Admissions without polished promises
Practical guides on admissions, visas, budgets and realistic study-abroad routes.
2026-08-01
A foundation year for the Netherlands: when you need one, and when you were simply sold one
Dutch higher education has two doors, and they take different keys. A foundation year is the bridge to one of them. If your target is the other, it is a year you may not need — and there is a second gate, on the provider's side, that no prospectus mentions.
Fresh analysis
See all articlesRefused a German student visa? The free appeal no longer exists
Germany abolished the Remonstration — the free objection to a refused visa — worldwide on 1 July 2025. A refusal now costs a semester, not a few weeks. Here is what remains, and how to keep your file from being refused in the first place.
Your B2 certificate won't save your first month in Germany
A language certificate proves you passed an exam — not that you can open a bank account, argue with a landlord, or understand a doctor in week one. Here's the honest gap, and how to close it before you fly.
The DAAD scholarship deadline you're worried about — and why summer is when you start, not when you apply
There is no single DAAD deadline. It varies by programme and country — and the real risk isn't missing a date, it's starting the application too late to assemble it well. Here's how the cycle actually works and what to do this summer.
uni-assist got your grade wrong — here's what actually happens next
uni-assist grade-conversion and document errors are common and fixable — but only if you know that uni-assist doesn't decide admission, and only if you act before the deadline. Here is exactly what to do.
Seven numbers about studying in Europe
We do not publish a figure we cannot trace back to the body that issued it. These seven change decisions — each one links to its own source.
student visas Germany issued in 2024. How many it refused is not public: refusal data per consulate is classified for internal use only.
goes into the blocked account (Sperrkonto) a German student visa requires for one year — €992 a month, unchanged for 2026.
of international bachelor's students in Germany leave without a degree — 28% at master's level. Cohort of 2014, recalculated in 2022.
a month is what the Netherlands requires you to show for a study residence permit at a university or hbo — for the whole of 2026, tuition not included.
a month is the subsistence minimum Latvia requires for a residence permit, a study permit included, from 1 April 2026.
a month for Estonia, and this one you have to work out yourself: the police require four times the subsistence level, and the 2026 state budget sets that level at €220. 4 × €220 = €880.
a month for a Lithuanian study residence permit, and this is the second one you work out yourself: the migration department asks students for half a minimum monthly salary, and the government set that salary at €1,153 for 2026. 0.5 × €1,153 = €576.50.
Amounts are what the state asks you to prove, not what a year actually costs — tuition and rent sit on top. Estonia's and Lithuania's figures are each derived from two documents, because no single page prints them. Every figure is re-checked before each admission cycle.
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