Your application documents must be complete and submitted by the deadline. The content and form of the motivation letter is particularly relevant. You should present your study or research project and explain your focus or professional perspective. In addition, you should link this to the necesstiy for a stay abroad. Please take a look at our instructions for the motivation letter. You must also meet the language requirements. Academic achievements and your grades play a subordinate role, but are also taken into account in the decision. It is important that you have at least completed your basic studies, as this is a prerequisite for application at some partner universities. The selection process also takes into account whether your academic success could be negatively affected by a stay abroad. Formal criteria such as salutation, spelling and punctuation are important and can possibly tarnish the overall impression.

Application Period:

• Following winter semester: 11/15 - 1/31
• Following summer semester: 5/1 - 5/15 (remaining places)

Required documents:

• FU online application form (available during application periods)

• Letter of motivation

  • Detailed description of the study or research project, statement of your professional interest as well as the necessity and feasibility of the stay abroad, 1-2 pages, German or English. You can find a more detailed guide on how to write the letter of motivation here.

• Curriculum vitae in tabular form

• Certificate of enrollment

• Proof of academic achievement (incl. table with grades and LPs) or a copy of the Bachelor's certificate for Master's students

• Proof of language skills (can be submitted later if necessary)
  

• As a rule, at least B1 level required, but exact level depends on partner university (please inform here after entering the desired partner university)
• CEFR language certificates can be issued by the Language Center
• The DAAD language certificate can be used as a template
• Central language tests at the Language Center

Please check our Partner Universities for information on selecting a partner university that suits you.
You should take the possible choice of course and the required language level into consideration when making your choice. It is also best to select three universities according to your priorities if don't get selected for one of your choices. You could include the following questions in the selection process:

1. Does the range of courses/profile of the university match my study plan?
2. Can I get credits at FU for the courses I attend at the partner university?
3. Am I sufficiently skilled in the language of instruction? If necessary, are there alternative courses in a language (e.g. English) that I speak?
4. Apart from the range of courses, am I interested in the country, the city, the culture, etc.?

With regard to the required language certificates, the following aspects must be considered:

• As a rule, at least B1 level (Bachelor) or B2 (Master) is required, but the exact level depends on the partner university's requirements (please inform here after entering the desired partner university)

• CEFR language certificates can be issued by the Language Center
• The DAAD language certificate can be used as a template
• Central language tests at the Language Center

At universities where the language of instruction is a regional dialect, such as in Valencia, we pay particular attention to the language requirements being met due to previous difficulties and may set them higher (B2 instead of B1). Regardless of the university, the requirements for master's students are often slightly higher (B2 or C1) than for bachelor's students (mostly B1 or B2). It makes sense to find out about additional support offers regarding the language of instruction at the partner university, e.g. readings offered in English, even though the lecture is held in the national language.

By March: Allocation of study places and notification of applicants

• Please confirm binding acceptance of the exchange place as soon as possible so that we can nominate you at the partner university!

Application at the partner university

• The partner university will contact you directly and send you the necessary documents.
• Please be sure to observe the respective deadlines of the partner universities!

• Prepare for your study abroad (apartment, bank, travel arrangements, insurances, ...; see below)

Fill out your Learning Agreement

• almost all universities are using the new Online Learning Agreement
• in case you have to work with the PDF, the Online Learning Agreement Platform will show you an error message, indicating that the university in question is not using the OLA yet. It is also possible that the partner university sends you their own Learning Agreement form which you then have to use.
• You can find a detailled guide on how to work with the Online Learning Agreement here
• You can find a general guide on how to fill out the Learning Agreement here
• You can find a short guide on how to use the "Beiblatt" here, which is necessary if you work with the OLA