Do you have an academic degree from a foreign university, e.g. licencjat, inzener, kandidat-nauk, which you would like to use in Germany? If it has been duly awarded by a recognized university, you can use it without permission under the conditions specified in the State Higher Education Act. You must then use it in the form in which it was awarded and state the university that awarded it. If your degree was not awarded in Latin script, you may transliterate it into Latin script (transliteration). You can also add the literal German translation in brackets. You may also use the foreign degree in abbreviated form (with a suffix of origin) if the use of the abbreviated form is permitted or customary in the country of origin.

You may omit the name of the awarding university if you have obtained the degree:

• within the European Union (EU)
• within the European Economic Area (EEA)
• from the European University Institute Florence
• from the Pontifical Universities

However, equivalence agreements concluded with other countries and the resolution of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany on the awarding of foreign academic degrees dated June 26, 2014 must be observed. Equivalence agreements and the resolution of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs contain favorable special regulations. This applies in particular to certain doctoral degrees from Russia, Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada and the USA.

A conversion or transcription of the foreign degree into the corresponding domestic degree is excluded. Exceptions (approvals) are possible under certain conditions for university degrees of ethnic German repatriates, their spouses and descendants.