Online and performance
Running channels, allocating budgets, measuring results. Fast feedback, constant tool changes, a lot of self-directed learning on the side. Your portfolio weighs heavily here.
Marketing while you keep working
Marketing is one of the few subjects where a certificate is a real competitor to a degree. Whether the degree pays off for you depends on where you want to end up. Here is when it is the right route, and when it is not.
Where it sits
What marketing is, and what it is not
The word covers so much ground that applicants regularly end up in the wrong subject.
Marketing steers sales: analysing markets and audiences, positioning products and prices, planning channels and budgets, measuring effect. Course content covers market research, consumer behaviour, brand and product management, sales, digital channels, plus a solid commercial base with accounting and controlling. Anyone who reads marketing as “being creative” is in for a surprise by the third semester, because there is a great deal of arithmetic.
- Communications and PR work on reputation, publics and relationships. Similar tools, but rarely revenue responsibility.
- Media and design produce the artefacts. If you want to build layouts, videos or websites, that is the place, not marketing.
- Business administration is the broad version with marketing as one subject among many, more under business administration by distance learning. It keeps more doors open and makes you less specific in marketing.
- Business psychology approaches the same question through behaviour and motivation, see business psychology.
A second divide runs across all of this: online marketing versus classic marketing. The online part is craft, ages quickly and is well covered by certificates. The classic part, meaning positioning, price, portfolio and brand management, changes slowly and is exactly what a degree really teaches. If you only want to run a campaign, you do not need a degree. If you want to decide which campaign makes sense at all, that is a different matter.
Access
Also without Abitur, through commercial training
The feeder occupations are broad here, which makes the subject relation easy to argue.
A completed apprenticeship plus a few years of professional practice opens university access for a subject-related degree. Typical feeders are marketing communications clerks, e-commerce clerks, wholesale, foreign trade and retail clerks, industrial administrators, and media designers moving from production into steering.
The three routes in detail are set out under studying without Abitur. In practice, for this subject:
- Apprenticeship plus years of practice: the standard route, usually two to three years after qualifying.
- Advanced vocational qualification: the Fachwirt in marketing sits at DQR level 6 and brings general university access in many federal states.
- Trial study: if the evidence is thin, completed modules are retained.
Admission is a matter for the individual states and is regulated differently across the German-speaking countries. If you move from Austria or Switzerland into a German programme, check both sides before you enrol.
Credit transfer
What your prior learning is worth
Apprenticeship, Fachwirt and years of practice all feed the same calculation.
A commercial apprenticeship is a formal qualification with documented learning outcomes, and credit transfer rests on exactly that. In marketing it mostly touches the business foundation modules, plus sales and in part market research. If you hold the Fachwirt in marketing, many universities grant a noticeably larger block, because whole learning fields overlap.
The arithmetic: a bachelor comprises 180 ECTS. Credit 45 of them and 135 remain. At 15 ECTS per semester that is nine semesters instead of twelve, so four and a half years instead of six. At 10 ECTS per semester, which is often more realistic alongside a full-time job, around seven years remain instead of nine.
Clarify the credit first, choose the university second, not the other way round. With identical paperwork the gap between providers is easily two semesters. How the procedure runs is explained under credit transfer and credit for work experience.
Workload
Time and cost, realistically
Campaign peaks and coursework deadlines like to collide, so plan for it.
| ECTS per semester | Hours per week | In daily life | Bachelor takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | around 7 to 8 | one evening plus half a Saturday | 18 years, only sensible for single modules |
| 10 | around 15 | two evenings plus one weekend day | 9 years, around 7 with credit |
| 15 | around 22 | hard when trade fairs or launch phases are due | 6 years, 4.5 with credit |
| 20 | around 30 | effectively a second part-time job | 4.5 years |
Calculated with 30 hours per ECTS and around 20 active weeks per semester. How to work out your own figure is explained under ECTS per semester.
Part-time bachelor programmes usually sit in the range of a few hundred euros per month. What counts is the total at a realistic pace, not the monthly rate, and that total falls mainly through credit transfer. More under what distance learning costs.
Many employers contribute, especially when you are meant to take on a role the team does not have yet. Watch the repayment clauses, they usually tie you for several years, see getting your employer to pay. Which providers exist and how they differ is documented with sources at Hochschulnavigator.
Afterwards
Where the degree leads
Three directions that differ clearly in pace, measurability and daily work.
Brand and product
Positioning, portfolio, price, brand management. Longer cycles, more coordination, more strategy. The area where a degree is most often a formal requirement.
Agency and consulting
Several clients, plenty of pitch and project work, a high cadence. You get in through work you can show, you move up through leading a team.
An honest note on salary: the degree alone rarely changes it, the changed role does. In agencies and performance work, demonstrable results beat the certificate; in corporates it is often the reverse. More under salary after your degree.
And the limit that belongs to this subject: a marketing degree does not make you a manager and does not replace a portfolio. If you are after the technical side behind campaigns and data, look at business information systems. If you would rather steer people than markets, look at HR management.
Common questions
Marketing by distance learning
The questions that come up in almost every first conversation.
Is a marketing degree worth it when certificates exist?
It depends on your goal. For a specific skill such as paid search or analytics, a certificate is faster and cheaper. For roles with budget, staff or strategy responsibility, many employers still expect a degree. Certificates show what you can do, a degree opens formal doors.
How is marketing different from communications and PR?
Marketing steers sales and markets through price, product, channels and budget. Communications and PR work on reputation, publics and relationships, often without direct revenue responsibility. The tools overlap, the target figure does not. If you want to own numbers, choose marketing.
Can I study marketing without a university entrance qualification?
In most cases yes. A completed commercial apprenticeship plus several years of work experience opens access to a subject-related degree in Germany. An advanced vocational qualification at DQR level 6, such as the Fachwirt in marketing, adds general university access in many federal states.
How much of my apprenticeship counts towards the degree?
That depends on the university and the differences are considerable. For a related commercial apprenticeship many institutions credit a block in the foundation modules, with advanced vocational qualifications and years of practice on top. For learning acquired outside higher education a cap of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS usually applies.
Do I still need a portfolio alongside the degree?
In agencies and in online marketing, almost always. People there ask for demonstrable results, not module grades. Build the portfolio while you study, for example through projects in your current job. In corporate and brand roles the degree carries noticeably more weight.
Next step
What is actually possible in your case
Admission, credit and a matching programme, clarified in one conversation.
Levels in this subject
Which level fits your goal?
The same subject, three different answers. Each level has its own admission routes and leads somewhere else.
Bachelor part-time
Access through the Fachwirt, credit transfer
Master part-time
Which bachelor counts, entry with an unrelated degree and conditions
MBA
Why it is not a specialist degree
Information Notice
The information on this page is general in nature and based on my advisory practice (last updated 31.07.2026). It does not replace an official credit transfer or recognition decision by the respective university and is not legal advice. Specific decisions are made by universities, the ZAB (Germany), the BMBWF (Austria), or the SBFI (Switzerland). I clarify binding next steps with you in the initial consultation.