Studying abroad

The Faculty of Psychology accepts the following language certificates for your application, e.g:

• High school diploma; not older than 2 years, ideally with indication of language level
• TUD certificates, TUDIAS, language courses abroad, TOEFL test; not older than 2 years
• Lifelong valid certificates such as DELF

The Faculty of Psychology also accepts a certificate of participation in the compulsory module "Introduction to the professional and scientific language English" issued by TUDIAS/TU Dresden and stating the level.

However, it is possible that the partner university may require an official certificate. It is best to find out in parallel and independently of the application process whether certain language certificates are required and if so, which ones. If necessary, you can then submit another official language certificate to the partner university after your place has been successfully allocated (nomination).

In principle, your language certificate should not be older than 2 years. You can also apply for the current funding period with older language certificates. However, after the 2 years have elapsed, the language level will be downgraded by one level per year. For example, if a C1 language certificate is 3 years old, it would now count as a B2 level. For your application, please ensure that your language certificate is valid and the required level (according to our regulations).

The Abitur certificate can only be submitted as proof of language proficiency if the corresponding language level is also stated on it. Furthermore, the certificate should not be older than 2 years. It may be that the university abroad still requires proof. You should therefore inform yourself independently and in good time on the website of the university abroad so that you can catch up on any required certificates.

You must always provide proof of the level in the language of instruction that you can realistically follow when applying.

If you decide on a partner university where you have not yet reached the required language level, it is also possible to submit additional language certificates. At best, you should submit this by the end of the nomination period of the host university. In addition to your current language certificate, you can, for example, upload the confirmation of registration for the language course for the next higher level in the application and briefly explain your planned procedure (e.g. in the letter of motivation). However, only enter the language level that can actually be proven at the time of application when entering the data.

Normally, one semester of a language course is not enough to learn a language and follow the course material at a university. I cannot answer whether you feel fit to follow the language of instruction at the required level. Please bear in mind that you will want to follow academic content if you are studying abroad in a different language of instruction.

Please also note that we prefer to select students for the host university who already meet all the requirements.

In the case of a verifiable stay abroad of 6 months or more in the country of the target language, a language level can be "credited" in individual cases.

So if the language certificate is 1 year too old (deduction of 1 level) but there is a 6-month internship abroad/ au pair etc. in the country of the target language, 1 level is added and the student may fulfill the language requirement.

This is a "case-by-case assessment" with regard to proof of this stay abroad. To be on the safe side, the TUDIAS language test is still recommended.

If you need a new valid certificate, the quickest/cheapest option here would be to take a language test at the TUDIAS Institute. You can be tested at the desired level (one-off cost of €35, duration approx. 1 hour.) The tests are currently carried out online and an appointment is usually available within a week. You can find more information here: https://www.sprachausbildung.tu-dresden.de/anmeldung/sprachtest-daad/).

If you are selected and nominated for an ERASMUS place, registration documents must be submitted to the partner university as part of the registration process. In some cases, a language certificate in the language of instruction may be required.

Only one letter of motivation is required and this should not exceed one A4 page in length. It is up to you whether you focus entirely or primarily on your first choice or whether you also address your second and/or third choice. You can decide for yourself based on your personal priorities.

It should contain a short salutation to the responsible coordinator and otherwise your reasons for choosing this university. If, for example, you don't care whether you get your first, second or third preference, you are welcome to include this in your letter and we will take this into account. So feel free to write in all your preferences, including your plans for the future (e.g. attending a language course, etc.) or things that could give you an "advantage", e.g. if you plan to take part in a project in your chosen city, if you know people there, etc.

Feel free to write in anything you think could be important, there are no limits!

It is sufficient for us if you write your letter of motivation in German.

A transcript of records in German is sufficient for your application to us.

If you are awarded a place in the applicant selection process, you will be nominated and further/other proof may be required for your registration at the host university, i.e. perhaps also a certificate of achievement in English.
You will be informed of this in good time.

In this case, it is sufficient to submit your Bachelor's degree certificate. If grades are already available by the application deadline, you are welcome to submit a printout.

The application procedure for remaining places is the same as for the regular application procedure. Please refer to our website to find out which documents you need.

