Interdisziplinäre Lehre: Meeting Global Challenges
FAQ
International FAQ
Most of our courses are offered in German, as the majority of the University’s courses only have German as immatriculation requirement and we can therefore not expect the majority of the students to be confident in engaging in a debate in English.
We do try to offer some English-only modules, but if there is no explicit mention of a module being English on the pages of the respective module, the module will predominantly be in German. Note that lecture notes and further reading might still be in English.
In principle this is not necessary and we always try to find individual solutions for student who would rather hand in an assignment in English. Please write the contact person for your course of choice at the beginning of the term (and especially before handing in an assignment), if you wish to do so. If you neglect to do so, we might not grade your assignment and give you a default fail.
Please note that we require the same level of accurate and grammatically correct language in English, as we would in German. Your writing still has to be appropriate for an academic context.
Please write the contact person for your module of choice at the beginning of the term and inform them, if you need a certificate in English.
Enrollment
Participation is generally open to students of all degree programs at RWTH Aachen University, but regular registration via RWTH-Online is mandatory.
Students of RWTH International Academy GmbH, as well as other persons associated with the RWTH (including academic and non-academic staff, JARA members, cooperation partners and senior students), can participate as ‘additional participants’ without taking exams. Students from other universities, especially FH Aachen, can participate as limited cross-registered students as ‘additional participants’; usual cross-registration entitles them to regular participation.
In general, they are only open to registered students, but some are open to the public. These are announced on Facebook and Instagram.
You will find the relevant contact person for each course on its respective page.
You can only participate in one course, take one exam and receive one certificate of attendance per semester.
However, you can attend additional courses as an ‘additional participant’ if places are available. Seminars are generally excluded from this.
Registration takes place before the start of the semester via RWTHonline. You indicate your preferences, and courses are assigned once the registration period has ended. The dates for this can usually be found on the homepage in September and March. You will also receive an information email about the courses on offer.
If places are still available, a replacement procedure is offered in the first month of the semester. Information on this will be available on the website in October/April.
If you wish to participate as an ‘additional participant’, please email the relevant module contact person (HiWi). Please note that participation is only possible if there is capacity remaining after the regular registration period. This also applies to online courses, as there is a maximum number of participants!
Participation as an ‘additional participant’ is generally not possible in seminars.
Courses are allocated via RWTHonline using a lottery system. Places are generally given to students at RWTH Aachen University first. If you indicate your preferences when registering, we will try to take these into account.
If you are a student on the RWTH-FH cooperative civil engineering programme with an orientation semester (BIOS) and you have registered as a guest student in good time, we guarantee you a place on the compulsory courses for your curriculum.
Deregistration/re-registration:
Simply send an email to the the course’s respective contact person, who will take care of everything else. If you are unable to attend a course, we would be grateful if you could use this option, especially if the course is fully booked. This will give students on the waiting list the opportunity to participate.
This is only possible if there are places available on your chosen course. When registering, we will try to take your first preference into account, but if this is not possible due to overbooking, we will book you into a course that is lower down your list of preferences.
We are aware of this issue. Please contact Ms Yildirim (sibel.yildirim@ipw.rwth-aachen.de) at the IPW directly, providing your student ID number and details of the course in question.
Examination
Do I have to register for exams via RWTHonline?
Registration for examinations in “Leonardo” courses is usually done via RWTHmoodle. The relevant deadlines will be announced at the beginning of the semester.
For degree programs in which the “Leonardo” project is part of the curriculum, you must also register for exams via RWTHonline. This applies to you if you have a module node called “Leonardo” project in your Curriculum Support.
To register for the exam in your “Curriculum Support,” select the exam node (green circle) for Project ‘Leonardo’ and register for the same exam that you registered for with the responsible teaching assistant. Of course, you should check beforehand that this achievement can actually be credited to your studies (see “Which exam achievements can I have credited?”). When selecting the exam date, please make sure that you are registering for the correct course and not for example for the earliest exam date. You can find the exam date for the course you are attending at the bottom of the description.
When registering for the exam, please note that you must select the date from your “Leonardo” event, as each one has its own date.
All students enrolled in a degree program at RWTH Aachen University, as well as most guest students, can take exams.
Details of the exams on offer can be found on the respective course pages. Registered students will receive registration information at the beginning of the semester. In principle, you can take one examination of your choice per course. Further information on registration and deadlines will be provided at the start of the semester in each course.
Whether an examination can be credited to your degree program depends on various factors. Further information can be found under ‘Which examination results can I have credited?’
Information on the examinations offered can be found on the pages for the respective courses.
Decisions on the recognition of exams are made at the faculty and departmental group level. In your examination regulations you will find information regarding your degree program. We strongly recommend that you seek advice from your departmental advisor.
Experience shows that crediting in “free elective areas”, “non-specialized elective areas” etc. is possible without any problems.
Please note that some degree programs do not allow you to subsequently submit passed academic achievements. Instead, you must have your academic achievements in the “Leonardo” project approved by your examination board at the beginning of the semester.
The academic committees of each degree program decide how examination performances are credited. We are committed to incorporating interdisciplinary content into as many degree programs as possible. If this is not possible in your case, however, we would be pleased to hear your opinion. The more students point out shortcomings in this regard, the easier it is for us to work towards improvements within the university’s study program curricula
You can contact various people to express your concerns, including your program coordinator, faculty council members, representatives on subject committees and examination boards, your dean of studies and your student council.
The examination board decides on crediting CPs. The CPs specified by us are a recommendation based on an assessment of the amount of work involved, intended to ensure uniform crediting of achievements.
For degree programs in which the ‘Leonardo’ project is embedded in the curriculum, selecting the correct examination performance is straightforward (see ‘Which examination results can I have credited?’). For example, the bachelor’s degree program in social sciences requires the completion of a term paper, which is rewarded with 5 CP instead of the 4 CP we recommend. In this case, this examination is therefore the only one linked in RWTHonline (My Studies).
Certificates
All students participating in a ‘Leonardo’ course can receive either a certificate of attendance or a certificate of achievement. This does not apply to students who can register for their exams directly via RWTHonline (see ‘Which exams can I have credited?’). In this case, the passed examination will be transferred automatically to the transcript, so no proof of performance is required.
You will receive a participation certificate if you do not successfully complete an examination, or if you only participate. You will receive a certificate of achievement if you successfully complete an examination during the semester and were unable to register via RWTHonline. You will receive more detailed information at the beginning of the course.
At the end of the lecture, we will provide you with a certificate confirming your examination in the course. You must then submit this certificate to the Central Examination Office (ZPA). Your examination will then be entered into the system.
If you registered for the examination via RWTHonline (see ‘Which exam results can I have credited?’), you will not receive a certificate of achievement. As is customary for other exams, we will enter your exam results directly into RWTHonline.
Certificates are compiled at the end of the semester for the respective students of a course. As this often involves producing several hundred certificates, the process can take some time. However, you will be notified as soon as they are ready for collection.
This is usually not possible.
