APS – Certificate of the Academic Evaluation Center

The Academic Evaluation Center (Akademische Prüfstelle, APS) is a service institution of the cultural departments of the German embassies in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It examines the documents of applicants who wish to apply for studies in Germany with a Chinese, Vietnamese or Indian school or university degree. After successful examination, applicants receive a certificate. This certificate confirms that the documents submitted are genuine and that the academic achievements suffice to study at a German university.

All applicants, who wish to apply for a degree program at a German university with a Chinese, Vietnamese or Indian school or university degree. This applies to both bachelor's and master's degree programs, as well as to preparatory programs like the Studienkolleg. Only when applying for a doctoral program, an APS certificate is not required.

Exception: Applicants with an Indian school or university degree who have passed the final exam (“Feststellungprüfung”) after preparatory study at Studienkolleg do not need an APS certificate.

An APS certificate is not required for applications for Studienkolleg / bachelor‘s degree programs if your higher education entrance qualification (school diploma) was acquired outside of China, Vietnam or India.

Please note: For applications for the summer semester 2024, applicants with an Indian school or university degree do not yet need to submit an APS certificate to uni-assist for the application for the Preliminary Documentation (VPD). If you receive an admission however, you need to submit the digitally signed verification certificate (“DigiZert”) of the APS Office India in order to be enrolled.

An APS certificate is not required for applications for master's programs if your master's entrance qualification (usually a bachelor’s degree) was acquired outside of China, Vietnam or India.

You can only be exempted from the APS requirement if you have completed a bachelor’s degree outside of India/China/Vietnam and you provide your final graduation documents.

Applicants with documents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan do not need a certificate from the Academic Evaluation Center.

The certificate of the Academic Evaluation Center is issued in China by the Cultural Department of the German Embassy in Beijing and Shanghai. The Academic Evaluation Center in Hanoi is responsible for applicants from Vietnam, the Academic Evaluation Center in New Delhi for those from India.

How to apply for the certificate of the Academic Evaluation Center:

1. you register online on the APS website in Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi or New Delhi.
2. you transfer the processing fee. Information on the amount of the processing fee can be found on the pages of the Academic Evaluation Center responsible for you. 
3. you submit the printed registration confirmation together with a passport photo and the required documents to the APS by post or in person. 
4. the APS checks your documents. If you meet the admission requirements for a German university, you will be invited for an interview. 
5. after a successful interview you will receive 10 APS certificates by post or a digitally signed verification certificate (“DigiZert”).

Further information about the procedure and the necessary documents can be found in the APS Beijing leaflet (PDF), the APS Hanoi leaflet (German) or at the APS New Delhi website.

You must always submit the original certificate of the Academic Examination Center China. The Academic Examination Centers India and Vietnam issue a digitally signed verification certificate (“DigZert”) which must be submitted for enrollment. Registration is not possible without this document.

• For applications for Bachelor and Master programs:

If you are applying for admisssion:
Upload a scan of your APS certificate together with the other necessary documents to uni-assist e.V. after you have applied online for a preliminary documentation. Further information on the preliminary documentation by uni-assist e.V.

If you have already been admitted:
For enrollment at TUM, submit an original APS certificate as a hardcopy (China and Vietnam) or the digitally signed verification certificate (“DigiZert”) (India) together with the application for enrollment and the other documents for enrollment as hardcopy directly to TUM. We recommend that you submit all documents for enrolment as soon as possible after receiving an offer of admission and accepting your study place in TUMonline. If the APS certificate is not yet available at that time, you can submit it up to 5 weeks after the start of lectures. Please note, however, that you will only be enrolled when all documents have been received in full.

The APS certificate must also be submitted for enrollment if you change your degree program at TUM or reapply after an interruption of your studies.

For technical reasons, TUMonline lists an APS certificate as a required document for applicants from China, Vietnam and India, even if they did not complete their bachelor's degree in China , Vietnam or India. This requirement will be removed as soon as you submit the graduation documents of your Bachelor degree. 

• When applying for the Studienkolleg:

If you are applying for the Studienkolleg, please upload your APS Certificate during the online application before the application deadline for the Studienkolleg.

Applicants from India are currently not required to upload the APS certificate when applying, but must submit it upon enrollment.

For enrollment at TUM, submit an original APS certificate as a hardcopy (China) or the digitally signed verification certificate (“DigiZert”) (India and Vietnam) together with the application for enrollment and the other documents for enrollment directly to TUM. We recommend that you submit all documents for enrollment as soon as possible after receiving an offer of admission and accepting your study place in TUMonline. You will only be enrolled when all documents have been received in full.