Application

We are pleased that you are applying for a study period abroad at one of the partner universities of the School of Business and Economics. A complete and meaningful application is the first step towards a semester abroad. Therefore, please inform yourself in detail about the modalities.

Please note that the application has to be submitted to the International Relations Center (IRC) of the School of Business and Economics and is processed there. Your documents will not be forwarded to the host university. Your application will only be forwarded to the host university after IRC has approved your application. You will receive further information on this from IRC after you have accepted your place.

Please note that due to the current worldwide developments in connection with the Covid-19 virus, we hold the selection round regularly, but the stay at the respective host university depends on the situation that exists until then. The information about the respective countries can be found on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these are updated regularly.

  • Timing and study plan

    The planning of a sojourn abroad should in general begin at least one year in advance.

    Bachelor students are recommended to take a semester abroad in the 5th semester. Before setting out on their semester abroad, they must at least have studied at WWU for three semesters and completed all Modules of 1st and 2nd semesters (or have at least 60 ECTS).

    Master students are recommended to sojourn abroad in the 3rd semester of the Master’s Program.

    In addition, you must complete the minimum number of ECTS required by the host university during the semester abroad. If the host university does not have a defined minimum number or an ECTS number below 18 ECTS, you commit yourself with the application and acceptance of a place at the IRC to successfully complete at least 18-24 ECTS at the host university and to have them credited.

  • Partner universities

    The School of Business and Economics offers numerous exchange programs with partner universities all over the world on a regular basis. Today, students of the faculty have the opportunity to apply for a place on the exchange program at some 120 partner universities. The International Relations Center continually makes efforts to increase the number of students who can go abroad.

    Spots for exchanges are always allocated a quota per academic year (winter and summer term). If the demand for the winter term is high, it is possible that the quota is already met in the winter term. The remaining quota for the summer term will always be published in time (under the same link as above).

    Please make sure that the spots are available for you. Some universities are only available for under-graduate students, others only for graduate students. The offers also differ for the different fields of study (Business, Economics, Information Systems). Sometimes there might even be differences for the different Majors/Minors.

    Please inform yourself on the websites of our partner universities, and especially pay attention to the field of study and the term time. The IRC tries to keep the information about our partner universities up to date, but raises no claims to completeness.

  • Application deadlines

    It is possible to apply for a semester abroad twice a year within the scope of one of the school’s program. You can submit your applications in the following periods:

    • for the summer semester, between April 01 and April 10
    • for the winter semester, between January 01 and January 15

    If you plan on applying for the summer term, please inform yourself if there are spots remaining for your partner university of choice. You can find the latest list “list of partner institutions - summer term 20xx” here.

    Information for an application for DOUBLE-DEGREE PROGRAMMS:

    The application for the exchange places within the framework of the double master agreement with the ICN Business School Nancy is made before the beginning of the first master semester, as curricular adjustments are necessary in the first and second master semester in Münster. This application period is 1st of September until the 15th of September of each year. Please note that in order to apply for this double degree program, you must be enrolled in the Business Administration Master program at the WWU.

    Applications for all other double degree programs (Double Bachelor with the ICN Business School Nancy, Double Master with the University of Twente Double Master with the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) must be submitted before the regular application deadline for the coming winter semester - between 1st of December until the 15th of December.

  • Application documents

    For all diplomas and certificates: A scan or copy of the (German or English) originals is sufficient. It is not necessary to certify the documents. Please submit the listed documents during the online application:

     

    • Confirmation e-mail of the online application (will be sent to you after the successful application and needs to be printed and handed in to the IRC, please look under the header application procedure)
    • up to five letters of motivation:
      • Please clearly state your personal and especially academic motivation in the letter of motivation (max. 2,250 characters incl. spaces). Here you will find detailed information.
      • The letter of motivation is entered in a text field in the online tool during application and may be kept informal, so please do not use the usual headlines and greetings. When preparing your letter, please use the website of the respective host university, the experience reports, as well as an overview of courses already taken.
    • Current performance overview incl. average grade: The grade overview can be in German for all programs and must contain the current weighted average grade (FlexNow or Examination Office). The file must be created between 01.01-15.01 for the winter semester and between 01.04-10.4 for the summer semester.
    • if applicable, Bachelor's certificate with performance overview (without Diploma Supplement)
    • Language certificates (please inform yourself in time if the partner university requires a language certificate -> this information can be found in the overview of the partner universities and under "Language certificates" on this website)
    • Abitur certificate
    • Curriculum vitae in English with photo (It does not have to be in accordance with the American standard, a translation is sufficient!)
    • if necessary, other certificates (internships/volunteer work). The following non-academic activities, which were/are completed during the course of the studies/gap year before the Master's degree for the purpose of extracurricular further education, are included in the application: Internships (at least four weeks) and/or part-time work with a clear reference to the studies and/or voluntary work/student initiative (active work in the board of directors or an office/resort/group). Please note that only proven achievements are considered in the assessment of the application. The proof must contain the usual information: Letterhead of the company/organisation, your personal details (name, date of birth etc.), length of activity with date, description of your activity/area of responsibility.

    Please note that the application is made to the International Relations Center (IRC) of the School of Business and Economics and is processed there. Your documents will not be forwarded to the host university. Your application will only be forwarded to the host university after IRC has approved your application. You will receive further information on this from IRC after you have accepted your place.

     

  • Application procedure

    Applications for an exchange spot at one of the partner universities are initially submitted via an online application platform. In the application tool, you first create your profile and are asked to upload the general certificates as well as to insert the motivation letters for all the universities you would like to apply for.

