Erasmus+ Incoming

Welcome to the information area for international exchange students in the field of Linguistics at the University of Vienna!

On this website you will find information about your stay within the Erasmus+ student exchange programme in our field of study at the University of Vienna. Please read this information carefully. For further questions, please contact your mobility coordinator.

To avoid misunderstandings and disappointments we kindly ask to consider that the offer of English taught courses is not sufficient to cover a complete stay in this field of study and that not all information is also provided in English.
Further information concerning the topic of language requirements can befound below.

Please make sure to read the respective International Office's checklist where they provide important general (not subject-specific) information.

Contact person

For specific questions regarding your study in our department please contact the mobility coordinator. He gives advice to topics such as Learning Agreement, the registration for courses and exams, courses in English as well as questions regarding specific courses.

In case you will be doing research in Vienna (for example for your master thesis) and require additional supervision beside your independet research, please discuss this with your mobility coordinator as soon as possible after your nomination.

If you have already arrived in Vienna and would like to get support or signatures for documents such as the Learning Agreement, we kindly ask you to meet the coordinator during his consultation hours. It is not necessary to arrange an appointment, but please consider possible current announcements of the department.

International Office

For all general not subject-related queries concerning your Erasmus+ stay, please visit the website of the International Office. The International Office receives your nomination from your home university and sends you your »admission letter«. It is responsible for questions regarding your admission and your student ID card, the topic of accommodation, living in Vienna etc.

Course offer and course choice

Course Catalogue

The courses offered by our department can be found in the course catalogue.  Detailed course information, such as the language of instruction, first course sessions, lessons per week, amount of ECTS credits etc. are stated directly in the respective course descriptions. Should you need even more detailed information about a certain course, please contact your mobility coordinator.

The course catalogue for the upcoming semester is published approx. in August (for the winter semester) or approx. in January (for the summer semester). If you need an overview of the offered courses earlier, f.i. for your Learning Agreement, please refer to the course catalogue of the relevant preceding year (winter semester for a stay in the winter semester or summer semester for a stay in the summer semester), as not all courses are held each semester.

Our courses normally take place at the departmental building Sensengasse 3a, 1090 Vienna where also our department of Linguistics is situated.

Language requirements

In order to take up your studies in our department you are required to speak and write German at a level of B2 with regard to the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR) as the offer of courses in English is not sufficient to cover a complete stay in our field of study. Furthermore please consider that not all information is provided in English either.
Erasmus+ students do not need to provide an official proof of language skills; however, your home university has to confirm during your online nomination that you have the required level of our field of study when you start your studies in Vienna.
The following links can be helpful as a basic orientation when searching for courses in English:
winter semester 2019/20
summer semester 2020

ECTS and course types

Please note that the number of courses and the amount of ECTS credits you need to obtain at the University of Vienna depends on your home university’s requirements.

There are different course types at the University of Vienna: lectures (Vorlesungen, VO) and lectures with discussion (Vorlesungen mit Konversatorium, KO) are courses with non-continuous assessment. There is no compulsory attendance, usually a written or an oral exam at the end of the semester is necessary in order to obtain a mark.
Training courses (Übungen, UE), proseminars (Proseminare, PS) and seminars (SE) are courses with continuous assessment with compulsory attendance. Assessment criteria are active regular course participation (f.i. contributing to a discussion during the course session and submitting written exercises and homework), presentations or midterm-tests, writing of a scientific paper or written and/or oral end-term tests.
Marks are awarded within a five-digit grading system ranging from 1 (excellent) to 5 (failed).

As an exchange student you do not have to take courses from the StEOP module (“Studieneingangs- und Orientierungsphase“ - “Introduction and Orientation Phase”).

Students who have been nominated for the bachelor programme may usually also attend courses from the master's programme if they have sufficient previous knowledge on the subject. However, this has to be clarified with the mobility coordinator in any case in advance.

If you have been nominated for our field of study, you can basically follow all types of courses offered by our department. If you want to attend course types such as training courses (UE), proseminars (PS) or seminars (SE), please contact the mobility coordinator to discuss all details. Please provide your transcript of records to facilitate the process. Because of the high demand for specific focus areas in our field of study we cannot guarantee places in training courses (UE), proseminars (PS) or seminars (SE) before the beginning of the semester. Even it is very unlikely that you cannot attend your desired courses of our field of study in the end (on condition that you have the respective previous and language knowledge) we recommend to alternatively take possible lectures (Vorlesungen) into consideration in order to be on the safe side, where an attendance would be no problem.

If you are also interested in attending courses outside your nominated field of Linguistics you can find further information regarding this topic here. Please note that our department is not in charge of courses from other fields of study and, f.i., also the confirmatoin of those courses on the Learning Agreement has to be discussed with the respective mobility coordinators from the other departments.

