Destinations, subjects, and duration:

In 2006, the last year for which statistics were available, out of roughly 82,000 German students abroad, 80% stayed within Europe, 13% went to the American continent, 5% chose a destination in Oceania (most likely Australia or New Zealand) and about 2% went to an Asian university. Numbers to Africa are not known.

German students who went abroad between 1996 and 2006 were studying the following subjects: business and/or economics (19%), language, culture, or sports (18%), law and/or social sciences (15%), medicine (12%), math or science (11%), engineering or technology (8%), arts or creative sciences (5%), veterinary medicine (3%), agriculture, forestry, or nutritional sciences (1%); roughly 11% were either studying a combination of these subjects or no details had been provided about their subject area.

Germans also have a certain tendency to go for shorter rather than longer periods of study abroad. Figures provided by one of the leading German study-abroad agents show that 74% of their students opt for a semester abroad, 18% for a summer school, 5% for a full degree and 3% for a language course. However, in certain neighbouring countries and for certain subjects, there is a much higher tendency to follow a full bachelor degree programme, as in the Netherlands (for a wide variety of subjects), Hungary and the Czech Republic (for medicine and veterinary medicine). There is also a growing tendency to follow a postgraduate degree course such as MBA, MA or MSc in an English-speaking country.