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Application Guidelines
for the European / Erasmus Programmes
of the School of Humanities, the School of Social Sciences,
the School of Business Informatics and Mathematics
and the Department of Law
(in cooperation with the University of Mannheim International Office)
Deadline for the School of Humanities, School of Business Informatics and Mathematics and Department of Law:
For a one or two semester long stay abroad starting with the Fall Semester 2016 or for a one semester stay in the Spring Semester 2017:
31 January 2016 (one application deadline per year)
Deadlines for the School of Social Sciences:
For a one or two semester long stay abroad starting with the Fall Semester 2016:
31 January 2016
For a one semester stay abroad in the Spring Semester 2017:
30 April 2016
These instructions are valid for all programmes except for those that are administered fully by a particular school or chair (see application information of the respective programme on our website).
Content
How Can I Find Information? ... 2
Which programmes may I apply for? ... 3
Application Requirements ... 4
Can I Gain a Degree Abroad? ... 4
Scholarship Benefits ... 4
Application Documents ... 4
General Information about the Application Documents ... 4
Application Components ... 5
Packaging of the Application Documents ... 7
Handing in the Application ... 7
Confirmation of Application Receipt: ... 7
Submitting Documents after the Deadline ... 8
Selection Process ... 8
Selection Criteria / Chances ... 8
What’s next? ... 9
IMPORTANT:Take care of your proof of language skills early on, as test appointments are being filled weeks in advance! Applications without proof of language will not be accepted. It is NOT possible to submit the language certificate after the deadline.
The proof of language skills may not be older than exactly two years at the day of the application deadline.
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How Can I Find Information?
Information Provided by Your School
Carefully read the school-specific information concerning a study abroad period. This information can be found on the individual school’s website under the topic “International”. If necessary, arrange a personal advisory meeting at your school (Exchange Coordinators).
Study Abroad Information Session
If you feel that your command of the German language is sufficient to take part in the Introductory Study Abroad Meeting (generally held in German), please do so. Information session dates: see the Homepage of the International Office http://www.uni-mannheim.de/aaa/english under the section Outgoing Students Going Abroad First Steps.
Alternatively, the International Office is offering individual information meetings for international students to inform you about the study abroad programme, your options and any special requirements regarding visa, proof of language skills etc. Please feel free to contact the Study Abroad Advisors from the International Office to agree a suitable time for a meeting.
The International Office’s Website: www.uni-mannheim.de/aaa/english
Under the section “Outgoing Students”, you will find a list of possible study abroad programmes as well as links to the homepages of partner universities, application forms, and also student experience reports from former exchange students. If you have specific questions, the International Office can put you in touch with former outgoing students. Just send an e-mail with the number of the experience report to outgoings@uni-mannheim.de.
Brochures
In the Reading Room on the Ground Floor of L1,1 (at the Express-Service) we are collecting brochures of partner universities. Not all of our partners still issue brochures in the age of the Internet, but feel free to take a look at the information, sorted by country.
Contact to the partner institutions
Please do not contact our partner institutions before you have officially been nominated by the International Office! If you have any questions, contact our advisors in Mannheim (see below)!
Individual Advisory Sessions at the International Office
The International Office is happy to help you with your questions concerning the application and the organisation of your study abroad period.
Office hours of the International Office (for shorter questions): Mondays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. For an individual advisory session please make an arrangement by dialling 0621 181-1151.
Here is a list of the available study abroad advisors: Romance language countries in
Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal):
Kerstin Bach Tel. 0621 181-1160
English- and German-speaking countries in Europe (incl. Scandinavia, Eastern Europe etc.):
Kathrin Blitzke Tel. 0621 181-1159
Advice from your School / Department
With regards to academic questions (e.g. course selection and recognition), please contact your School’s Exchange Coordinator at the Dean’s Office. An overview of these contacts can be found here: www.uni-mannheim.de/aaa/contact Staff Members Exchange Coordinators.
You can find information about available modules/courses for example on the website of the respective partner university or in the experience reports of your predecessors.
PLEASE NOTE: The International Office will be closed during the Christmas period from 23 December 2015 until 8 January 2016. We will answer your application queries again from 11 January 2016.
3 Learning Agreements
Learning Agreements serve to facilitate the University of Mannheim school’s recognition of courses completed by students while studying abroad. Please only fill in these agreements after you have received confirmation of your acceptance into the programme and after you are sure of what courses you would like to take while abroad. The right contact person for course arrangements and recognition is your school’s Exchange Coordinator and / or the exam board.
