Erasmus Incoming

Here you can find information if you are interested in coming to Heidelberg University within one of the Erasmus Agreements of the Institute of Computer Science or Mathematics/Applied Mathematics (includes Scientific Computing).

Do not hesitate to contact us as soon as you have been nominated by your home university or your Departmental Coordinator. Please inform for which semester(s) you intend to come.

The winter semester begins 1 October and ends 31 March, the summer semester begins 1 April and ends 30 September. These dates correspond to the German traditional semester/lecture periods. The lecture period times are shorter and can be found here (see here for the holiday days at Heidelberg University).

Please note that 7-10 days before the official beginning of the lecture period, there are some several activities offered by the International Affairs Department of Heidelberg University. The “vorbereitender Deutschkurs”, the (optional) intensive pre-semester German course for exchange students is also taking place generally 2-3 weeks before the beginning of the lecture period, that is, in September and March.

Although there is no common exam period for the whole university, the (written or oral) exams at our department take place shortly before or after the end of lecture periods. Re-take exams take place shortly before or after the beginning of the following lecture period.

Heidelberg University offers a large selection of courses for both Computer Science and Mathematics ranging from very applied topics to theoretical topics. Many of our advanced courses are taught in English, so all international students can easily join the courses. Moreover, Heidelberg is a very pretty city, nicely located at the river Neckar with plenty of opportunities to travel, hike, and meet other people in Heidelberg downtown.

We decide a few months before a semester which courses we are going to offer. However, many courses repeat in a yearly pattern. Hence, to get some impression of our courses you may have a look what course were offered one year before your stay. To this end, please consult our course catalogue (Vorlesungsverzeichnis) and our course book (Modulhandbuch), which contains more information about our courses. Before making the final selection for your Learning Agreement, please get in touch with our Erasmus offices (Computer Science or Mathematics) so that we can let you know about the status of our planning for the following semester.
In case our planing for the following semester is not finalised when you submit your Learning Agreement, you may refer to the courses offered one year ago. For requesting changes to the Learning Agreement, please use the part “During Mobility” of the Learning Agreement. Changes have first to be approved by the home Erasmus coordinator.

We have the following different types of modules:

• lectures (usually accompanied with exercise classes)
• seminars (students prepare presentations regarding a specific topic - registration necessary, please get in touch with the instructor in time)
• praticals in Computer Science (students work only/small groups  on their own coding project - registration necessary, please get in touch with the instructor in time).

You may also attend courses from other departments as for example the department for Physics and Astronomy as long as at least 50% of your courses in your Learning agreement belong to our department.

We have the following types of awards for our courses:

• Standard case ("benoteter Schein"): A certificate that you passed the exam with a certain mark.
• Exceptional case: A certificate that you attended a course or completed it without a mark.

How these certificates are recognised by your university is solely a decision of your university.

What needs to be done before you leave us again

Make sure we have all documents that a Transcript of Records can be issued. Only the results of the courses of our department are automatically forwarded to us. Please turn to your Erasmus office at our department if you have any questions and also if you envision any problems.

To terminate from your student status you have to turn to the central student office located in the old town of Heidelberg.

Here you can find more information about German courses offered by Heidelberg University. There are German courses before lecture periods and German courses during lecture periods.

After passing a German course, please send the language certificate(s) ("Scheine") to your Erasmus office and we add them then on your Transcript of Records.