The application deadline for the remaining places has not yet been set within the faculty, but will be published on our website https://tu-dresden.de/mn/psychologie/studium/internationales/studieren-im-ausland-outgoing-students

You can search for available remaining places centrally via the Mobility Online Portal using the appropriate filter settings in the search.

For non-EU semesters abroad (with the exception of Switzerland), please apply for the TU Dresden Worldwide Program. This also works via the Mobility Online Portal. If you have any questions about non-EU semesters abroad, please contact Ms. Vivien Kluge from the International Office(IO website).

The decision to take a semester off during an ERASMUS stay is of course an individual one.

However, as far as we know, there are some advantages to taking a semester off.

• A semester in which you are on leave of absence does not count as a semester of study.
• You are not obliged to take examinations during a semester of leave of absence.
  However, it is still possible to take coursework and examinations during a semester of leave of absence.
• If you take a leave of absence due to a stay abroad, you will continue to receive child benefit/BAföG.
• You would probably save the semester contribution.

To apply for a leave of absence, you must enter your application details online in the selma student portal in the menu under [Study organization] and [Application overview]. You must then print out the form, sign it and send it to the Admissions Office.

Further information can be found on the following page:

https://tu-dresden.de/studium/im-studium/studienorganisation/beurlaubung

This varies greatly from student to student and depends on how many modules you have planned in the semesters. If you follow the regular module recommendations, then the 4th semester (Master's) or 6th semester (Bachelor's) is very suitable, as the Master's or Bachelor's thesis can also be completed in the 5th or 7th semester.

The deadline for applying for a semester abroad with the ERASMUS+ program is 15.03. This deadline applies to the following winter semester and the following summer semester.

However, there is a second application phase in which remaining places (see remaining places) are allocated. The deadline is usually at the beginning of September and you can therefore only apply for the summer semester.

In principle, the Learning Agreement of a non-specialist applicant is supervised and signed by the applicant's department. If you succeed in sending a non-specialist applicant, he or she must take the majority of courses from his or her own department, in accordance with the rules of the ERASMUS program.

This means that you could still choose psychological content for your Learning Agreement if the stay is approved.

When applying in the Moblity Online Portal, please pay attention to the procedure for non-subject-specific applications. You can select your (non-subject) first choice in the portal and apply for it. You can enter the non-subject application in the online form and enter a further subject (or two further subjects) in your second and third preferences, from which you can then select exchange options.

In principle, your project is possible as a non-subject applicant via the Faculty of Psychology. However, the prerequisite is that the teaching capacity of the Department of Psychology is released for you, which is not obligatory, as the contract exists in principle for psychology students.

You should bear in mind that as a non-specialist applicant you may have disadvantages in the allocation of places. Places are usually only allocated to non-subject applicants if they are not already being used by students from the contractual department.

As a non-subject applicant, you could also search EU-wide via Mobility Online without the Department filter. If you want to go to a specific city/country, you can use Mobility Online to see which departments have a cooperation agreement with the university you want to go to. You could then apply outside of your subject area (i.e. via another faculty). However, the prerequisite is that the teaching capacity of the chosen department is released for you, which is not mandatory as this is not stipulated in the cooperation agreement. The contract is with the other Department and not with Psychology. You would therefore have to contact the responsible coordinator (see Mobility Online).

However, you must bear in mind that you may have disadvantages in the allocation of places as a non-subject applicant. Places are usually only allocated to non-subject applicants if they are not used by students from the contractual department. This means that students of Forest Sciences will certainly be given preference in the allocation of places for Helsinki.

When applying in the Mobility Online Portal, please pay attention to the procedure for non-subject-specific applications. You can select your (non-subject) first choice in the portal and apply for it. You can enter the non-subject application in the online form and enter a further subject (or two further subjects) in your second and third preferences, from which you can then select exchange options

We will nominate you to your host university shortly. Some host universities then get in touch with students, some do not. You should therefore find out about the application process (registration) on the website of the host university. As a rule, information on this can also be found in the fact sheet of the respective university. This should be available on Mobility Online, otherwise I would ask you to look up the relevant information on the university's website yourself.

Please inform Ms. Unger() if possible before paying the first instalment of your grant. Overall, however, withdrawal is unproblematic as long as no funding has been paid. Otherwise, the corresponding funding must be repaid. Travel costs or other expenses can be reimbursed if the withdrawal is justified.