Which programmes may I apply for?
In order to see which study abroad programmes you may apply for, please visit the partner university database located on the International Office’s (“Akademisches Auslandsamt”) website. Please contact the International Office if you need help when using the database as it is available in German only. Your major is the defining factor; you cannot apply for an exchange in your minor.
At the time of the application deadline, you may hand in only one application. In addition to your first-choice selection of a partner university you may add up to two alternative choices of partner universities on the application form.
These alternatives do not need to be in the same country as your first choice, as long as they have the same application deadline and as long as you have the required language proficiencies.
Example:
First priority: University Oslo Second priority: Univ. Maastricht Third priority: Univ. Florence
The selection commission will always try to fulfill your first choice priority. If this is not possible, the commission will try to allocate a place at your second or third choice university.
To increase your chances for a study abroad place, we recommend using all priorities, provided that there are enough universities that are of interest to you. If you only state one priority, the selection commission will assume that you do not want to study at any other university abroad. Accordingly, you will not be considered for other universities in a potential second selection round.
Please note:
Only European universities may be chosen for the application deadline 31 January. Respectively, you may select only European (Erasmus) partner universities as priorities.
For the School of Social Sciences, the application deadline 30 April offers European universities as well as partner universities overseas (South), which you are allowed to choose from for your application. This means that in your application you can “mix” universities of the different regions (within the three allowed priorities). But please be aware that application requirements may change in this case, so please refer to the separate application guidelines for the respective region.
As the School of Humanities, Business Informatics and Mathematics and the Department of Law do not allow application for European programmes for 30 April, these students can only apply for Overseas-South programmes at this deadline.
Please note: The international exchange relationships of the University of Mannheim are subject to change. This means that new foreign universities might be added to the online data base of study abroad opportunities, but also that a university exchange might no longer be offered. We update our website regularly – please keep yourself informed by regularly checking the online information.
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Application Requirements
1. Enrolment at the University of Mannheim at the time of the study abroad period (and the return to studies at the University of Mannheim afterwards).
2. Proof of advanced knowledge of the preferred host university’s language of instruction. For further information, please refer to the relevant section below.
3. Handing in a completed application on time.
4. If you have already been selected and accepted a spot in a programme, it is not possible to re-apply for another spot for the same study abroad period.
5. For State Exam Degrees (Staatsexamen) – please contact the International Office for specific requirements if you study one of these degree courses as a non-native German speaker or, if you speak German, please read the German version of the application instructions.
Note: Applicants who have already taken part in an exchange programme organised by the University of Mannheim during their current course of study, will be lower-ranked in the second application to allow as many people as possible to take part in an exchange programme. A previous stay abroad during the Bachelor‘s degree, however, will not result in a lower-rank if applying again to study abroad during the Master’s degree. This is also valid for Staatsexamen students: a previous stay abroad will not result in a lower-rank.
Can I Gain a Degree Abroad?
Within exchange programmes, the award of degrees (MBA, Bachelor, Master etc) is generally not possible, as your status as an exchange student is that of a “non-degree seeking student”.Important for all European exchanges: if gaining a degree meant that you have to pay tuition fees, you would automatically lose your Erasmus status and could not receive Erasmus funding.
Scholarship Benefits
If your application is successful, you will receive tuition-free admission to one of our partner universities. In addition, there are some financing possibilities, which are highlighted on our website in the section Outgoing Students Funding. In most cases, these require a separate application. At our Erasmus partner universities, Mobility Funding supported by the EU is generally “automatically” included. This funding varies from country to country and is usually between 150 and 250 Euro per month (“Erasmus funding”). The International Office will inform you about this funding once you receive a study abroad spot.
If you already received Erasmus funding for a study or work experience abroad during your current or former degree, you can get again an Erasmus grant as long as it does not exceed the following maximum duration for both study or work placements: in each study cycle (Bachelor/Master) you can receive up to 12 months of funding; in one-cycle degrees (Lehramt/Staatsexamen) up to 24 months.
Application Documents
General Information about the Application Documents
You need to hand in the documents mentioned below as a hardcopy. The application form will be generated through an online registration. We will only accept applications that we receive both in hardcopy and via our online system.
All application documents should be handed in single copy in German or English.
At the point of application, academic references / letters of recommendation (Gutachten) are generally not required. Therefore, please do not hand in any academic references – they do not play a role in the selection process.
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Application Components
1 Online Application Form (generated at the time of applying online)
The link to the online application form can be found in the section “Application” on the
International Office website: (www.uni-mannheim.de/aaa Outgoing Students Application).
