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The curved stone colonnade at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, with benches between the tall columns and trees in leaf beyond

Studying in Brandenburg, Germany

Potsdam

A lake-and-palace capital city on Berlin's southwest border, with a university, a film school and a computer science institute.

10

10 English-taught programmes open for applications in Potsdam

Next deadline: 01 Dec 2026. Every entry links to its official source.

See the programmes ↓

Potsdam is the capital of Brandenburg and sits directly on the southwest edge of Berlin. You study between lakes, a UNESCO-listed palace park and the studios where German film has been made since 1912, and Berlin is a short train ride away. The city has about 185,000 residents, which is small enough to cross by bicycle, and more than 30 research institutes sit alongside the University of Potsdam, the Fachhochschule and the Film University. The honest trade-off is the same one every Potsdam student makes: the campus, the lakes and the quiet are here, but the large communities, embassies and temples that many international students look for are mostly in Berlin.

Population
185,137 (31 December 2025)
State
Brandenburg, of which Potsdam is the capital and largest city
Area
188 km², with more than 20 bodies of water inside the city
Berlin
Directly on Berlin's southwest border; regional trains and the S-Bahn line S7 connect the two
Airport
Berlin Brandenburg (BER), about 40 km east, reachable by regional train or express bus
Students
About 19,700 at the University of Potsdam (winter 2024/25), about 3,700 at the Fachhochschule, about 870 at the Film University
Study contribution to the Studierendenwerk
80 euros per semester, part of the semester contribution

Part 1

Living in Potsdam

A royal town that became a state capital

Potsdam was first mentioned in 993 and received town rights in 1345. From 1416 to 1918 it belonged to the Hohenzollern family, and Frederick the Great began building Sanssouci in 1745. That is why a city this size is full of palaces, gardens and avenues.

The twentieth century left its marks too. In 1838 the line from Berlin to Potsdam opened as Prussia's first railway. The Potsdam Conference of the Allied leaders ran from 17 July to 2 August 1945, a few months after a bombing raid on 14 April had damaged the centre. From 1952 to 1990 Potsdam was the seat of an East German district, and in 1990 it became the capital of the re-founded state of Brandenburg.

Today you see all of this on a normal walk to lectures: baroque gates, a rebuilt Stadtschloss that houses the state parliament, red-brick Dutch-style houses, GDR-era blocks, and new campus buildings between them.

The green dome of the Nikolaikirche behind the Marstall and the red-and-cream Brandenburg state parliament building, under light snow
The Nikolaikirche and the Landtag on the Alter Markt in winter.

What to see, and what is free

Most students visit the big sights in their first month and then use the parks and lakes for years.

  • Sanssouci park ↗

    Nearly 300 hectares with Sanssouci Palace, the New Palace, the Chinese House and the Historic Windmill. The park itself is free to enter and open daily from 8 am until dark. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.

  • Museum Barberini ↗

    An art museum in the rebuilt Palais Barberini on the Alter Markt, opened in 2017, showing changing exhibitions built on the collection of the Hasso Plattner Foundation and loans from other museums.

  • Filmpark Babelsberg ↗

    A theme park in the Medienstadt Babelsberg with a studio tour, exhibitions, stunt shows and sets and props from well-known productions. A paid attraction, so a good one to do once when a visitor comes.

  • Holländisches Viertel ↗

    The Dutch Quarter, built 1733 to 1740 for Dutch craftsmen, with red-brick gabled houses that are now cafes, small shops and flats.

Red-brick gabled houses with white-framed windows in Potsdam's Dutch Quarter
Gables in the Holländisches Viertel, built between 1733 and 1740.

Lakes, parks and weekends outdoors

More than 20 lakes and river stretches lie inside the city limits, linked by the Havel. The Heiliger See, Aradosee, Templiner See, Tiefer See and Griebnitzsee are central, and the Sacrower See, Lehnitzsee and Groß Glienicker See are further out. The Griebnitzsee runs right past the Babelsberg campus, so it is a lunch-break lake for many students.

The Neuer Garten and the park around Cecilienhof, the palace of the 1945 conference, are the usual places for a Sunday walk, a picnic or a run. Because Potsdam is on the Berlin transport network, a day in Berlin is equally easy when you want something different.

Old oak trees and dry grass in the Neuer Garten with a lake and reeds in the background
The lakeshore at the Neuer Garten, near Cecilienhof.

Getting around

A bicycle and the tram cover most of it; Berlin is one regional train away.

  • Tram, bus and ferry ↗

    The local operator ViP runs seven tram lines, many bus lines and one ferry line that links the island of Hermannswerder with the north-west bank of the Havel. All of it uses the common VBB fares.

