Email Incoming: Dear exchange students at the Faculty of Humanities!
Dear exchange students at the Faculty of Humanities, We welcome you as exchange students at the University of Konstanz! Content: 1) Info sessions and materials; 2) Choosing courses, signing up for courses; 3) Registration periods in the Faculty of Humanities; 4) Courses in other institutes/centres; 5) Preview: Exam/ECTS registration; 6) Erasmus+ students: Learning Agreements; 7) Support services
Dear exchange students at the Faculty of Humanities,
We welcome you as exchange students at the University of Konstanz! “We” are Melanie Hochstätter and Anja Christ, Erasmus+ coordinators and international exchange student advisors at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Konstanz.
We know this is a very long message, but in order to start your studies successfully, it is crucial that you read it thoroughly and to the end. Thank you!
Contents of this e-mail
- Info sessions and materials
- Choosing courses, signing up for courses
- Registration periods in the Faculty of Humanities
- Courses in other institutes/centres
- Preview: Exam/ECTS registration
- Erasmus+ students: Learning Agreements
- Support services
1. Info sessions and materials
Info session for Incoming Exchange Students in the Faculty of Humanities:
- takes place in September during the GO Konstanz orientation programme
- will be streamed online and recorded for those of you who are not yet in Konstanz by then
- complete programme of info sessions will soon be available on the central website for exchange students.
Info about course/assessment types, ECTS values, etc. in your department:
- The Incoming Student Guide provides you with further details on each department and information on getting started in Konstanz in general.
- Consult our faculty website with information on choosing courses in departments of the Faculty of Humanities.
—> Read the chapters/instructions of all the departments you wish to take courses in, because the procedures and course types are not the same in all the departments.
Course catalogue for the upcoming winter semester 2024/25:
- now available on our university’s student platform ZEuS:
—> easy way to find courses taught in English: go directly through the category Courses taught in English in the catalogue.
2. Choosing courses, signing up for courses
- You have to register for the courses you would like to take by signing up for them in ZEuS. You are not automatically registered, not even if you have already handed in a Learning Agreement listing courses you would like to take!
- Studying across disciplines/taking courses in multiple departments is possible.
—> The majority of courses should be taken in the host department, but you are free to choose courses from other departments and faculties as well.
—> You have to meet the entry requirements of a course if there are any (e.g. possessing prior knowledge in a certain field); consult the course descriptions for further information on prerequisites and restrictions.
- Registration periods differ across faculties and departments. Make sure to find out about registration periods in other faculties if you are taking courses there.
—> Registration periods are mentioned in the detailed course description for every course („Periods/Zeiträume: Registration Deadline/Belegfrist“).
—> If you take courses in multiple departments, you will most likely have to keep multiple registration periods in mind. Set reminders in your calendar!
- Register as soon as it is possible, because for the majority of courses admission works on a first come, first served basis.
- Registration is only possible when being logged in to ZEuS. You will need your Uni Konstanz email account and login credentials to be able to login. This information will be included on the data control sheet provided by the Incoming Team/International Office. Please do not email them requesting this information, as you will receive it automatically once you are enrolled!
Webinar „Introduction to Studies" on 20th August:
- In this webinar, offered by Frank from the Incoming Team, you will learn how to set up your university login and how to navigate through ZEuS. Make sure to attend the webinar or watch the recording later on. You can find all the recordings of prior webinars and upcoming dates here: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/international-office/study-in-konstanz/exchange-studies/application/webinars/
3. Registration periods in the Faculty of Humanities
Department of Linguistics (course codes starting with LIN)
Department of Literature, Art and Media Studies (course codes starting with LIT)
Department of Philosophy (course codes starting with PHI)
—> registration for participation period: 15th September - 3rd November
Department of History (course codes starting with HIS)
—> registration for participation period: 10th - 16th October
Department of Sociology (course codes starting with SOC)
The registration period varies according to the type of course. Check the course descriptions to see the periods for each course!
—> registration for participation periods:
Lectures and MA courses: 1st October - 1st November
Seminar “Classics”, Project Seminars: 1st - 8th October
Special Sociology courses and courses on Data Analysis: 11th - 20th October
4. Courses in other institutes/centres
Practical language courses (course codes starting with SLI):
- offered by the Language Institute (Sprachlehrinstitut - SLI)
- open to all students of all disciplines
—> registration for participation period: 1st - 16th October (different registration period might apply to compact courses that take place in the lecture-free period; check course description of each course!)