In the online application form please enter your personal data as well as your preferred university/universities and the preferred time period of your study abroad.
If you have a second nationality, please indicate it in the online form.
If you would consider different time periods for the same priority (Fall Term or Spring Term, 1 or 2 semesters), please mention this for each priority in the motivation letter (see below), as it is technically not possible to indicate this in the online form.
Note: The drop-down selections of the online form contain the partner universities of all schools. Please make sure that you only choose universities that are available to your degree course for the corresponding application date.
After completing the form, send it to the International Office electronically. Then, print out the form, sign it, attach a passport photo or job application photo to the form and hand in the online form with the other required documents before the deadline.
After the electronic submission of the online form, you will receive an automatic confirmation e-mail within a few minutes. In case you do not receive it, you have to get in touch with the International Office immediately.
Please enter an e-mail address that will still be valid during and after the time of your stay abroad. It is your responsibility to provide a reliable communication channel via e-mail by regularly checking your inbox (and also your spam folder) and to make sure that you can receive incoming e-mails with larger attachments.
If your postal address should change in the near future, please inform the Express-Service (Student Services/Studienbüros) as well as the International Office (by e-mail) – unfortunately, there is no automatic update of our database with the general university database yet.
2 CV
Format: CV in tabular form
Also state any work experience, internships, or extra-curricular activities. No photograph is required (a photo on the online form is sufficient).
3 Letter of Motivation
Format: Please attach separate sheets of DIN A4 paper. The letter of motivation must contain your
name and matriculation number as a header.
On the first page, explain the personal and academic reasons for the exchange programme which you selected as your first-choice.
In shorter form, explain the other exchange programme priorities, in a maximum of half a page per university. Overall, the letter of motivation is allowed to be no longer than 2 pages.
It should be clear from your letter of motivation that you have made yourself familiar with the study options at the universities and respectively the academic institutions that you have selected. The selection committee reads and evaluates every single letter of motivation.
6 4a Transcript of all Study Courses attended in Mannheim
The transcript will provide an overview of your study performance to the selection committee. Therefore, this transcript must contain all grades since the first semester (if available). For Master students: all grades since the first Master semester (if available).
Please go to the Express-Service and ask for a transcripts of records including the overall average grade. Please hand in an original transcript with signature.
4b Master degree courses: Certificate of completed Bachelor Degree including individual grades
Also hand in an uncertified copy of your completed bachelor degree certificate or your transcript if the Bachelor degree is not yet available. The certificate should include your overall grade as well as your individual course grades.
The selection committee reserves the right to ask for the original copies.
5 Proof of Language Skills
At the time of application, you need a valid proof of language skills for your preferred universities. To find out which language is relevant for your chosen universities and what kind of proof you need, please see the following website:
www.uni-mannheim.de/aaa/english Outgoing Students Application Proof of Language Skills
Please note that in the interest of comparability, we won’t accept any other proof of language skills besides the ones mentioned on the website above. Native speakers, please check as well these informations on tests and potential alternatives.
REMINDER: the proof of language skills must not be any older than max. exactly two years at the
day of the application deadline.
Please note: Degree-seeking students whose nationality is not part of the EU should inquire with the International Office about the visa requirements for their preferred host universities and see if they possibly need to submit a different proof of language skills.
The proof of language skills must be handed in as an original or certified copy – the Express-Service can certify a copy of the original for you.
If some of your preferred universities require proof of other languages, please also hand in the documents for these languages.
Example:
First priority Great Britain proof for English language skills
Second priority Spain additional proof for Spanish language skills (if Spanish is the language of instruction)
If you intend to take courses at your host university that are taught in several languages (e.g. lectures or seminars in English and Spanish), you will need to show proof for all these languages.
Please note: If there are some spots left unfilled after the selection process, the remaining spots will be advertised to those applicants who didn’t receive a spot yet. It is then possible to hand in a second application for these spots (by email). If the second application contains universities with different teaching languages, you must possess a proof of language skills for this region prior to your second application! So if you apply for English-taught programmes now, please think carefully about a potential second round and if you might then want to apply for a university that is e.g. Spanish-taught – if this is the case, you should obtain such an additional proof of language skills now (as there won’t be time for this during the second round).
6 Other certificates
If you mention internships, work experience, or other similar topics in your CV, you should attach the corresponding certificates (if relevant) to your application (uncertified copies).
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Packaging of the Application Documents
1. Sort the application documents in the order mentioned above – unsorted documents have a negative impact on your chances.