  • To Berlin and the airport ↗

    The S-Bahn line S7 and regional trains such as the RE 1 connect Potsdam with Berlin. Berlin Brandenburg Airport lies about 40 km to the east and is reached by a regional train or an express bus. Check journey times for your own route in the VBB journey planner.

  • Semester ticket ↗

    Students at the University of Potsdam get a digital Deutschlandsemesterticket through the VBB campus portal, shown on the phone at ticket checks; the AStA explains how to retrieve it. The Fachhochschule students' union negotiates its ticket with the VBB too.

Work and jobs around the city

Potsdam is a science and media town more than an industrial one. The city lists more than 30 research institutes in the geosciences, climate, astrophysics, polymers, plant biology and IT, among them the GFZ Helmholtz Centre, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics and three Max Planck institutes. Many are attached to the University of Potsdam, which makes student assistant jobs and thesis placements realistic.

The Babelsberg film studio, founded in 1912, and the media companies around it give film and media students local contacts, and the Hasso Plattner Institute does the same for computer science.

As a student from outside the EU you may work 140 full days or 280 half days a year. Jobs as an academic assistant at the university have no day limit, but you must tell the Ausländerbehörde. The Studierendenwerk's job placement service also lists side jobs, some for English speakers.

Costs you can check

Dorm deposit (Studierendenwerk)
400 euros reservation fee when you accept a room, which becomes the depositsource
What a dorm rent covers
A flat rent that includes heating, electricity and furnishing; internet and the broadcasting fee are extrasource
Short lease surcharge
30 euros a month extra for stays of one to five monthssource
Bedding set for programme students
85 eurossource
Share of the semester contribution that goes to the Studierendenwerk
80 eurossource
Psychosocial counselling
Free, in German or Englishsource
Sanssouci park
Free to entersource

Rents and the semester contribution are set per semester and per room, so confirm the current figure before you commit. These are the amounts the institutions themselves publish.

The Brandenburg Gate in Potsdam, a cream-coloured triumphal arch with columns and sculptures, with a Christmas tree behind it and a cyclist in front
The Brandenburg Gate on Luisenplatz, at the edge of the old town.

Part 2

Student life in Potsdam

Where you can study

Research university

University of Potsdam ↗

About 19,700 students in winter 2024/25, around 15 percent of them international, and seven faculties including Digital Engineering, Law and Human Sciences. It teaches on three campuses: Am Neuen Palais, Griebnitzsee in Babelsberg and Golm. The university lists one English-language bachelor, Anglophone Postcolonial Studies, and 26 English-language master's programmes, among them Computer Science, Data Science, Cognitive Science, Astrophysics, Bioinformatics, Geosciences and Public Health, Exercise and Nutrition.

International office ↗
University of applied sciences

Fachhochschule Potsdam (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam) ↗

About 3,700 students and five departments: Social and Educational Sciences, City | Building | Culture, Civil Engineering, Design and Information Sciences. Most teaching is on the Campus Fachhochschule in the north of the city. It offers more than 30 bachelor's and master's programmes; check the degree list for the language of instruction before you apply.

International office ↗
Arts or music university

Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf ↗

Founded in 1954 as the German College for Film Art and a university since 2014, with about 870 students next to the Babelsberg studio. Bachelor's programmes include Cinematography, Directing, Animation, Editing and Sound Design; master's programmes include Film Heritage, Film Music and Creative Technologies. Its site does not state which courses are taught in English, so ask its international office.

International office ↗
Private university

Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) ↗

A non-profit institute on the Griebnitzsee campus that, together with the University of Potsdam, forms the Digital Engineering Faculty. Its students are enrolled at the University of Potsdam. It offers the bachelor IT Systems Engineering and the English-language master's programmes Computer Science and Digital Health, and its site lists no tuition.

Student unions, services and groups

Three campuses, one small city

The University of Potsdam does not have one central campus. Am Neuen Palais lies next to the park of Sanssouci, Griebnitzsee is in Babelsberg on the lake, and Golm is the third. Which one you spend your days on depends on your subject, so look up your faculty before you look for a flat.

The Fachhochschule is on its own campus in the north of the city, and the Film University stands next to the Babelsberg studio. A tram stop sits at the Fachhochschule campus, and every location is on the same VBB network.

Because the student body is only about 24,000 people in a city of 185,000, you will meet the same faces in cafes, on the tram and at the lake. The international share at the University of Potsdam is about 15 percent.

