For years, Germany has occupied a special place in the Indian study-abroad imagination. Public universities with little or no tuition, private institutions promising quick employability, generous post-study work rules and a labour market projected as talent-hungry—it appeared to offer a rare alignment of affordability and opportunity.

In 2025, that promise fractured.Hundreds of Indian students enrolled at a private university in Berlin have been told their residence permits will not be renewed. Some have received formal orders to leave Germany. Others have been given a choice that barely qualifies as one: Continue their degrees, but only from outside the country. Their fault is not academic failure or visa overstay. It is something far more technical—and far more devastating—how their courses are taught.

Germany Study Visa 2025: New Rules, Higher Costs, Big Opportunities

Who the students are, and where they enrolled

The students are enrolled at IU International University of Applied Sciences, commonly known as IU, a private German university that has rapidly expanded its international footprint. According to figures cited by Euronews, IU has more than 130,000 students globally, with around 4,500 Indian students, making Indians one of its largest international cohorts.The controversy centres on IU’s Berlin campus, where Indian students were enrolled largely in business-facing programmes—including bachelor’s degrees in business administration and master’s programmes in international management or business management. These degrees were marketed as on-campus, but structured as hybrid programmes, combining online instruction with limited in-person attendance.

For many students, entry into these programmes came via pathway arrangements. Parts of the degree—sometimes an initial semester—were completed online from India, followed by relocation to Germany. Students say this structure was presented as academically legitimate and compliant with German visa rules.

What changed in 2025

In early 2025, Berlin’s immigration authority, the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), began reassessing hybrid study programmes and how they fit within Germany’s student residence framework.According to Euronews, this reassessment led Berlin authorities to conclude that several of IU’s programmes did not meet the legal threshold of “in-person study” required for a student residence permit. Students who had already arrived in Germany, paid tuition and started classes were informed that their permits would not be renewed.Some were given a few weeks to leave the country. Others were told they could continue their degrees only if they did so from outside Germany.