uni-assist: what it costs, what it does, and how to not waste €75

What does uni-assist actually check?

Three things: that your documents are complete and in an accepted form, that your qualification corresponds to a German school-leaving or degree equivalent, and that your grades convert to the German scale. If all three hold, your file goes to the university, which then makes the admission decision on its own criteria.

A VPD (Vorprüfungsdokumentation) is the same evaluation issued to you as a document, for universities that want you to apply to them directly. Same work, same fee, different addressee.

What does uni-assist want from an Indian degree?

Two things beyond the normal document set: your APS certificate, and a document from your university stating its grading system. Both are listed on uni-assist's country page for India, both are cheap to get right in advance, and an application missing either one ends there.

The first is the APS certificate. For applicants with Indian documents it belongs in the application set, and uni-assist asks for it as an unchanged, original file — the signed PDF as APS India emailed it to you, not a re-scanned or re-exported version. Paper certificates issued before 23 April 2023 may be uploaded as a scan.

The second is the one that actually catches people: your grading system. uni-assist wants a document from your university stating the maximum grade and the minimum grade needed to be awarded the degree — the CGPA or percentage corresponding to a pass class or third division, or whatever your institution calls its lowest passing classification. It has to match your specific programme and your batch or graduation year, because Indian universities change their schemes between cohorts. Many applicants send a transcript and assume the scale is self-evident. It is not, and without it your grades cannot be converted to the German scale, which is half of what uni-assist was asked to do.

The rest is document hygiene with an Indian accent. Send the official overview of subjects and grades, and scan both sides of a marksheet where anything is printed on the back. If your degree has not been issued yet, a provisional certificate counts — but only for twelve months after you finished, the same one-year window APS applies. And if you are applying on a Class XII certificate rather than a degree, add the grading system of your higher secondary school, and your JEE Main and Advanced results if you passed both.

What happens to the fee if your application is rejected?

It is gone. A rejection on formal grounds — a missing certified translation, a document form that isn't accepted, a deadline missed by a day — consumes the fee exactly as a successful evaluation would, and uni-assist offers no partial refund and no second attempt within the same fee.

The rates are the ones uni-assist publishes on its handling-fees page, checked in August 2026: €75 for the first course you choose in a semester, €30 for every further course in that same semester. The same two rates apply in the VPD procedure.

So the arithmetic points one way: apply to several courses in the same semester. Four applications in one semester pay uni-assist's €75 base fee once, at those August 2026 rates. The same four split across two semesters pay that base twice — €150 instead of €75, and a year of waiting in between.

What gets an application rejected on formal grounds?

• Uncertified copies. What counts as certified differs by country; check the requirement for yours before you pay a notary.
• Translations from an ordinary agency. Accepted are sworn or court-admissible translators, or a department of the issuing university authorised to issue translations. Indian certificates are usually in English already, in which case no translation is needed at all — check before you pay for one.
• Uploading after the deadline. uni-assist's cut-off is not the university's; the earlier of the two governs you.
• Paying late. The application isn't processed until the fee has arrived, and international transfers take days.
• Wrong course code. Applying to a course that isn't handled by uni-assist means paying for nothing.

How long does uni-assist take, and when should you start?

Earlier than you think, because uni-assist publishes no binding processing time and the queue is longest in the weeks before a deadline, when a whole cohort submits at once. Any duration you read in a forum is someone else's semester, not a commitment about yours.

The ordering matters more than the estimate. If your country also requires an academic pre-check such as the APS, that runs before this and not alongside it, because the certificate is part of what you upload here. For Indian applicants that makes APS the first domino, not a visa formality at the end.