Campuses

A two-storey red-brick building with arched windows and a Universität Potsdam sign on the Am Neuen Palais campus, with a magnolia in bloom in front
One of the red-brick buildings on the Am Neuen Palais campus of the University of Potsdam.
Lawns, young trees and bicycle racks between a red-brick building, an old villa and a long yellow building on the Griebnitzsee campus
The Griebnitzsee campus in Babelsberg.
A green and white Potsdam tram at a stop beside a glass-fronted building on the Fachhochschule campus
The tram stop at the Campus Fachhochschule.
The glass and steel main building of the Film University Babelsberg with colourful striped columns at the entrance, on Marlene-Dietrich-Allee
The Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in the Medienstadt.

Housing: apply early

The Studierendenwerk runs furnished halls of residence near the universities. You apply online for one semester at a time. Applications for the winter semester opened on 7 May 2026, and for the summer semester they open around early to mid-November of the previous year. Rooms are allocated from about seven weeks before the semester starts, and demand is highest for the winter semester. You upload your ID or passport and either your enrolment certificate or your admission letter.

A 400 euro reservation fee is due when you accept an offer; it turns into your deposit. The rent is one flat amount that covers heating, electricity and furniture (a bed, wardrobe, shelf, table and chair), but not internet or the broadcasting fee. Students of private universities cannot apply for a place. New capacity is coming: a 308-place hall in northern Potsdam has had its groundbreaking, and more than 800 new places are planned by 2028, over 400 of them in Golm.

For the private market the AStA has a student housing department and a project on Potsdam's housing shortage. Plan for a temporary place for your first weeks if you do not get a dorm room.

Food, advice and sport

  • Canteens and Mensa+ ↗

    The Studierendenwerk's canteens serve vegetarian, vegan and international dishes at a student price; Wednesday is Veggie Wednesday with no meat. Menus are on its web plan and the Mensa+ app.

  • Social and psychosocial counselling ↗

    Counselling on study organisation, funding, studying with a child or a disability, and on personal problems. It is free, confidential and available in English.

  • Legal advice ↗

    The AStA of the University of Potsdam runs a legal advice service for students.

  • University sport ↗

    About 600 courses a week in more than 125 sports; booking for the winter semester opened on 14 October this year.

Your first weeks

  1. 1

    Before you arrive

    Apply for a dorm room as early as you can, and arrange health insurance: the Studierendenwerk's international FAQ says a valid health insurance certificate is needed for both enrolment and the residence permit.

  2. 2

    Week 1

    Register your address at the Bürgerservicecenter at Yorckstraße 22, 14467 Potsdam, where you get the Meldebescheinigung. You can book the appointment online through the city's website.

  3. 3

    Weeks 1 to 2

    Enrol at your university. The University of Potsdam will email you how to pay the semester contribution once your documents and health insurer's confirmation are processed. Then retrieve your Deutschlandsemesterticket.

  4. 4

    For your residence permit

    The city's guide names the Migrationsamt at Helene-Lange-Straße 6/7, 14469 Potsdam as the office for residence questions, which is the Ausländerbehörde.

  5. 5

    Once you want to work

    Keep a record of your working days. Non-EU students may work 140 full or 280 half days a year; academic assistant jobs are the exception, but the Ausländerbehörde must be told.

Help in the city

  • Welcome Center Potsdam (city) ↗

    A free service for migrants focusing on work and everyday life, in German, English, Arabic, Russian, French, Spanish, Turkish and Kurdish. Main site is Behlertstraße 3a, with walk-in hours on Tuesday and Thursday.

  • Migrantenbeirat of Potsdam ↗

    The elected migrant advisory council of the city, founded in 1992; foreign nationals who have lived in Potsdam more than three months and are at least 16 can vote for it.

  • City guide for migrants ↗

    The city's list of counselling services, language courses, migrant organisations and religious communities.

Where you come from matters here

Pick your home country: food, faith, community groups and the consulate that serves you, checked 21 October 2026.

🇮🇳 Living in Potsdam as an Indian student

Potsdam has no Indian association we could confirm; your embassy and the larger Indian communities are in Berlin.

  • Embassy of India, Berlin ↗

    Tiergartenstraße 17, 10785 Berlin. Passport, visa and attestation services are handled by the embassy itself through online appointment only; its site warns not to pay fees to outside agents.

  • Indian Students in Germany ↗

    An online portal run by the Indian embassy that works with Indian student associations across Germany, with directories of student associations and city representatives, events and jobs.

English-taught programmes in Potsdam

Soonest open deadline first. Every entry links to its official source.

University of PotsdamUniversity of Applied Sciences Potsdam

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