see about those students who come from their country of origin, and what challenges do they have?

Aunt Schlamm: If we can talk about difficulties, because they really bring a good setting of start-up, then this is about organising the study, there's a lot of self-intelligence required in Germany, which may not be found so anchored in the education tradition in Albania and Kosovo.

DW: You mean the difficulty of orientation as a student at first?

Aunt Schlamm: Yes, for example, how to prepare your own study - time schedule, which is not ready for you, is not exactly from the beginning but is compiled according to the student's interests, a plan of course within a study framework, but with the edge I would say. Practical issues of daily life also play a role when you come from outside and are very young. For example, finding an apartment is something to prepare well for. In the favorite cities for studies, finding an apartment is not so easy, so you need to prepare on time.

DW: What opportunities are there for these students?

Aunt Schlamm: There are supporting offers, so if informed, you can help yourself. German students also face difficulty organizing studies. For example, how to get out of school, write down all the references that I have been assigned to do, how I can organize the time to go to courses but also to follow the practices I need or to do other research work - how I arrange all of this. Or for students from Albania or Kosovo who do not have German language to learn, how to write an academic text. There are nearly all German universities with support structures, such as learning the academic style of writing.

DW: In what branches do students from Albania and Kosovo most often find them?

Aunt Schlamm: Both students from Albania and Kosovo have a very clear preference for the selection of the research branch -- about two-thirds of it is found on the one hand in engineering sciences, and on the other in legal and economic and social sciences -- these are the selected branches for the 2017-2018 academic year. Then there are some differences between students from Albania and Kosovo, so it's about those who don't study engineering, law science, economics or social sciences. This last quarter is noted, that Albanian students find more in natural sciences and medicine, while their Kosovo colleagues study sciences more comparatively.

DW: Someone from Albania and Kosovo who wants to study in Germany what steps should be taken?

Aunt Schlamm: The first thing I have to do is get very well informed on the portal at www.study-in-germany.de, but also on the website of the DAAD. Here are all steps detailed since preparation, from branch selection, the terms of admission to German universities, practical information on life in Germany, such as finding the apartment, shown in proper form for young people. If you're interested in master studies, you probably have a master scholarship for the DAAD. Conditions are excellent results in studies. Information about this can be found at the www.ending-guiide.de portal.

DW: They should also prove that they have a livelihood...

Aunt Schlamm: Of course they should be informed about the residence permit regulations, but the visa application is not included. The visa requirements are made at German embassies in the country, where they are informed exactly what documents are needed. If you have been admitted to a university for a student visa, if you have not yet been accepted by any German university, then another type of visa is required. But that's why it's best for those interested to be informed by German embassies or representations in the country, even on the German Foreign Ministry website.

DW: What about student fees? Should students pay non-EU university fees in Germany?

Aunt Schlamm: The student tarifa has students in Baden-Wyrtemberg London, since 2017, there foreign students not from the EU who come for studies in Germany must pay a 1,500-euro quota in semester. We don't have this fee in other German banks. Of course, there's a university registration fee, approximately 100-300 Euros in the semester, which is not a high fee, and within it may also be urban circulation for students.

DW: What advice would you give with you a young man from the region who wants to study abroad?

Aunt Schlamm: I'd like to encourage these young people to be open, and this step of study not only to view it as a professional need, because it's certainly not easy to abandon their homeland, but to see the other big prospects that arise, this step is going to change their lives, enrich them, expand their horizon, their knowledge of language. They will experience such diversity, which they may not recognize in this form.

Anje Schlamm is the chairman of the stock exchanges programme for Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe and Turkey in the SAAD, the German Academy Exchange/Lindita Arapi, DW.