What No One Tells You.
When I first arrived in Germany, I did what had always worked for me at Makerere University in Kampala. I studied hard. I showed up prepared. I respected my professors. I cared about my work.
And yet, something felt… off.
Not in a dramatic, obvious way. More like a quiet, persistent confusion. I was doing everything right — at least according to the academic rules I had learned before — but the feedback I received didn’t quite match the effort I put in. Sometimes it was blunt. Sometimes it was vague. Sometimes it felt like I had missed an instruction that no one had actually given.
If you’re an international student in Germany and this sounds familiar, let me start with something important: You’re not failing.
You’re playing a game whose rules no one explained.
It's not you, it's the hidden curriculum of German academia.
Many international students who come to Germany were top performers back home. They arrive motivated, capable, and used to succeeding through discipline and hard work. So when things suddenly feel harder — not intellectually harder, but structurally harder — the first instinct is often self-doubt.
Maybe I’m not good enough.
Maybe everyone else understands something I don’t.
Maybe I’m just not cut out for this system.
But in most cases, intelligence is not the issue.
The issue is the hidden curriculum.
German academia runs on expectations that are rarely spelled out explicitly. Professors expect independence, but what that independence should look like is often left unsaid.
You’re expected to think critically, however, the form of critical thinking can differ from what you learned before. Rarely is this addressed or exemplified in foundational courses. Very often you are left to your own devices; you have to learn how to do academic research with little to no assistance. It is part of the process. You know what they say, forewarned is forearmed — but hardly does anyone tell you this.
Communication in these contexts tends to be direct and concise, sometimes to a degree that feels harsh if you’re not used to it. Again here, asking and seeking help from professors, lecturers and tutors in advanced semesters is very helpful.
Feedback can be brief, and guidance minimal — not because no one cares, but because autonomy is assumed — it is part of the academic habitus. Again, this is why asking questions and asking for guidance is key. You’re not just learning your subject. You’re learning a new academic culture.
You’re adapting to a new education system, a new communication style, possibly a new language, a new country, a new sense of independence, and a new sense of immigration laws.
All at once.
It's a double (sometimes triple) transition, that you have to go through.
That’s a lot to carry. And yet, this complexity is rarely acknowledged in everyday academic life. From the outside, everyone just sees the student sitting in a seminar or submitting a paper. What they don’t see is the constant translation happening internally: Is this how I’m supposed to ask questions here? Is this email too formal? Too direct? Am I expected to challenge the professor? Wait for guidance? Figure it out alone?
When these questions go unanswered, it’s easy to interpret confusion as inadequacy.
But confusion in a new system is not a sign of weakness.
It’s a sign that you’re learning.
by Mariam (Wuppertal).
P.S: Part 2 of this blogpost will be posted here next week. Make sure to subscribe so that all blogposts can be delivered straight to your email.
