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 courses, but if there is no explicit mention of a course being English on the pages of the respective course, the course 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 course of choice at the beginning of the term and inform them, if you need a certificate in English.
Enrolment
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.
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.
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.
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
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 types of examination can be recognized for my transcript of records?’
Basically, there are two ways to receive credit points for an examination performance in Project “Leonardo”: directly via RWTHonline or indirectly via the issuance of a performance record.
The first option is only intended for study programs in which you can register for the exam directly in RWTHonline (see “Do I have to register for the exam in RWTHonline?”). If you have registered for an exam, you will automatically receive the credit points after successfully completing the exam. Please check exactly which types of examinations are allowed for you according to RWTHonline. Open the examination node (green circle): Here you can choose between a protocol with analysis, a presentation or a student research project. On the pages of our courses you can see which of these examinations are offered each semester. Alternatively, you can open the course node (red triangle) in the folded-out module node at RWTHonline: Here you can see all “Leonardo” courses in which a suitable examination achievement is offered for you.
Figure 1 Example from the study plan “Social Sciences”. You are allowed to take the exam “Study Paper”. This is offered in six different “Leonardo” courses.
If Support Project “Leonardo” is not offered in your curriculum, this does not automatically mean that you cannot earn credit points with us! Decisions about credit transfer are made at faculty and departmental level. In your examination regulations you will find information concerning your study program. We recommend that you seek advice from your departmental student advisor. Experience has shown that crediting in “free elective areas”, “non-subject elective areas” etc. is possible without any problems.
Please note that, for some degree programs, it is not possible to submit completed coursework retrospectively. Instead, you must have your coursework approved by your examination board for the “Leonardo” project at the beginning of the semester.
Information on the examinations offered can be found on the pages for the respective courses.
Registration for examinations in “Leonardo” courses always takes place with the responsible teaching assistant. The corresponding deadlines are announced at the beginning of the semester.
For courses in which the “Leonardo” project is part of the curriculum, you must also register for exams via RWTHonline. This applies to you exactly if you have a module node named project “Leonardo” in your curriculum support.
To register for an exam in your “Curriculum Support”, select the exam node (green circle) of project “Leonardo” and register for the same exam that you have registered for with the responsible assistant. Of course, you should have checked beforehand that this achievement can really be credited to your studies (see “Which type of examination can be recognized for my transcript of record?”) When selecting the examination date, make sure that you really register for the correct course and not, for example, for the top examination date. You can see which exam date belongs to the course you attended in the description at the very bottom.
When registering for an exam, you must make sure that you select the date from your “Leonardo” course, as each has its own date.
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 type of examination can be recognized for my transcript of records?’). 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.