- for those languages one can study as part of a degree programme here, there are two categories of courses:
a) Courses for students studying this language as part of their degree („Students of English/French/… & Linguistics“).
b) Courses for students of other programmes („Students of all other subjects“).
—> You may only choose from the category that applies to you.
Transferable Skills courses (course codes starting with KEY):
- offered by the Centre for Transferable Skills (Zentrum für Schlüsselqualifikationen - SQ)
- open to all students of all disciplines
—> registration for participation period: 23rd September - 11th October
Important: Once you are accepted to courses in the Centre for Transferable Skills, you will automatically be registered for the assessment as well! Should you decide not to take one of these courses, you have to deregister from it in time, otherwise it will show up as a “fail” on your Transcript of Records. The process of deregistering is explained in further detail on their website.
5. Preview: Exam/ECTS registration
After being successfully registered for participation in your courses, you will have to register a second time later on in the semester in order to obtain ECTS credits.
Course registration does not include exam/ECTS registration (except in the Centre for Transferable Skills). If you would like to gain/earn credit points from a course, you will have to sign up for the exam/ECTS separately during the exam/ECTS registration period. This exam/ECTS registration period will run from 1st December – 15th January in the Faculty of Humanities and luckily, this period is the same for all departments of the faculty as well as at the Language Institute. It is only during this second registration period that you sign up for the ECTS credits of a course. In other words: Your Transcript of Records will only include courses, ECTS credit points and grades that you registered for in this second registration period as well. We will take about this in further detail in our info session during the Exchange Days in September.
6. Erasmus+ students: Learning Agreements
- The Learning Agreement (LA) is mandatory for Erasmus+ exchange students.
- has to be signed by the student, the home university and the host university before the start of the mobility.
- We (Melanie/Anja) sign it for students of the Faculty of Humanities.
- We are able to receive and sign LAs digitally (OLA/EWP). However, we do not receive a notification once you have handed in your OLA. Please let us know by e-mail once you handed in your OLA.
—> If your home university does not use OLA/EWP, you can send us a PDF version of the LA for signature instead.
Two possibilities, A or B:
a) Have you already handed in an OLA / LA I (before the mobility) based on an old course catalogue and had it signed by us?
—> Do not fill in another LA I. We will not sign a second pre-departure version of your LA I.
––> Neither fill in a “changes version” (LA II, during the mobility) yet, as your study period has not yet started. You will be doing so once you are here and know for sure which courses you will be taking (where you were accepted). This will be at the beginning of November.
or
b) You haven’t submitted your LA I (before the mobility) to receive a signature from Konstanz yet?
—> Please do so after consulting the updated catalogue and proceed as described below:
Before you hand in your LA, make sure that it meets the following criteria, otherwise we won’t be able to sign it:
- It is filled out completely and correctly with your personal data (name, home university, field of studies, level of studies, period of stay, language level etc.)
- Table A is filled in correctly, meaning that you have listed courses for the upcoming winter semester 2024/25. Make sure to write down the exact course title and correct codes for each course (do not translate/abbreviate titles yourself). If a course doesn’t have a code yet, leave the code-field blank and put in “tba” (to be announced).
- You indicated which semester a course is supposed to be taught in, especially if you will be joining us for the full academic year and submit an LA I for both semesters – we do not offer annual courses.
Important: We (Melanie/Anja) only sign LAs of students of the Faculty of Humanities. Students of other faculties have to turn to their departmental coordinator for a signature.
7. Support services
- The Studierendenwerk (student services) Seezeit offers social counselling (financial matters, students with children, and students with disability).
- Seezeit also offers psychotherapeutic counselling (mental health problems, but also topics such as test anxiety or concentration problems).
- The Equal Opportunities Office is committed to ensuring equal chances and equal treatment at university for all its members.
- There are counsellors for students with a disability or chronic illness that you may make individual appointments with. They can advise you, e.g. if you would like to request academic adjustment for coursework and performance assessments. They also offer the programme students hand-in-hand, a one-on-one support programme for students by students.
Of course, you may always also contact us with any questions/requests, we will refer you to the responsible person if necessary.
Important: If you have a Learning Support Plan or any other academic adjustment in place at your home university that you need your lecturers in Konstanz to take into consideration, please make sure to let us know as soon as possible. There are similar support structures in Konstanz that we can provide you with. In order to accommodate your needs in time, we need to know about them well in advance.
GREAT YOU MADE IT TO THE END, THANK YOU FOR READING!
All best wishes,
Melanie Hochstätter and Anja Christ