Wege ins Ausland

• In order for your application to be successful, you should start planning 10-12 months in advance.
• Main application deadline: 15 January 20XX to go abroad in winter term 20XX/XX+1 or summer term 20XX+1.
  • Example:apply till 15. Jan 2023 to go abroad in WS 23/24 or SS 24
  • Application deadlines of various programs may differ from this deadline!
• ERASMUS+ Program: Please scroll down for more information
• For all other possibilities to go abroad, please refer to the Outgoing Center of the Faculty of Engineering. You can also contact the Office of Student Information and Advice (StIB) of the Faculty.
• Partnerships of the chairs: Many chairs of the Department of Computer Science have close contacts with universities worldwide and are happy to support you if you plan to study abroad or write your bachelor/master thesis there.
• On the pages of the Central Office for International Affairs, you will find student experience reports.

Recognition of courses from abroad for Computer Science students is carried out after your return from abroad by the recognition officer of the Department of Computer Science Prof. Dr. Harald Köstler.

If you have questions such as „Can this module from university X be recognized at FAU?“, please ask Harald Köstler.

If you need to sign a Learning Agreement for ERASMUS, please look up the information here: https://www.informatik.studium.fau.de/studierende/wege-ins-ausland/#learning-agreement

Dr. Zinaida Benenson (she/her) is the Erasmus coordinator for the Department of Computer Science. You can contact her in German or English.

Zinaida Benenson offers a Zoom consultation hour for ERASMUS+ Program: Tuesdays 17:00-18:00 (5 pm-6 pm). Please contact her at least 1 day in advance, or you may find yourself waiting in an empty Zoom room!

Please look up the List of our Erasmus partners (external link, in German).

• In the list of Erasmus partners, the number of students  is given per year (not per semester)
• Fall semester or autumn semester = winter semester (WS) at FAU
• Spring semester = summer semester (SS) at FAU
• Please pay attention: some partners accept only Bsc or only Msc students!
• 5 months = staying abroad for 1 semester, 10 month = two semesters (1 academic year)
• Nx5 means N students per year, each for 5 months
• Nx10 means that students can apply for 1 semester (5 months) or for a year (10 months), and the number of students varies between N (if everybody applies for 10 months) and 2N (if everybody applies for 5 months).
• If you want to apply for 10 months, please contact your Erasmus coordinator first. Some universities are very popular, such that even if they accept students for 10 months, the FAU nominations are only possible for 5 months in order to accommodate more people.
• If you go abroad for winter semester and would like on site to extend for the following summer semester, please submit an application for an extension to the FAU S-International Office (not to your Erasmus coordinator!) at least one month before the end of the originally planned stay.
  • Extending from the summer semester to the following winter semester is NOT POSSIBLE.
  • An extension is only possible if both the responsible department at FAU and the host university agree to it.
  • However, an extension of the duration of stay does not automatically mean an extension of the scholarship. The latter will be decided on the basis of the available funds, such that you might have to pay for your extension stay with your own funds („Zero Grant“).

• Main deadline for Erasmus+ : January 15, 23:59
  
  • To go abroad in WS XX/XX+1 or in SS XX+1, apply in year 20XX
    
    • Example: to go abroad in WS 23/24 or SS 24, apply till 15 January 2023
  • Deadline for remaining positions (Restplätze) is usually in the beginning of February and is very short-term, so be prepared, if you are interested
• Deadlines for further remaining positions for summer term SS 20XX+1: September 15, 23:59, 20XX
  
  • A list of remaining positions will be published in July

You are going to need the following PDF document for your application. To apply for remaining places for SS 23 please enter this StudOn course (with your PDF document ready):

https://www.studon.fau.de/crs4637891_join.html

Please merge the following documents into a single PDF document in the below order:

