CDU: International medical students should pay German university fees

International students who come to study medicine in Germany should have to pay university tuition fees or work in rural practices for five years following graduation, a CDU politician has suggested.

International doctors should pay uni fees or work rurally, says CDU

Speaking to tabloid newspaper Bild, the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Sepp Müller, has suggested that international medical students pay tuition fees to study at German universities.

Currently, German and international students only have to pay a small fee each semester to study any subject at a public university in Germany. But with the country facing a widespread skilled worker shortage, particularly a shortage of doctors in rural areas, Müller has a newfangled solution.

“Anyone who studies here should practice in rural areas for at least five years. Those who do not want to do so should repay the costs of this first-class education,” Müller told the tabloid newspaper. 

Such changes could mean international students having to fork out thousands of euros to study medicine in Germany. According to Medlink Students, an organisation that helps aspiring medical students find a university place, medical students in Europe pay anywhere between 3.000 and 30.000 euros per year for their studies.

Rural areas in Germany are desperate for GPs

Back in April 2024, then Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sounded the alarm that Germany had trained 50.000 too few doctors in the past 10 years to fill the country’s current and increasing medical staff shortage. The shortage is only expected to grow as practising doctors retire.

Doctors' practices and hospitals in rural areas are feeling the pressure the most, with many being forced to close their doors. A hospital reform introduced on January 1, 2025, hopes to relieve the rural system. 

Under the new law, clinics are financed based on the number of patients they treat, but on the number of services offered, such as staff numbers, emergency services or specific medical equipment available on site

Whether Müller’s plan to rely on international students to fill these gaps will gain any further traction or if it is even viable remains to be seen. According to figures from several sources, and compiled by Study in Germany, international students make up just 5 percent of all medical students in Germany.