German Courses

Are you interested in learning German? And have you already checked out the upcoming courses offered by Studienkolleg Karlsruhe? Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists (KHYS) offers docs and postdocs at KIT the opportunity to take part in the German courses at Studienkolleg. For those doctoral researchers, who are not enrolled, we even offer a refund for participation fees for doctoral researchers and postdocs for German classes in the wintersemester 2025/26. Please find all information about who is eligible for the refund and how to apply on our website.

The application period for the winter semester 2025/26 is open from July 31, 2025 until September 19, 2025. Please follow the steps listed below:

  1. Please take an online placement test at Studienkolleg (not needed for courses A 1.1+, A 1.1.4 and A 1.8 or in case you have already passed the preceding Studienkolleg course)
  2. Please choose the course you want to take in our event calendar (important: unlike in previous semesters, you will need to select the exact course in our event calendar, this selection is binding; you do not have to register with the Studienkolleg!) 
  3. Application to KHYS ▶ via our event calendar by September 19, 2025 a) for a place in a German course at STK if you are enrolled as a doctoral researcher OR b) for a place in a German course at STK and the refund at KHYS if you are not enrolled as a doctoral researcher
  4. Approval of the place and/or funding by KHYS until October 2, 2025.

The following additional steps apply only to those researchers who are not enrolled and who are applying for the refund:

5. You need to pay the registration fee to Studienkolleg by October 25, 2025.

6. Please send proof of payment transaction to KHYS via ▶ germancourses ∂does-not-exist.khys kit edu

7. Important: Unlike in previous semesters, KHYS will only make the refund if you have passed the final exam.

8. Submission of the certificate that you have passed the final exam to KHYS once the course is finished plus bank details, address, date of birth, KIT personnel number or Tax ID. Deadline for handing in all documents and information: March 15, 2026

9. KHYS will make the refund

Doctoral researchers and postdocs at KIT who are ▶ member of KHYS are eligible for the refund. Moreover, you should not be enrolled as a doctoral student (find out more about this in the next question).

If you are a KIT doctoral researcher or postdoc in Ulm or Garmisch-Partenkirchen, please contact us via ▶ germancourses∂khys.kit.edu concerning the possibility to get a fee refund for German courses.

Doctoral researchers who are enrolled at KIT as PhD students (i.e. who pay the student semester fee) receive one German course per semester at Studienkolleg free of charge. Therefore, we ask only doctoral researchers to apply for the KHYS refund program who are not enrolled at KIT. You can find more information regarding enrollment (“Immatrikulation”) on our ▶ website.

In this case, please contact us via ▶ germancourses∂khys.kit.edu. You might be allowed to apply for the refund while you are still in the registration process.

You can apply via our ▶ event calendar.

Please note: A successful application for the refund does not mean that you are already registered for the German course! In order to take part in the course, you still have to register with Studienkolleg. Read more about this in the question “What are the next steps after receiving the confirmation for the refund?”

The application period for the winter semester normally starts in August and ends in late September or early October, for the summer semester it runs from February until late March or early April. The current call for application is published on this website, we will also inform you about this in our ▶ KHYS infomail.

For most courses at Studienkolleg, it will be necessary to take an online placement test which gives information on the level of your German language skills. Read more about this in “course selection” on this ▶ website. There will be no test for level A 1 or in case you have already passed the preceding Studienkolleg course.

KHYS will make the funding decision on a first come, first served basis (provided that all prerequisites have been met), so make sure you take the necessary steps early on. If you have already received funding more than twice it might be less likely that KHYS will fund you again.

We will inform you about our funding decision via e-mail about a week before the registration for the German courses starts at Studienkolleg. Thus, you will know if you receive funding by us before paying for the course.

If you receive an email that your application has been succesful, you no longer have to register with Studienkolleg, but simply transfer the course fee by the date given in the e-mail. Please save a proof of the payment transaction and forward it to us.

After the end of the course, you will have to show proof that you have passed the final exam. So please send a scan of the certificate issued by Studienkolleg after the end of the course to ▶ germancourses∂khys.kit.edu. We will send you an e-mail informing you about additional data we need from you like your bank details. After you handed in all information and documents, KHYS will pass them on to the financial department at KIT in order to pay the refund.

If you applied for the refund successfully but you do not plan to claim it, please let us know by sending a short e-mail to ▶ germancourses∂khys.kit.edu.

Unfortunately, you cannot receive the refund retroactively, you have to apply at the beginning of the semster before the course starts. This is due to the fact that we only have a limited budget each semester. While making our funding decision, we already take into consideraton that not every applicant will claim the refund.