Master's degree for career changers wishing to teach at secondary schools
Lower Saxony opens up new pathways to a teaching career: a master’s degree for career changers wishing to teach at secondary schools
2026-05-12 Lower Saxony is responding to the high demand for teachers at secondary modern and secondary schools by opening up new, quality-assured pathways into the teaching profession. A new master’s programme designed for career changers—aimed at students holding a bachelor’s degree in a specific subject—will create additional opportunities for entering the teaching profession in future. At the heart of the new programme is a two-year Master of Education, which opens the door to a teaching placement at secondary schools. As qualified teachers, they will later be able to teach at lower secondary level in secondary schools, comprehensive schools, upper secondary schools and integrated schools.
“With the new career-change Master’s programme, we are specifically opening up teacher training to young people who have previously only been able to enter our schools via detours or as supply teachers. Anyone who has already studied a subject and is motivated to switch to a teaching career can now become a teacher without any bureaucratic hurdles,” emphasises Minister for Science Falko Mohrs.
Targeting the teacher shortage
The new degree programme addresses the areas where the need for teachers in Lower Saxony is particularly acute: in secondary schools (Haupt- and Realschulen). The launch of the career-change Master’s programme will create places for around 50 additional graduates. “In Lower Saxony, we are taking another decisive step to ensure a sustainable supply of teachers – particularly where the need is greatest. With the cross-disciplinary Master’s programme, we are creating a clear, additional route into the teaching profession for qualified graduates – without compromising on quality. In this way, we are specifically attracting more teachers to our schools and ensuring reliable teaching for our pupils,” says Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs Julia Willie Hamburg.
For the first time, the programme is specifically aimed at a new target group: graduates with a bachelor’s degree in a specialist subject who, through this career change pathway – without compromising on qualifications – can become fully-fledged teachers in the Lower Saxony school system. This does not create ad-hoc solutions alongside the existing system, but rather additional, fully-fledged pathways into teacher training. The programme meets high academic and pedagogical standards. The programme covers, in particular, subject-specific knowledge of the second subject, subject didactics, educational sciences and practical school placements.
Pilot phase at two university locations
The lateral entry programme will initially be introduced as a pilot project in Lüneburg and Hildesheim, with further locations to follow gradually. Leuphana University Lüneburg, together with the universities of Hildesheim and Braunschweig – which are part of an alliance for teacher training – will also launch a preparatory bridging programme in the winter semester of 2026/27. This is intended to prepare students who do not meet the entry requirements, or do not meet them in full, for the actual Master of Education programme, which begins in the summer semester of 2027, with the programme tailored to their individual needs. Equivalent prior learning already completed can be credited individually by the universities.
“In close consultation with the Ministry of Culture (MK) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MWK), the universities have succeeded in creating a Master’s programme of very high quality and, through the bridging programme, in opening it up to a new group of prospective students,” emphasises Prof. Dr Jürgen Sander, Chair of the Lower Saxony Association for Teacher Training and Vice-President for Studies, Teaching and Student Affairs at the University of Hildesheim. “Prospective students can rest assured that the three universities will provide them with individual guidance and close support within a ‘tailor-made’ study programme.”
Background: The introduction of Lower Saxony’s lateral entry Master’s programme follows on from the resolutions of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) from 2024, which for the first time establish nationwide standards for additional routes into the teaching profession. The aim of the KMK resolutions is to address the nationwide shortage of teachers whilst ensuring the quality, comparability and permeability of teacher training.