Please inform the Erasmus coordinator if you are not accepted and after the nomination. Reject your place in the Mobility Online Portal yourself if you cannot find the relevant entry and send us an e-mail so that we can carry out the rejection on your behalf. This helps us to keep track of which places are still available and which we can allocate to students who are still waiting.

The period specified in the LA can be specified generously, e.g. for the entire semester. However, this period is not the basis for billing, but the period specified in the application, which can be changed. The period of stay specified in Mobility Online is transferred to the funding agreement, and this is the basis for funding in ERASMUS. According to the new ERAMUS+ regulations, only 5 months of your stay in the host country will be funded.

If you have any questions about the OLS language test, please contact Ms. Kerstin Unger at the International Office (kerstin.unger@tu-dresden.de).
The Online Language Support (OLS) is part of Erasmus+ mobility and includes a mandatory online language test in the main working language before the start of the Erasmus+ stay. The compulsory language test must be taken via the OLS portal. You should receive the invitation to the language test by email from the International Office; please check your spam folder if necessary. The test takes about 1 hour and should be done independently and without any aids. The test result has no influence on your Erasmus+ place!

In principle, it is possible to postpone your return trip a little. However, please inform the International Office, because if your planned period exceeds the 5 months, there may otherwise be problems with the funding. To prevent this from happening, please contact Kerstin Unger at the International Office with your planned departure date and your concerns.

This is of course possible. You could extend your Erasmus stay by one semester and spend a whole year at the partner university.

In this case, please pay attention to the nomination deadlines of your partner university for the second semester. A timely nomination is necessary for an extension, which is why you should inform us of your wish for an extension in good time. We would also have to check whether there are still free places available for the coming semester in accordance with the cooperation agreement, or whether these have already been allocated to other students (e.g. students who have applied in advance).

Further information on extending a stay abroad can be found on the following page under "Can I extend my stay?

https://tu-dresden.de/studium/im-studium/auslandsaufenthalt/erasmus/weitere-infos#section-2

You should submit your application for an extension to the International Office of TU Dresden at least 30 days before the end of the planned mobility period.

In principle, it is also possible to sponsor your Master's thesis abroad.
To do this, you will need a supervisor at the host university and at TUD, as well as a research topic for your thesis that everyone agrees on.

A Master's thesis would correspond to 30 ECTS, which means that you would not have to earn any additional credits for the extra semester. The entry "Master's thesis" would then be recorded in the Learning Agreement.
To sign the LA, please contact Ms. Judith Josupeit. In addition, you should send her the informal confirmation of the supervising professors/lecturers by e-mail.

In principle, it is possible for coursework completed abroad within the framework of ERASMUS to be recognized, provided that there is a demonstrable equivalence to the course content and examination modalities in the corresponding module at TU Dresden and the learning outcomes do not differ substantially. The application for recognition can only be submitted to the Faculty of Psychology after your stay abroad. Likewise, the final assessment of the equivalence of the modules will only take place afterwards. We would therefore ask you to leave Table B of the Learning Agreement blank for the recognition of courses.

However, you can ask the module coordinators at TU Dresden for a statement on equivalence before your stay abroad in order to be able to assess the success of the application for recognition.

For your application, you generally need a language certificate in the language of instruction of the selected courses (according to the Learning Agreement draft). As long as you achieve 30 ECTS credits in your Learning Agreement with courses taught in English, for example, a valid proof of English is also sufficient.

According to the contract with the partner universities, there are often two languages of instruction, one of which is English (exceptions: Spain and France). In principle, it is therefore possible to apply and then study with an English-language Learning Agreement and only with proof of English language proficiency.

You should find out whether you can achieve at least 25 - max. 30 ECTS with English-language courses only. Not all of these have to be subject-related (i.e. psychology courses), only the majority. For example, you can take up to 14 ECTS from other fields, e.g. sociology, philosophy, language courses, etc., out of a total of 30 ECTS. This often makes it easier for you to achieve the required total number of ECTS credits by only taking courses in English.

As a general rule, your Learning Agreement should comprise approx. 25 - 30 ECTS, more than half of which must be covered by psychology modules. This means that if you choose courses amounting to 30 ECTS, at least 16 ECTS must be in psychology. The rest can be chosen freely according to your interests.