    In a second step, you have to print and hand in the following document (one copy): confirmation of the online registration. Printed copies of all other documents are not required. This is an informal print (the content counts, not the form; please do not hand in application folders). You can either put the document in the mailbox of the Dean’s Office or the Juridicum (Torbogen Krummer Timpen) or mail them by post to Laila Fischer. The respective application deadline applies. The postmark within the application deadline applies to postal delivery. Please do not forget the address on the documents in any case: Dean's Office School of Business and Economics/IRC, Laila Fischer /Universitätsstr. 14-16, 48143 Münster.

  • Language skills

    ENGLISH:

    • In general, good to very good verifiable English language skills (level B2/C1) are a prerequisite for study abroad at most partner institutions. Level B2 corresponds to a TOEFL score of 71-84 points (C1 = 85-100 TOEFL points).
    • For the application to some of our partner universities (e.g. USA, China, Australia, South Africa) a TOEFL/IELTS test (www.ets.org/toefl) is absolutely required - please refer to the overview of partner universities for the score. The test must be valid at the time of application to the partner university (not older than two years). Please note: most of the partner universities do not accept the TOEFL-iBT Home Edition or the IELTS Online. Please check the websites of the partner universities in time to find out which tests are accepted.
    • Most partner universities accept an equivalent instead of the TOEFL test. Please refer to column "TOEFL" in the overview of partner universities. If this column is empty, no proof is required for the application to the IRC or your knowledge from school/studies is sufficient. If the equivalent to TOEFL/IELTS is not specified in the table, then one of the following certificates/evidence is valid as equivalent:
      • Cambridge Certificate (Certificate in Advanced English, Certificate of Proficiency in English).
      • English advanced course (or core subject/profile subject/specialization subject or English at an advanced level) with an average of 10-15 points
      • Bachelor's or Master's degree (major) 100% in English
      • UniCert II or III (courses of the Language Center incl. grade and level)
      • Semester or year abroad at a university/school in an English-speaking country
      • TOEFL-/IELTS-/DAAD- or other tests already passed at the time of application
      • DAAD language certificate B2/C1 (B2 = TOEFL score of 71-84 points; C1 = 85-100 TOEFL points)
      • Other officially recognised tests for the respective language level, such as the Duolingo English Test (B2= min. 100 points, C1= min. 130 points)
    • Usually, each host university publishes the list of all equivalents on its homepage in the "language requirements" section. The IRC makes every effort to keep the information about the partner universities as up-to-date as possible, but makes no claim to completeness.
    • The English language tests must be taken before the application deadline, the result will only be sent to you in 1-2 weeks after the test date - therefore please inform yourself in time about application deadlines and the current test fees. You may submit the result later.
    • One way to prepare for the TOEFL test is to take the preparation course offered by the Language Center of the University of Münster. You can find the courses on the websites of the Language Center.
    • The information about the DAAD language certificate can also be found on the website of the Language Center.

    NATIONAL LANGUAGES:

    At most partner universities, courses are taught in both English and the local language. In the overview of partner universities it is marked that way: E.g. "English/Chinese", "Russian/English" etc. In this case you do not need to know the national language (the national language is not a requirement for the application in this case). It is different if it is taught only on the national language. These are the languages French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese. In this case, the level of the national language is required to the extent of B1/B2. 

    • For the universities that do not offer courses in English, the good level of the national language is required. You can find the more exact level (B1 or B2) in the overview of the partner universities. One of the following certificates is valid as proof: Abitur certificate, UniCert I/B1 or UniCert II/B2, certificate of achievement from a language school, etc. The corresponding language level must be marked. 
    • The sending university commits itself to select only students with at least B1 level (language of instruction) for an ERASMUS study visit. This level must be reached at the latest by the time of registration at the host university.
    • Students who only have a B1 level in the language of instruction and receive an Erasmus grant are required to complete an online language course during the semester abroad.

    In any case, please take care of proof of your language skills early on.

  • Letter of recommendation

    Furthermore, some of our partner universities (South Africa, Republic of Korea, Thailand, USA, Brazil) demand that your application includes a letter of recommendation. You will only need this letter of recommendation after you have been accepted for an exchange place. In some cases a letter of recommendation from a university professor is required, in other cases a confirmation by IRC is sufficient.

  • Selection criteria

    The application documents are basically the first qualifying “sample work”, which is the key basis of the preselection of candidates. Therefore, please, apply for this just as carefully as you would for an internship or a position in a company.

    In addition to the formal criteria such as current average grade (weighted at 50%; in the case of Master's, divided into Bachelor's grade and current average grade, if available) and the quality of the letter of motivation (weighted at 30%), non-university activities such as internships and voluntary work (weighted at 20%) are also included in the evaluation.

    Please note that the specified priorities are not used as a selection criterion. We attempt to assign every successful application the place with the highest priority. If there is no suitable applicant, places may remain vacant.

 

Information for people interested in Great Britain:

The terms of the exit agreement of 31 January 2020 stipulate that the United Kingdom will continue to participate in the current generation of Erasmus+ programs (2014-2021).

In the funding line "Mobility with Program Countries", staff and student mobilities are possible in the current projects until the end of the project duration (project 2021: until May 2023) under the regular funding conditions and guidelines. This also applies to tuition fees: No tuition fees may continue to be charged for Erasmus+ grantees. Students from summer semester 2023 onwards can no longer be funded from the ERASMUS, but they will be given the opportunity to apply for PROMOS .

New is from January 2021 that -also for the Erasmus exchange- new visa regulations apply. For stays up to 6 months no visa is required ("Visitor route"). Here, according to current knowledge, the application for entry on arrival will be possible with the help of the electronic passport (ePassport). Further information can be found on the website of the British government.

Please also read the frequently asked questions of the European Commission about Brexit.

As soon as we have new information, we will publish it. The DAAD informs about the effects on the Erasmus program on its website on the Brexit.