14 University Courses
AYF students have access to virtually all university and Pädagogische Hochschule (PH) courses offered in the humanities, social sciences, and certain natural sciences as well as most other disciplines. Not open are, for example, courses in the schools of medicine and pharmacy as well as the psychology department (though PH may offer some psychology options).
You should not count on a particular course being offered in any given semester, even if you know that AYF students have taken it in the past. Professors at German universities, especially in humanities and social sciences, tend to offer entirely new course topics. This is a pillar of the German understanding of “academic freedom,” and you must therefore be prepared to be flexible in selecting your courses each semester.
If you have the requisite language skills, you may choose to take mostly regular university courses each semester. If you have less advanced skills, you may choose to take up to two AYF program courses per term. The AYF Academic Director will provide group and individual academic advising to guide you toward the combination of courses that is most appropriate for your needs and skills.
AYF strongly discourages students from enrolling in foreign language courses other than German for credit while in Freiburg. Students who want to continue a foreign language they started on their home campus will need written permission from their advisor at their home institution as well as permission from the Academic Director. No credit will be granted for beginning language courses (1st or 2nd semester courses).
Students who wish to complete coursework in mathematics, finance/business, or the natural sciences in Freiburg are cautioned that required courses on the home campus may not be available in Freiburg and that advanced coursework may be difficult due to differing prerequisites and language problems. Close consultation with appropriate advisors prior to departure is highly recommended.
The Timetable/Schedule of Courses (Vorlesungsverzeichnis)
Most university courses at the University of Freiburg, as at all German universities, are not repeated year after year but instead are offered only once. As a result, there is no direct counterpart to the standard U.S. college catalog, with its convenient listing of all regularly offered courses.
The Vorlesungsverzeichnisse for the university and Pädagogische Hochschule are published several months before each semester begins, so you will have ample time to look them over. They are available in an online database format.
A Vorlesungsverzeichnis is a comprehensive but also somewhat daunting key to making course selections. Therefore, AYF students will also be provided with a list of courses at the university and Pädagogische Hochschule recommended by the Academic Director.
Kommentare
In most cases, the Vorlesungsverzeichnisse contain Kommentare. They are especially helpful because they go beyond merely listing course titles to providing course descriptions, preliminary reading lists, course requirements and so on. Occasionally, information on courses is posted on departmental homepages. Increasingly, all available information is integrated into the central online database version of the Vorlesungsverzeichnis. This database is updated continuously and is the most readily accessible source of course information. You can access it from the main university page (http://www.uni-freiburg.de/) by hovering over the tab for “Studium” in the menu at the top and then clicking on the option “Vorlesungsverzeichnis”.
In some cases, information on a given course may be incomplete in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis. The room assignment, for example, may be missing, or the instructor may be designated as “N.N.” (i.e., nomen nominandum), which means that a professor has not yet been appointed at the time the entry was added to the Vorlesungsverzeichnis database. Also, courses are subject to last-minute cancellations based on the same factors that could arise in the U.S. such as unexpectedly low enrollments or the illness of a particular instructor. When planning your semester schedule, you should therefore always have a back-up plan with appropriate alternatives in case one or more courses are cancelled.
Updated course listings are (generally) incorporated swiftly into the online Vorlesungsverzeichnis. It pays to check back right before the semester starts to make sure you do not get blindsided by last-minute changes.
Departments
A Vorlesungsverzeichnis is traditionally organized by Fakultäten, which are roughly comparable to the Divisions, Schools, or Colleges at U.S. universities (for example, the College of Letters & Science at UW-Madison).
Pre-enrollment (Voranmeldung) is required for certain courses and in specific departments at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität due to enrollment caps and for capacity planning purposes. If pre-enrollment is required for a particular course, general information about such a policy appears in the online Vorlesungsverzeichnis; an entry generally lists the number of maximum participants and the number of expected participants. There are different procedures in place in different departments to enroll in a course. In some departments, a special contact person handles the pre-enrollment for a specific type of course and in a few departments it suffices to just show up on the first day of class, but increasingly registration procedures are integrated into the university’s online course listing and processed electronically. You will receive detailed information about the relevant procedures during orientation and AYF staff will assist you with the registration, as needed.
In the case of strict “numerus clausus” (“closed enrollment”) disciplines, the AYF program cannot guarantee that you will be allowed to enroll in all or even most courses. Numerus clausus fields include most natural sciences (especially those with lab sections). To enroll in numerus clausus courses, you must receive the consent of the instructor in advance, and the best approach is to visit the instructor well before the semester begins during his/her office hours. These times are generally posted on the instructor’s office door, and you may also inquire by telephone, by email, or in person with departmental secretaries. The names, office addresses, and telephone numbers of all university faculty and staff members (including departmental secretaries) appear in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis, the university telephone directory, and/or on the homepages of the individual departments. These can be accessed online https://uni-freiburg.de/ – then select from the menu at the top: Universität -> Studium -> Vorlesungsverzeichnis (in the second column).
