Erasmus+ Incoming Students

There are two terms at FAU: winter term (October-March) and summer term (April-September). Most importantly, both terms have TWO examination periods, and here you have to be careful.

• Winter term: (1) Mid to end of February and (2) End of March to mid of April
• Summer term: (1) End of July to mid of August and (2) End of September to mid of October

This means that for the second examination period, exchange students will likely already leave for their home university! If this is the case for you, please read further.

There is no official workaround for this, but you should at least do the following:

• Before the lectures start:
  • Look up when the exams took or take place here: https://www.fau.eu/studying/organizing-your-studies-and-where-to-go-for-advice/examinations/examinations-office-at-the-faculty-of-engineering/#examination-dates-at-the-faculty-of-engineering
    • This makes it possible to identify courses where the exams are likely to be during your stay, and courses where the exams are not likely to be during your stay.
    • Depending on the time you look this can be for the current or for the previous terms, but it gives you the orientation.
• After the start of the lectures:
  • For the current term, lecturers can usually tell you whether their exams will be in the first or in the second period, even if the exact exam dates become known later. So you should ask this for every lecture you take. Explain why you are asking: because you will not be there in the second exam period. Please DO NOT ask via email, but after the lecture.
  • If the lecturer says that the exam is going to be in the second exam period, ask if it would be possible to take an (oral) examination in the first exam period. Do this as early as possible! Otherwise, if the lecturer says „no“, you will be taking the course for nothing, as you will not be able to attend exams.
  • If you have problems with the exam, you can ask your Erasmus coordinator, but please keep in mind that the only thing they can do is to ask your lecturer again via email. So YOU are the person who has direct contact to the lecturer, and so, you are in a better position to ask.
  • If the lecturer refuses, then it might be better to drop out of the course and to choose some other course instead.

• At FAU, exchange students are free to attend any courses at any department if they meet the prerequisites and get a spot in these courses. They can also, of course, take the corresponding exams. The courses can be looked up in the campo system, please use this Guide:
• Guide to choosing Computer Science courses at FAU (PDF)
  • Campo and/or StudOn might say that you do not meet the requirements for a given course and might not let you join the StudOn-course. This might not be true. If you think that you meet the requirements, please apply for admission in StudOn and contact the responsible lecturer.
  • List of English Courses (please regard this list as a snapshot, as courses may change from year to year; you may additionally conduct search in campo as described in the PDF guide above): List of English Courses (PDF)
  • For all other courses, please follow a similar procedure in other parts of the system.
• NOBODY has exact information about courses taking place next year. Thus, if you are planning to come to FAU in year X, you have to choose preliminary courses for your Learning Agreement from the module catalogues available for year X-1 (from the corresponding winter or summer term) because the courses taking place during your stay might not yet be available in campo. When you arrive at FAU, you will be able to adjust your Learning Agreement. This is what over 90% of Erasmus students usually have to do. Of course, if you are lucky, you might not need an adjustment.
• You can also take courses offered by VHB.
• If you want, you can take a language course at the language center or a soft skill course with Ziwis

• Bachelor courses
  • FAU does not have an official computer science Bachelor program taught in English
  • However, students can take courses from the Bachelor AI program from the AIBE Department
    • https://www.ai.study.fau.eu/students/bachelor-program-ai/
  • 1st and 2nd year Bachelor Erasmus students can only study Computer Science at FAU if their German is at least B2 (C1 is better)
  • 3rd year Bachelor students can take many Master’s courses
• Master courses
  • FAU has two computer science Master’s programs taught in English so far:
    • Artificial Intelligence
      • https://www.ai.study.fau.eu
      • Module catalogue: https://www.ai.study.fau.eu/students/master-program-ai/module-catalog/
    • Computational Engineering
      • https://www.ce.studium.fau.eu/
      • Module catalogue: https://www.ce.studium.fau.eu/students/module-catalog-master

Enrollment in courses is done in two phases. First, the course is selected using the campo system. Here, you can also add it to your personal schedule to make sure that there are no overlapping classes. Then you join the StudOn course. The course is linked in campo but may require you to complete additional steps to join. Once you have joined the StudOn course, you have registered for the module. Regarding StudOn courses, please consider these general recommendations:

• Sometimes you just need to go to the first lecture and receive information on how to enroll there.
• Most enrollments are only possible after the semester starts: April 1 for summer term, October 1 for winter term.
• Courses usually start 2-3 weeks after the semester starts.
• Lecturers add enrollment information in a decentralized way, sometimes quite shortly before the start of the courses.
• Look up the information pages of your chosen courses every few days: at some point, the enrollment information will appear.

Before you go to FAU, you will have to compose the so-called Learning Agreement. Please consider the following guidance:

After your arrival at FAU, you might need to change your LA, for example if some courses are not taking place, or you decide to cancel a course, or to enroll in a new course. This is not a problem at all, just do the following:

• Use the part of your LA that states „During the Mobility“. It contains two tables: „Changes to Table A“ and „Changes to Table B“, where you can mark the corresponding changes.
• Don’t forget to sum up your ECTS anew!
• Fill in the same fields as in your first LA:
  • Responsible person(s) at sending institution (with signature, if possible)
  • Responsible person at receiving institution: name (Dr. Zinaida Benenson), position (Erasmus coordinator) and date. Thus, the only thing I have to add to the document should be my signature.
  • When sending your changed LA to me for signature, explain briefly why the changes were made.

• Erasmus+ coordinator for Computer Science: Dr. Zinaida Benenson (she/her, can be contacted in German and English)
• All questions should be send to cs-erasmus@fau.de
• General information for exchange students at FAU
• First Semester Welcome Events for International Students including ERASMUS Students at the Faculty of Engineering
• General information can be found at the central office of international affairs (RIA) (German version).