First of all, there is no problem if you want to attend a Bachelor's course at your host university. However, the host university you are applying to may not allow this, as we are officially sending you to them as a "Master's student" and their quota of students to be accepted on certain courses is often limited. However, you are welcome to write the course in your Learning Agreement and clarify it with the host university after the nominations.

In the event that you cannot find enough English courses on your host university's website to achieve the 30 ECTS (or more than half of the ECTS in the psychology department), I recommend that you write to the coordinators at your host university. There may be certain courses that take place in English by arrangement or lecturers who at least offer examinations in English. Please contact your host university proactively, the coordinators will be happy to help you.

You are welcome to take a language course at your host university. However, this should not exceed 6 ECTS per semester.

The Digital Learning Agreement (DLA) initially serves as a solid orientation, but it often happens that certain courses cannot be offered on site due to unforeseen events. However, it can be changed during the stay on site, Mobility Online offers a corresponding function.

In principle, it is possible for credits earned abroad within the framework of ERASMUS to be recognized. The prerequisite for this is that there is a demonstrable equivalence to the course content and examination modalities in the corresponding module at TU Dresden.

The Examination Committee at the Faculty of Psychology will only check the equivalence of the modules in question after your stay abroad by presenting the coursework actually completed abroad.

If you are planning to have academic achievements recognized and would like to find out in advance whether the equivalence of the examination achievements is given in principle, make an appointment with your Chairperson of the Examination Committee here in Dresden. Bring a detailed list of the course content and the examination modalities of the course you would like to have credited to this appointment.

You submit the application for credit transfer retrospectively. Please also have a look at the FAQ website of the Examination Office.

If you would like to know in advance whether the coursework can be credited, please contact the module coordinator of the module for which you would like the coursework to be credited, see module description in the study regulations.

Please note that only complete modules or complete examinations can be credited, it is not possible to credit only partial achievements.

For crediting, the form for crediting an examination achievement must be completed and submitted to the Examination Office.
The form must state the coursework completed and the coursework for which it is to be credited as an equivalent. The completed application must first be submitted to the subject representative (module supervisor of the module for which the coursework is to be credited as an equivalent) for a statement, including the original proof of the coursework and a module description. Once the subject representative has issued a statement, the application must be submitted to the Examination Office with the original proof of achievement and the module description for presentation to the Examination Committee.
If you wish to keep the original transcript of records, please bring the original and a copy to the Examination Office, or an official certification. The submission of the original can then be noted on the copy and you can take the original back with you.

In principle, examination achievements can be credited if they are equivalent to curricular achievements in accordance with the study regulations (see module descriptions). If there is no equivalence to a curricular module, there is the possibility of structural crediting in the compulsory elective area.
Requirements for structural crediting:
- the module completed corresponds to the purpose of the existing elective options as if it could have been a separate elective module (the Examination Committee decides on the application for structural crediting; if it is unclear whether the module completed fits into the profile of the compulsory elective area of the corresponding Master's degree program, please ask the Chairperson of the Examination Committee in advance if necessary)
- the compulsory elective area has not yet been fully completed - structural crediting is only possible in the compulsory elective area and only to the extent of the number of credit points to be earned in the compulsory elective area
- it is a completed module (no individual courses can be credited without examination performance, such as 3-credit course certificates, it must be a complete module)
- for crediting in the Master's degree program, the module completed abroad must be at Master's level and must be proven in the form.

Information on submitting an application: Here too, the application for credit transfer must be submitted and the original module description and transcript of records must be submitted with details of the module, the credits earned and the assessment. The opinion of a subject representative is not required for structural credit transfer; the application is submitted directly to the Examination Committee via the Examination Office.

According to § 17 (5) BPO, only grades from comparable grading systems can be recognized: "... grades are - insofar as the grading systems are comparable - to be accepted and included in the further grading. In the case of incomparable grading systems, the note "passed" is included, they are not included in the further grading. ..."

Students who have reported grades from incomparable grading systems for their examinations taken abroad and wish to have these grades credited at the TUD can submit an information sheet (grade transfer) (ideally already on site) to the examiners at the foreign university, by means of which the examiners at foreign universities are informed about the TUD grading system and can classify the grade obtained abroad in a "grade transfer" into the TUD grading system.