Germany has been able to defend its position among the world’s four most popular study locations during the COVID-19 pandemic, right behind the US, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The total number of international students enrolled even rose to currently 325,000 in the winter semester 2020/2021, an increase by 2%, compared to the winter semester 2019/2020. While there has been a significant increase in international students who are studying exclusively digitally, the number of first-semester students in Germany from abroad decreased by 20%. For the first time, mobility of academics was analysed based on bibliometric data – like scientific books, articles, and other publications – for the ‘Wissenschaft weltoffen 2021’ report, which has been providing com­pre­hensive data about international mobility of students and academics from Germany and abroad for more than 20 years.

Link to the press release