Tips on Deciphering a Vorlesungsverzeichnis
Course listings in the Freiburg Vorlesungsverzeichnisse are traditionally organized first by department and secondly, within a given department, by level. With the move online, however, these course listings function much more like a database; guides on using them efficiently are available online at www.ayf.uni-freiburg.de/ayf/guides. See the section titled “How-to-Guides for Course Catalogs”. Usage strategies will also be discussed during orientation. Unlike most college courses in the U.S., which may be categorized as elementary, intermediate, or advanced, German university courses are divided into a greater number of different categories, some of which pertain to type, some to the level.
The hierarchy of German university courses, from most elementary to most advanced, is roughly as follows (there is some variation among different disciplines):
| Vorlesung | This is a lecture course (the German term for a single lecture held outside a classroom setting is Vortrag). Lecture courses are typically offered only by distinguished senior professors, who usually read aloud (vorlesen) a draft essay or book manuscript to a large audience. Students generally have little or no opportunity for discussion or questions. To get a benoteter Schein for a Vorlesung, you may need to arrange with the professor to write a paper or take a final exam, because the German students in the course may not be taking it for a grade. However, it is becoming much more common these days for professors to give grades based upon final exams (Klausuren) connected to a Vorlesung. |
| Einführungs or Grundkurs | This is an introductory course in which a department acquaints students with the methods, topics, and history of its discipline. In the German department, several parallel sections are typically offered and reading and writing assignments vary from section to section. Note: An Einführung is not identical with a typical “survey course” in the U.S. and usually has a narrower focus. |
| Übung | This is a small class devoted to individual or group student assignments, either oral or written. In some cases, an Übung is offered in conjunction with a Vorlesung. In this sense, it is similar to a discussion section at a U.S. university. Participation in Übungen is recommended only when a Schein is offered, such as in the German department. A separate agreement with the instructor and the Academic Director may be necessary for a student to receive a grade and credit for an Übung. |
| Proseminar | This is the starting level of independent academic study, comparable to an advanced undergraduate course in the U.S. Students (anywhere from 15 to 50 in a class) are generally required to give an oral report (mündliches Referat) and write a term paper (schriftliche Hausarbeit). |
| Seminar or Hauptseminar | This is one level higher than a Proseminar, comparable to an American graduate seminar. Only a student who is very proficient in German and already has considerable knowledge of the subject matter should enroll in a Hauptseminar. Often, professors require that participants in a Hauptseminar have already passed the Zwischenprüfung or have equivalent qualifications, e.g., an American B.A. |
| Kolloquium or Forschungs-kolloquium | This is usually a top-level course that prepares participants for an upcoming comprehensive examination for an advanced degree. |
Registration
The sort of central registration procedure you are familiar with from U.S. universities has gained traction in Germany in recent years and add/drop deadlines are known as well; pass/fail however is rare. As study abroad students who are not enrolled in a specific degree program you are subject to different registration procedures. AYF staff will explain them in detail during orientation and assist you with course registration.
Importantly, the AYF program operates like U.S. universities by establishing add/drop deadlines each semester. Once the AYF drop deadline has come and gone, you are formally registered for the courses that appear on your schedule sheet, just as you would be at your home university in the U.S.
For planning your coursework each semester, the Academic Director will meet with you and offer as much guidance as possible. But you must accept major responsibility for drawing up a realistic preliminary plan for your coursework. You should not, for example, expect the Academic Director to be completely versed with the course requirements of your major at your home university. You have to know these requirements. Prior to your individual academic advising session with the Academic Director just before the beginning of each semester, you should prepare a sort of “highly tentative schedule” and bring it along to your appointment. Concretely, this means that you should pre-select as many as ten courses that you find potentially interesting. With the advice of the Academic Director, you will then draw up a preliminary semester schedule. In the following weeks, you may change your registration by adding or dropping courses up to the respective deadlines. To add a course later, however, you will need to have participated from the beginning; otherwise, you are likely to have missed too much material covered in the course and would run into difficulties obtaining a grade. Following the final registration deadline, the AYF Program Center will prepare a printout of your final course schedule and give you an opportunity to check its accuracy.
A typical final schedule comprises 12–15 credit hours, and you must seek the Academic Director’s permission to register for fewer or more. This total includes AYF program courses and university courses, as well as courses from the university’s Language Teaching Center (Sprachlehrinstitut, or SLI) and the Pädagogische Hochschule. To maintain full-time student status, you must be enrolled for a minimum of 12 credit hours.
