The provisions of North Rhine-Westphalian state law governing the conversion of the average Abitur mark from European schools into a German Abitur mark are lawful. This was decided by the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) in Leipzig (Case No.: 6 CN 2.24 of 23 September 2026).

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the conversion for the 2021 Abitur is based on the guidelines issued by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. The European mark values required to pass, ranging from 50.00 to 100.00, are thereby converted into total point values between 300 and 900, from which the average mark is calculated, as is the case with the German Abitur. Under this system, a grade of 1.0 is only awarded for a European mark of 93.58 or higher. Until the 2020/2021 school year, a more favourable arrangement was in place. Applicants who had taken their Abitur at various European Schools regarded this as unequal treatment. The Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia dismissed their applications for judicial review (Ref.: 13 D 272/20.NE of 23 April 2024).

The Federal Administrative Court has now upheld this decision. According to its reasoning, the state had regulated the conversion in a lawful manner and was entitled to refer to the guidelines of the Conference of Ministers of Education. Whilst the conversion must ensure that a European Abitur, just like a German one, entitles the holder to undertake a degree course and that both qualifications are treated as equivalent, the linear conversion is consistent with the principle of equality because the grading system of the European Schools essentially corresponds to the German grading structure.