Courses for external students in our field of study

Exchange students who have not been nominated for our field of study but who would still like to take courses at our department can participate in lectures (Vorlesungen). You do not have to discuss your participation in lectures with our mobility coordinator first; just in case you want these lectures confirmed on your Learning Agreement, please contact him concerning the signature. Courses with compulsory attendance such as training courses (Übungen-UE), proseminars (Proseminare-PS) and seminars (Seminare-SE) are not available for exchange students who are not nominated for our field of study.

Learning Agreement and confirmations

Learning Agreement

On our part it is sufficient if you provide your Learning Agreement 3 weeks before the start of the lecture period at the latest. In case your home university has a specific deadline until when they need the Learning Agreement please consider, when you plan to send it to us, that in lecture-free periods it can take some more time to work on it. (Concerning the topic of course choice please see above mention item »course catalogue«.)

In case you would like to amend your Learning Agreement during your stay please meet the mobility coordinator during his consultation hours to discuss all details directly in person. It is not necessary to arrange an appointment, but please consider possible current announcements of the department.

Confirmation of other courses

Please note that our mobility coordinator can only confirm courses from our field of study. If you wish to attend courses outside our field of study, you should use an extra Learning Agreement which lists these courses. Further information on this matter can be found here.
The participation in language courses at the Language Center and in courses relating to Austria (item »Courses outside your nominated field of study«) will not be confirmed by our mobility coordinator either, but by the International Office.

Study-related confirmations

In case you need particular documents signed for your home university that include subject-specific information such as language of instruction etc., please see your mobility coordinator during his consultation hours. It is not necessary to arrange an appointment, but please consider possible current announcements of the department.
For any documents that should just indicate the dates of your registration and deregistration at the International Office, please contact the International Office directly.

Course registration

Registration deadlines

The course registration for courses with continuous assessment usually starts at the beginning of September for the winter semester and at the beginning of February for the summer semester at our department. During these registration periods the "first-come, first-served" principle does not apply. Please note that it is mandatory to register for such a course, even if you are just interested in taking it. It is not possible to attend these courses without prior registration (registration periods).

For courses with non-continuous assessment those registration deadlines are not relevant. In those cases the registration can also be done, f.i., during the semester, but it is necessary to separately register for exams where the completed registration for the course would be a requirement.
Please also note that it would be necessary to be registered for these kind of courses in time if you would like to use the respective electronic learning support facilities (f.i. Moodle).

Course registration is done via u:space. You do not have to be in Vienna in order to register for courses. The International Office will send you an e-mail with your student ID number and further instructions on how to register well before the start of the registration period.

Registration process

In order to register for a course, please follow the registration link in the course catalogue. It is provided in each course's description directly in the section »An-/Abmeldung« (»Register/Deregister«). Please note that for courses with continuous assessment this link is only active during the registration period! Please choose »Modul für Incoming Studierende« when asked for the so called  »Studienplanpunkt« during the registration for courses with continuous assessment. Further information can be found here.

The registration is completed successfully once your status in u:space is displayed as »angemeldet« (»registered«). If you see a different status than this one, please turn to your mobility coordinator to discuss the situation. Please note that it is obligatory to attend the first course session in courses with continuous assessment (with compulsory attendance). If you do not show up in the first session without an excuse, you might lose your place in the course. 

If your status is »Warteliste« (»waiting list«), please do go to the first course session, where you will be informed if you can get a place.

Further general information on the topic of course registration at the University of Vienna can be found under this link from the International Office as well as under this link from our department.

Deregistration

Should you decide that you would not like to take part in a course after all, please deregister from the course via u:space as soon as possible so that it might be possible to offer the place to another student. If you decide not to attend the course during the semester, the deregistration is possible via u:space until October 31st (winter semester) or March 30th (summer semester). Please also inform your course instructor via e-mail about your deregistration. 

If you do not deregister you might get registered a negative mark for that course in your transcript of records.

Exams and transcript of records

In order to sit exams in courses with non-continuous assessment it is necessary to register for the respective exam via u:space. Please choose »Modul für Incoming Studierende« when asked for the so called  »Studienplanpunkt« during the registration for those exams.

The exam dates are published directly at each course in u:find. Additionally you can also find exam dates by selecting the person, who is in charge of the exam, in u:find. Furthermore also this link can be helpful for your information.

For courses with continuous assessment it is not necessary to also register for an exam after the registration for the course.

The exam dates are usually announced during the first course session after the beginning of the semester. Exams are normally held at the end of the lecture period or up to one week after the end of classes.