• Informal cover letter with brief motivation for going abroad and for each of your chosen universities in English not longer than 1 page A4:
  • One paragraph for general motivation for going abroad and one paragraph per university is absolutely adequate as motivation. Please mention your language skills for a particular country. If there are specific programs or courses that are offered at your chosen universities and are important for you, it is a good idea to include this information (and explain why they are important). There is no need to compose a long essay, unless you feel that you absolutely must say something additionally.
    • Please note: although we are trying our best to give everybody their 1st choice, it is still quite likely that you will be nominated for your 2nd or 3rd choice.
  • Put the following information in a separate section of the cover letter (not in body text):
    • Semester for the stay abroad
    • your  degree program at FAU: subject, semester, Bachelor or Master
      • If you are a double degree FAU-USI student, please mention this
      • If you are going to change from Bachelor to Master at the time of your planned stay abroad, please mention this
    • at most three desired universities as a list (priority 1-3)
• Informal chronological (!) tabular CV in English with contact details, date of birth, the indication of your current course of study (subject, semester, Bachelor or Master) and language skills, picture and signature
  • Please put your Education first, and NOT your Working Experience. You are not applying for a job, but for study abroad. So the most important information is your study subject.
• Proof of language skills of your countries of choice (e.g., through certificates of completed language courses or reference to language courses currently taken).
  • Universities have different language requirements, even if they are in the same country. Moreover, these requirements can change from year to year. Therefore:
    • Before you ask your Erasmus advisor about language requirements, please use a search engine on a query like “university name student exchange“ (or similar), and look for language requirements there.
  • Sometimes the German school certificate (Abitur) is sufficient.
  • The generally accepted language certificate is the Mobility test at the FAU Language Center.
  • Double-degree students going to USI (Lugano) do not need a language certificate.
  • For English, TOEFL, including TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition, is usually accepted. Please note that TOEFL is only valid for 2 years.
• English grade statement (Notenspiegel) from MyCampus for your current semester.
  • Please also insert it if you are in your first Master semester and the grade report is therefore still empty!
• For Master students: Bachelor’s degree certificate
• High school diploma

After the RIA has informed you, you must register yourself at the foreign university.

Adherence to the respective registration deadlines is very important, or exchange place cannot be guaranteed! Please be prepared that these deadlines are quite short-term.

The recognition of the courses from abroad within the Erasmus program is done on the basis of a document called Learning Agreement. Please consult this guide for further information:

How to fill in Learning Agreement (PDF guide, may be updated with new information later, please look up the file regularly)

Important for Computer Science students:

• Computer Science students should send Learning Agreements for Erasmus+ for signing only to Zinaida Benenson and not to Harald Köstler.
• However, if you have questions such as “Can this module from university X be recognized at FAU?“, please ask Harald Köstler.

In addition, you might want to obtain (e.g., in the area of minor subjects) the consent of the lecturer(s) by his/her signature on the „Recognition Agreement“.

You can use this form for this purpose: Recognition Agreement.

This document does not replace the Erasmus „Learning Agreement“, the confirmation of which is done by the Erasmus coordinator.

After your arrival at the receiving university, 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 to 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 receiving institution (with signature, if possible)
  • Responsible person at ssending 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 your Erasmus coordinator for signature, explain briefly why the changes were made.

Students who are unable to attend the regular date of a written examination due to the completion of a study abroad program may apply to the Examination Committee for a substitute examination date in agreement with the respective examiner (cf. ABMPO § 16).

It is also possible to change the form of examination, e.g. to an oral examination, if this is compatible with the qualification objective of the module. The decision is made by the examination board. Evidence of the intended study abroad must be submitted with the application. This also applies to compulsory modules and second or third attempts. However, these cannot usually be converted into an oral examination. In consultation with the examination office, these can be made up for in the next examination period after the stay abroad.

Here you can find the application for substitute examination date(s) during a stay abroad.

For stays abroad, it is possible to take a leave of absence from FAU for one semester.

Please observe the applicable leave of absence guidelines.

Here you will find the application for leave of absence.

The application for leave of absence must be submitted to the Student Administration Office before the start of lectures for the semester in question.

Internships abroad are organized decentrally at the Department of Computer Science. If you have any questions, please contact the individual chairs directly.

Here you can find general information about planning and carrying out internships abroad.

Erasmus students receive a partial scholarship, the amount of which depends on the partner country, and they are waived the tuition fees at the partner university (Erasmus+ funding). In addition, DAAD grants, Auslandsbafög or educational loans can be applied for.