Nursing (cooperative degree programme)

This innovative dual academic and vocational qualification supplies our graduates with a sound basis for delivering professional nursing care to in- or outpatients in a range of clinical and healthcare settings. Their roles may involve:

• providing direct nursing care to people of all age groups
• establishing individual nursing care needs for people of all ages; organising and conducting the associated nursing interventions
• providing advice to people with chronic illnesses and care needs and to their relatives
• carrying out preventative, therapeutic, rehabilitative and palliative nursing tasks in interdisciplinary team settings
• supervising care staff with less advanced qualifications
• communicating with colleagues and discussing cases
• implementing research findings in day-to-day nursing practice
• resolving issues in practice on the basis of scientific insights and knowledge

The course is divided into practical and theoretical modules. These are taught at the HAW Hamburg Department of Nursing and Management in the theoretical semesters.

Students complete the practical components of the degree course primarily with our cooperation partners in and around Hamburg, in accordance with the German law on the nursing profession. Some of the practice hours are completed in the department's Skills Lab. In the practical semesters the students learn, practice and reflect upon their patient-care skills in the following areas: inpatient care (hospitals), long-term care (nursing homes) and outpatient care (e.g. nursing services).

In teaching caring, communicative, psychosocial, scientific and ethical competencies, the course provides students with the tools they need to tackle the diverse range of tasks arising in the delivery of professional nursing care.

In addition, students receive a thorough grounding in key associated disciplines from the social, life and behavioural sciences, including medicine, psychology, sociology and education science, and learn about the German social and healthcare system and the related policy issues.

Process management and nursing research modules round off the course.

We are looking for applicants who have a sense of vocation around helping others, a willingness to engage with the functioning of the human body and people’s experience of illness and health, and interest in finding out about the various fields and areas of healthcare. You should be keen to learn how to give people advice and to work across disciplines, and adaptable to studying in different settings (HAW Hamburg and various practical training settings).

This course has an annual winter semester intake only.

1. For admission to the course you need to have successfully completed the Fachhochschulreife, Allgemeine Hochschulreife, Fachgebundene Hochschulreife or a Meister*in or Fachwirt*in s. HAW-Hamburg: Admission requirements.

2. A training contract for higher education nursing training or a binding commitment to the following contract by an institution offering higher education nursing training.

Applicants who do not hold a higher education entrance qualification but have completed vocational training (Berufsausbildung) and at least three years of subsequent work experience can apply under Section 38 of the Hamburg Higher Education Act, which sets out special provisions for these applicants (Besonderer Hochshulzugang für Berufstätige). You can find more information at Admission requirements for a Bachelor's degree.

International applicants

If you completed your schooling outside Germany and want to study here for a Bachelor’s degree, you need to hold an academic school-leaving qualification which entitles you to admission to higher education; that is, it needs to be comparable to a German Abitur or Fachhochschulreife. The organisation uni assist will check your certificates from school and any degree-level studies to establish comparability. Please note that you are also required to have proof of German at level C1 – for example, in the form of a TestDaF certificate – in order to apply for all Bachelor's degree courses (except Information Engineering).

You can find more information about HAW Hamburg’s application criteria at International applicants.

The course, with a total of 60 places, is only offered each year in the winter semester and begins on October 1.

The application procedure for the Bachelor's degree course in Nursing (dual) consists of several steps:

Step 1: A successful interview or assessment procedure with one of our cooperating providers of higher education nursing training

You can find our cooperating institutions that have concluded a contract with our Department of Nursing and Management at HAW Hamburg as the provider of the practical part of the higher education training under the heading “Provider of higher education nursing training”.

Step 2: A training contract for higher education nursing training with one of our cooperating institutions for higher education nursing training

This training contract is subject to the final examination of the admission requirements of HAW Hamburg.

If the training contract cannot yet be submitted at the time of application to HAW, it is sufficient to submit written confirmation of acceptance for a training place by the provider. The training contract must be submitted immediately.

Step 3: Registration and application for a study place with proof of university entrance qualification

The application for a study place takes place online during the application period (winter semester June 1 - July 31) and is not made via Hochschulstart, but directly via myHAW - the application and student portal of HAW Hamburg.

Important: Both a valid training contract and enrollment must be available or completed in order to be allowed to start the course. If one of the two does not materialize, the other part is null and void.

As an international applicant, you also apply according to this multi-stage procedure. In addition, please note the further requirements that you can find above under Application requirements and a step-by-step checklist under International applicants.