Help
Hey everyone,
I am completely shocked by German bureaucracy right now and need your advice/experiences.
I applied for the Master in Public Health at Hochschule Fulda for winter semester 2026. Today, I received a strict "Notice of Exclusion" (Ausschlussbescheid) stating two reasons:
My grade is below the required 2.5.
My first degree is "not suitable/not related".
But here is the catch – the Uni's own regulations say they are completely wrong:
The Degree: I have a Bachelor (Licence) in Economics and Management from Senegal . Fulda's official admissions website explicitly states that degrees in Economics ARE accepted as suitable.
The Grade & Experience: My converted grade is indeed below 2.5. However, the Uni rules state that if your grade is below 2.5, you MUST be invited to an interview (Fachgespräch) if you have relevant work experience in health/administration.
My Background: I have 3 years of work experience in patient administration/hospital managementin my home country, AND I successfully completed a 3-year professional nursing degree (Pflegeausbildung) here in Germany to learn the German healthcare system from the inside.
I submitted all certificates and a formal request for the interview via uni-assist. Uni-assist forwarded everything correctly. It looks like the clerk at Hochschule Fulda just saw the grade, stopped reading, and clicked "reject all" without checking my background or their own rules. They didn't even mention the option of the interview in the rejection letter.
I am furious. I just sent them a harsh formal objection (Widerspruch) via email and registered mail,
Has anyone ever dealt with a German university completely ignoring submitted documents or misinterpreting international degrees? Did a formal objection (Widerspruch) work, or did you have to hire a lawyer/sue them?
Thanks for your help!