A total of 160 new students enrolled in the online undergraduate theology program jointly offered by the universities in Passau and Eichstätt-Ingolstadt for the 2026/2027 winter semester. This is the highest number of new enrollees since the program began, and the figure has almost doubled compared with the previous year. The universities announced the figures on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, KNA reported, in a report carried by the Catholic Press Agency.
The program was launched in the 2024/2025 winter semester, when 70 students enrolled. The following academic year, the number of new students rose to 89, while this year's intake brings in 160 new students. In its third year, the joint online program has once again surpassed the enrollment figures of each of its first two cohorts.
Katharina Karl, dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, sees the enrollment growth as confirmation of the idea on which the program was founded. “This development confirms our conviction that we have opened up a space that enables people interested in theology to study in a new way,” Karl said. In her view, the increased number of enrollees confirms the value of offering a different approach to study.
Markus Weißer, spokesperson for the Department of Catholic Theology at the University of Passau, highlighted the significance of this year's enrollment beyond the program itself. “As far as we know, this is currently the largest number of first-year theology students across the entire German-speaking world,” he said. Weißer therefore made this claim about a broader record with the qualification that it is based on the data available to them.
What the experiences of the first two cohorts show
Experience gained through the online program is also being incorporated into classroom teaching. Surveys of students in the first two cohorts offered insight into where participants come from: the program brought together students from across Germany as well as from neighboring German-speaking countries.
The surveys also showed that more than half of these students studied theology out of personal interest. They did not necessarily intend to work for the Church afterward. Thus, in the account of the first two cohorts, personal interest in the program was not necessarily linked to plans for future professional work in the Church, even though all of the students were involved in volunteer work within it.
Eighty percent of the students in that account were younger than 50. For many, the option of online classes was important because professional or family circumstances prevented them from being regularly present where classes were held. They therefore used a mode of study that did not require them to be on campus regularly.
Studying online did not, however, mean that participants did not take the opportunity to attend classes in person. Students attended classes on both campuses. Alongside distance learning, they also made use of the option to participate in classes in Passau and Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
