is a similar, but less strict mechanism. The students gain extra priority points, which may increase their points for the first choice by up to 12.5%. A student who admitted to several programs cannot accept any other than the one with the highest priority. Germany In Germany prospective students who have passed the Abitur may decide freely what subjects to enroll in. Recently, however, in some of the most popular and most desired subject fields students have to pass a certain numerus clausus — that is, they cannot enroll unless they have scored a minimum grade point average on their Abitur. There are two types of higher education institutions in Germany, the universities (including Technische Hochschulen) and the Fachhochschulen (polytechnics). A prospective student who has passed the Abitur is qualified for admission to every German university, with the exception of very few new degree programs, for which additional entrance examinations were recently introduced. A Fachhochschule, in contrast, often requires the student to complete an internship to qualify for admission. There is also a second German school leaving exam, which qualifies prospective students for admission to higher education in Germany, the Fachhochschulreife, often called Fachabitur in colloquial usage. An internship is already part of the Fachhochschulreife itself, therefore a Fachhochschule requires no additional internship from the student. However, most universities do not accept this qualification for admission. An exception are universities in the German state of Hesse, who accept this qualification since 2004 for admission to bachelor's degree courses, but not to the traditional German Diplom degree courses. But with Fachhochschulreife (university of applied sciences entrance qualification) you can visit any Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences) in Germany. You can see the difference between a University / Technische Hochschule and a Fachoberschule very quickly: A Fachhochschule has often the words "University of Applied Science" next to its name. Greece Admission to the Higher Education* of Greece is based on the system of entrance examinations, namely the Panhellenic Examinations, which are set one-time every year by the Ministry of Education. In order to be eligible for the entrance examinations, applicants must be upper secondary school (high school) graduates and hold an Upper Secondary School-leaving Certificate either from a lyceum, a technical high school or other equivalent recognised private upper secondary school. In Greece, the government upper secondary school-leaving certificate is an Apolytirio Lyceum. Admission to Higher Education institutions depends on the 1)