Spain remains most popular exchange destination for German students

Students from Germany most frequently choose Spain for exchanges with universities abroad, according to a data review by the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) published on Wednesday.

The United States and France follow in popularity, the review by the centre based in the north-western German city of Gütersloh.

The CHE evaluated the responses from more than 1,800 departments at a total of 231 German universities for the review, it said in a statement.

Between 2022 and 2024, there were 198 mentions of Spain as a destination for student exchanges, 182 for the US and 181 for France.

The interest in Spain aligns with statistics from the European Union's Erasmus programme, which promotes student exchanges.

According to the CHE, more than 7,500 German students chose to spend time in Spain in 2023. France (5,700), Italy (4,400) and Sweden (2,600) followed in the rankings.

The CHE is a joint subsidiary of the Bertelsmann Foundation and the German University Rectors' Conference.