2. Attach a paper clip to the documents and place them in a see-through sheet protector that is open on two sides – please don’t use application folders etc. as they do not improve your chances and are indeed hindering speedy processing. Envelopes are only necessary if you send your application via mail.
Handing in the Application
School of Humanities, School of Business Informatics & Mathematics and Department of Law:
Sunday, 31 January 2016 School of Social Sciences:
Sunday, 31 January 2016 (for a stay abroad starting in the Fall Semester) Saturday, 30 April 2016 (for a stay abroad in the Spring Semester)
As this year, the application deadline(s) fall on a week-end, please either hand in your application personally by the respective Friday before the deadline at the Express-Service in L1,1 or send your application in time by post (date as postmarked).
We recommend that you send your application via regular mail because the delivery via registered mail, express, and similar methods may take longer and will delay the selection process.
You should also make a personal copy/scan of your application for your own documents.
Opening Hours Express-Service:
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Postal address: University of Mannheim International Office L1, 1 68131 Mannheim
Mail from abroad: If you need to send your documents from abroad, please scan your documents and send them also via e-mail before you put your application in the mail.
You alone are responsible for the completeness of your application. Your application will be excluded from the selection process if it is incomplete. Please use the table above to check completeness. Due to the high number of applicants, we are not able to request missing documents.
Confirmation of Application Receipt:
For the application deadline 31January, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from the International Office confirming the receipt of your application documents by Monday, 08 Feb 2016 (6 p.m.) at the latest. If you do not receive such an e-mail by this time, you must contact the International Office immediately.
For the application deadline 30 April, you will receive this e-mail by Thursday, 12 May 2016 (6 p.m.) at the latest.
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Submitting Documents after the Deadline
It is not possible to hand in any documents after the application deadline. This is necessary to speed up the selection procedure.
Selection Process
The selection process is carried out either by a commission of school representatives and employees of the International Office or by the program-specific assigned professors of the schools. Sometimes, an interview is required for overseas programmes; if this applies to you, you will be invited by e-mail.
Due to the high number of applications that need to be processed and evaluated, we ask you not to contact us by telephone or e-mail to enquire about the result of the selection process. You have to expect that the selection will require a number of weeks. We will endeavour to inform you about the results as soon as possible.
If you are accepted into a programme, you have approximately one week to sign a letter of acceptance which confirms your participation in the programme. This letter of acceptance is binding. Unfortunately, every year there are applicants who initially accept a spot in a programme and drop out later without going through the official cancellation process. Because of the expired application deadline, this “free spot” is then no longer available for another student. This is unfair to other applicants and will be penalised with exclusions from any form of university-internal study abroad programme. In addition, the International Office will consult with the responsible university school.
If your first priority cannot be granted, but your application contains further university choices, then your application will be considered for the remaining places in exchange programmes.
Selection Criteria / Chances
Only very general statements about the selection criteria can be made, as the individual selection committee might place their own emphasis. Generally, selection criteria are:
- study performance, study length
- academic and personal motivation for studying abroad - language skills (at least good level in the teaching language) - extracurricular activities, work experience etc.
- formal correctness of the application
- personal impression (if interviews take place)
Your chances of being selected for a (certain) place to study abroad at one of our partner universities cannot be estimated beforehand. Whether you are offered a spot at all (and at which partner university) depends on your fellow applicants as well. Moreover, the number of applicants can vary considerably from year to year without the reasons being immediately evident. As a consequence, we are unable to make any statement on what your chances are.
Therefore, please refrain from asking about your individual application chances.
Unfortunately, there are rumors with dubious insider tips circulating among students on how to apply in a ‘tactically clever’ way. In our experience, following these “hints” will not increase your chances of getting into the exchange programme of your choice. For your application, just follow the information and advice given in these guidelines and take your time to research your target universities and to write your letter of motivation.
You could possibly increase your chances if you have some leeway in choosing the time period to go abroad, since the numbers of people applying for the spring or fall term is not always the same. If you
9 are flexible about the time you want to spend abroad, you should mention this in your letter of motivation.
What’s next?
If you receive the notice of acceptance into a programme, you will receive an e-mail from the International Office shortly thereafter with important information. Many host universities will request
additional documents from you. In general, such documents could be: - CV (in English or another language, depending on the programme)
- Letter of motivation (in English or another language, depending on the programme) - Current transcript (in English)
- Proof of language skills
- Academic reference (Please only request this from your school if required; academic references are only necessary for a few, mostly overseas, universities. If required, you will be informed by us in time.)
