In order for students to complete the B.A. European Cultures and Society (EUCS), students also need to complete one semester abroad.
The semester abroad takes place either in the 4th or the 5th semester. These are the two best semesters to go abroad without sacrificing any part of your studies.
If you plan to go abroad in the 4th semester, you need to apply for it already in the last phase of your 1st semester. (1, 5 years in advance)
If you plan to go abroad in the 5th semester, you need to apply for it during your 3rd semester. (1 year in advance)
Some time before the application for the semester abroad starts, the International Office together with your coordinator will offer an info session to explain the procedure and the academic implications related to the semester abroad.
You will be informed via email about these info-sessions. It is important not to miss them because they will not be repeated or recorded.
For 1st semester students, there is usually an info session in November and another one in March.
For 3rd semester students, there is usually an info session in November.
These info sessions are separated because the application procedures are different, the deadlines are different and the information to be given to each group is also different.
You will receive information about each session via email.
The application to the semester abroad is done using a specific application portal that will be given to you in the info-sessions. That application is done entirely at the EUF.
If you have questions about the application, you can contact the international office via outgoing-PleaseRemoveIncludingDashes-@uni-flensburg.de
You will receive an answer to your application and at some point will be nominated by the EUF to the partner university. After you are given a place in a partner university, you will start receiving a series of emails from the international office. You should read these emails in detail.
Before you start your semester abroad, you need to fill in and get three signatures on your learning agreement: your signature + the signature of your program coordinator at the EUF + the signature of your coordinator at the partner university, in this order.
One semester in EUCS is constituted by 30 ECTS (10 ECTS from the Area "Doing Europe", 15 ECTS of your Focus, 5 ECTS of the other Focus.
(What is a Focus? It’s your specialization either in European Cultures or European Society.)
So, when you go abroad for one semester, to get the full semester abroad recognized at the EUF, you need to also complete around 30 ECTS abroad.
You are somewhat free to choose the courses that you want to take during your semester abroad, as long as they have a connection to European Cultures and Society. The includes, for example, courses related to social sciences, humanities, economy, cultural studies, literature but also related to history, anthropology, non-European specific cultural studies, among others. This is a non-exhaustive list.
Excluded are courses related to sports, to pure linguistics, to programing, to non-social psychology, etc. This list is non-exhaustive.
Please pay attention to the fact that you can take one language courses abroad, which most students use to get to know the language and culture of the course where they will be staying. Nevertheless, please be aware of the fact that only a maximum of 5 ECTS will be recognized for language courses completed during the semester abroad, which is usually, but not necessarily, one course.
At some point, you will start getting emails and information from the partner university that you were nominated to. These emails usually contain the information of the courses that will be offered in the semester when you will be abroad.
Some universities start sending their emails early in time, some others much later.
In the page of the International Office, you can take a look at some of the courses that your colleagues before you took in the university that you will be going to. They are just an indication and there is no guarantee that those same courses will be offered when you are abroad, but you can use them to get an idea.
You will receive instructions on how to fill in the OLA.
Once you have an idea of the courses that you would like to take abroad, it is important to contact the EUCS Coordinator to get an idea if she agrees with your choice and if you can fill in the OLA and send it to further approvals.
At this point in time, some questions may arise. For example, do you want to specialize in something specific during your semester abroad? You are not sure if the courses offered by the partner university are related to EUCS. Should you do specific Research Methods courses abroad? Do you need to complete some pre-requisites for a Masters’ program and want to do that during your semester abroad? Do my courses abroad need to have an equivalent content to the courses I want recognized in Flensburg? (The answer to this is no, by the way.) These are are some of the topics the EUCS Coordinator can help you with.
If you have any doubts or questions about the courses to put on Table A and B of the OLA, your EUCS Coordinator is at your disposal to answer them: ideally during the office hours, per email, on Webex, on the telephone, etc. If you fill in something wrongly, if you put in Table A or Table B courses that are not connected to study program, if you fill table A with only language courses, etc., your OLA will be rejected by the EUCS Coordinator (that is, the first person that needs to sign the OLA after you).
If your OLA has been rejected by the EUCS coordinator, please contact the EUCS coordinator to understand what went wrong and how to correct the OLA, so that it gets approved and signed. The OLA will be rejected every time until it is correctly filled in. To avoid having your OLA rejected over and over again, please contact the EUCS Coordinator.
It is perfectly normal for you to arrive at the partner university only to realize that two of the course that you chose are planned on the same day, at the same time, or that one of the courses that you chose actually go cancelled because not enough students registered for it, or even you start taking one course, realize that it is not what you expected and you want to cancel this course and chose another one… In all these cases, you need to do a change to the learning agreement. At this time, you need to check with the coordinator at the partner university if a change is possible or even advised and you also need to talk to the EUCS Coordinator to see if the new course can be recognized. After that, you can fill in the changes to the OLA and send it out for the approval of both coordinators.
At the end of the semester abroad, you will receive a Transcript or Records. In order for your courses completed abroad to be recognized in your study program, you need to send the transcript of records together will a filled form asking for the recognition of those courses to the EUCS Coordinator.
The form to be filled in can be downloaded in the page of the International office #42639
(Write this page-ID in the search field located in the top right corner of the EUF website)
To fill in the form, you need to know the name of the module you want recognized, the number of the module and part-module(s) and the exam number. This information can all be found in the EUCS Module Catalog, which can be downloaded on this page #20679