Study & university
VPD (Vorprüfungsdokumentation)
The VPD is uni-assist's preliminary review documentation: a certificate confirming your foreign qualifications meet German university entry requirements, including a converted grade. Universities that require a VPD let you apply directly to them with this document instead of a full uni-assist application.
The Vorprüfungsdokumentation is the result document of a uni-assist evaluation in the so-called VPD procedure. It states which German university entrance qualification your certificates correspond to and converts your final grade into the German 1.0-to-4.0 scale. With the VPD in hand, you apply through the university's own portal; uni-assist does not forward anything.
A VPD is valid for the application purposes of the requesting universities and typically issued for one or two semesters of use. Processing takes up to several weeks after complete documents arrive, so the VPD step belongs at the very front of an application timeline.
What it means for working students
Read each university's admission page carefully: 'apply via uni-assist' and 'apply with VPD directly to us' are different workflows with different deadlines, and mixing them up costs a semester. Request the VPD as early as your certificates allow, even before final transcripts if your country issues provisional ones uni-assist accepts. Your converted German grade on the VPD also determines admission chances in NC-restricted programs, so know it before building your university shortlist.