Erstellt mit ChatGPTSpain is the most important partner country for German universities when it comes to student exchanges. This is shown by a recent ‘DatenCHECK’ (data analysis) by the CHE Centre for Higher Education. When it comes to representative target universities for student exchanges, German universities most frequently name institutions in Spain. This result is consistent with the latest Erasmus+ figures, according to which students at German universities particularly often spend their semester abroad funded by the EU exchange programme there.
Exchange universities: Spain ahead of the USA and France
Between 2022 and 2024, more than 1,800 departments at a total of 231 German universities provided information on ‘exchange universities representative of student exchange’ as part of the CHE university ranking. The number of universities that named at least one university from the corresponding target country was then counted. Spain is clearly ahead in the survey with 198 mentions, followed by the USA (182) and France (181).
Erasmus+ statistics also confirm Spain as the most important host country for exchange students from Germany: in the 2023 academic year, more than 7,500 German students opted to study in Spain. This puts the country clearly at the top of the ranking of the most popular destination countries, followed by France (5,700), Italy (4,400) and Sweden (2,600).
German universities with extensive global networks – differences between types of higher education institutions
The DatenCHECK also shows that German universities have an exceptionally broad international network. Overall, universities in over 80 different partner countries were named as particularly representative exchange destinations for the respective subject area. The collaborations thus span all continents – from Europe to North and South America to Asia and Africa.
A comparison of the different types of higher education institutions reveals some differences:
- Universities most frequently name at least one target institution in France, followed by Italy, Spain and the USA.
- Universities of applied sciences (HAW) most frequently name at least one institution in Spain, followed by the USA, Finland and France.
‘International mobility during university studies promotes the development of young people, ensures academic quality and serves international understanding instead of national isolationism – which is why it is particularly important in the current geopolitical situation that German universities maintain their global networks for student exchange,’ says Cort-Denis Hachmeister, author of the DatenCHECK.
About the DatenCHECK
The evaluation takes into account data from the CHE University Ranking. To this end, responses from more than 1,800 departments at 231 universities participating in the ranking between 2022 and 2024 were evaluated, each of which was able to name up to ten representative exchange universities abroad. The results were aggregated by country. The data on the host countries of German students for 2023 is based on information from Erasmus+ statistics and the DAAD. The article was published on 22 October 2025 on the hochschuldaten.de portal. The authors of the DatenCHECK 10/2025 ‘Exchange universities of German universities and universities of applied sciences’ are Cort-Denis Hachmeister, Anna Sappl and Marc Hüsch.