Credits
Credit hours for university courses are based on the number of hours per week that an equivalent course in the U.S. would grant. The great majority of university courses meet just two hours per week, but they generally count for 3 credits. Number of credits varies according to type of course (see descriptions of all courses above in Tips on Deciphering a Vorlesungsverzeichnis):
- Vorlesungen: 2 credits. A student may receive a third credit for a Vorlesung if s/he takes an AYF tutorial offered in conjunction with the Vorlesung. In this case, the tutorial grade will constitute half of the overall course grade. Occasionally, faculty members permit the submission of additional written work (e.g., an essay or a formal Hausarbeit) to supplement a lecture course. In such cases, students may earn 3 credits for a lecture course. Students should discuss these options with the Academic Director.
- Einführungskurse: 3 credits (see note under Proseminare)
- Proseminare: 3 credits
Note: Einführungskurse and Proseminare may be taken in conjunction with a Tutorat. Students will not receive additional credit for work done in an AYF Tutorat. The grade from an AYF Tutorat will constitute 1/3 (one third) of the overall course grade. 4 credits can be earned in a course with a Pflichttutorat mandated by the respective university department.
- Übungen: 3 credits. Participation in Übungen is recommended only when a Schein is offered, as not all Übungen courses offer one. A separate agreement with the instructor and the Academic Director may be necessary for a student to receive a grade and credit for an Übung.
AYF Credits vs. ECTS Credits
At the university and PH you will encounter another credit system called ECTS. In this system, professors give European Credit Transfer System points. ECTS points are only loosely comparable to U.S. credits (a 2:1 ratio of ECTS points to AYF credits generally works as a rule of thumb). Most importantly, however, ECTS points are ultimately irrelevant to you. The only credit number that is important for AYF participants is the number of credits approved by AYF and by the Academic Director for a particular course.
One key aspect of ECTS is that it enables professors to offer variable credit for the same course based on different types of work performed by a student. This can be quite confusing. Please beware of only giving an oral presentation in a course, for example, because a faculty member says they will issue a Schein on that basis – and expecting to receive 3 AYF credits for the course. Most likely, the faculty member who just explained to you that they will give you a Schein for an oral presentation intends to give you a certificate of participation (Teilnahmeschein). As an AYF participant, you need to receive a regular graded certificate (benoteter Schein); a Teilnahmeschein is not sufficient for getting AYF credit for academic work done in Freiburg. It is only sufficient for an audit that carries zero credits. And even if a faculty member were to provide a graded Schein based on an oral presentation alone, this does not meet AYF minimum requirements for certifying 3 credits on the AYF transcript.
Requirements, Explicit and Implicit Expectations
Requirements and expectations are not always spelled out as clearly as they usually would be in a U.S. seminar or course. It is possible, for example, that a Freiburg faculty member will issue a benoteter Schein to you for doing two of the three things mentioned in the previous section, e.g., Referat plus Klausur or Referat plus Hausarbeit or Referat plus final oral exam. That is a pedagogical decision on the part of the faculty member, and AYF will accept a Schein obtained on that basis – provided it is a benoteter Schein.
As a rule of thumb and if not otherwise specified, it is expected that you produce a minimum of 8-10 pages of written work (plus cover page, TOC, bibliography) to receive 3 AYF credits. Often, German faculty members can be very generous when working with international students. On the other hand, German faculty can be very strict regarding attendance and assignments. There will be differences from one professor to the next, but in general you are not permitted to have more than 2 missed classes per semester and you may need a doctor’s note to explain an absence. It can happen that a faculty member refuses to accept a paper from a student who missed more than 2 class sessions, thereby failing the student. Some faculty members regard all assignments as mandatory rather than optional components leading toward a cumulative grade. It is possible to do very well in most assignments and still fail a course for not having completed one key requirement. You will always need a doctor’s note if you miss a final exam and are asking for a make-up appointment.
These notes are intended to provide you with an initial orientation about grades and credit. The AYF staff will be more than happy to help you with questions that you might have. In your own interest, you will be asked to submit all Hausarbeiten and other written work produced for AYF, university and PH courses to the AYF office.
Tutorials
A Tutorat (the Freiburg term for a tutorial) is similar to a TA-taught discussion section for a large class at a U.S. university. Some Freiburg university departments (such as history, German, art history) organize obligatory or elective Tutorate. Like discussion sections conducted by teaching assistants in the U.S., Tutorate provide an opportunity to review material already covered and to prepare for upcoming class meetings. Tutors (Tutoren) also help with the German language, library research strategies, and the correct form of written assignments; a Tutorat aims to acquaint you with the fundamental tools of a particular academic field. Tutorate often require brief written or oral reports by students. You will not receive credit for attending a university-organized Tutorat unless it is a Pflichttutorat (required for passing the course) and places substantial demands on participants, as is the case in history department Proseminare. Speak with the Academic Director about the possibility of receiving credit for academically demanding Pflichttutorate in other departments.
The AYF program also organizes its own Tutorate for university courses if five or more students registered for the course indicate a strong interest in attending a Tutorat. Your work in an AYF Tutorat will count for one-third of your course grade if it accompanies a Proseminar and one-half of the grade if it accompanies a Vorlesung.