For Lilly Fischer it was already clear after graduating from high school: she doesn't want to spend her entire degree in the same city.

In autumn 2020, she first went to Bonn, so she began her medical studies on the Rhine.

But after two years she wanted to move, preferably to the south, near her hometown of Freiburg.

The choice fell on Heidelberg, also because it is the only university in Germany that offers a major in Global Health, which deals with health problems in poorer countries in Africa and Asia.

Fischer can well imagine that for the second part of her studies.

That is why the 19-year-old wants to switch to the University of Heidelberg in the summer semester of 2023 with a so-called exchange of study places.

In itself, changing to another university is simple: Students apply for their degree program at another university - a so-called application for a higher semester.

Ideally, they can have the academic achievements they have completed at their previous university credited and continue their studies seamlessly.

The problem: In order for this to work, there must be a free place in the respective course and semester at the new university - and that is rare, especially with the nationwide admissions restricted courses in pharmacy, medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine.

As a rule, places only become available if a student discontinues their studies.

According to the German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Research, the dropout rate for medical students is extremely low at 6 percent.

For comparison: the average dropout rate in all bachelor's degree programs in Germany was between 27 and 31 percent in recent years.

How does the exchange of study places work?

At the same time, the desire to change is widespread, because many students in popular subjects with a high NC do not end up at their desired university due to the central study place allocation (ZVS) - and then try to get a place there afterwards.

They compete with students who do not get a place in Germany and have started in other EU countries, often at private universities.

Many of these involuntary foreign students try to switch to German universities in later semesters.

University places in courses with admission restrictions are “a rare commodity,” says Ronald Hoffmann, head of the Advice and Administration department at the University of Hamburg, where he is responsible, among other things, for coordinating the exchange of study places.

So that the change to the university of your choice is not reserved for just a lucky few, there is the option of swapping study places: two students studying the same course at two different universities can take the place of the other at their university.

The exchange partner must be in the same semester and have passed the same exams.

This is a hurdle, especially when studying medicine, because the course is not the same at all universities.

At some, for example, students attend the anatomy course in their first semester, at others only in their third.

Good times for an exchange are therefore right at the beginning of your studies or after the physics course.

Online portals are not everything

When looking for exchange partners, online exchange portals are the first port of call for many students.

One of the largest is Studienplatztausch.de.

For a registration fee of 5.10 euros, students indicate what they are studying at which university, which semester they are in and which university they would like to change to.

The portal then suggests suitable exchange partners.

On request, Studienplatztausch.de states that in 2021 alone, the portal received more than 6000 applications for a study place exchange.

The portal has found an exchange option for almost 2,400 of the students.

According to Studienplatztausch.de, around 35 percent of the applicants are medical students.