FAQ

• The following documents are required for the application: Letter of motivation for your first priority (1x in German AND 1x in the main language of instruction at your host university; one A4 page; content: personal, academic, professional, linguistic, and cultural reasons, connection to the host country, city, university, etc.)
• Tabular resume (in German, max. 2 pages)
• Transcript of records for KW (most recent extract from LSF is sufficient)
• Language certificate: DAAD language certificate, TOEFL, GMAT, Cambridge Certificate, and NEW: high school diploma if B2 level in English or B1 level in other languages is explicitly stated, as well as language courses in the transcript as “additional achievements” and certificates from the LMU Language Center
• Copies of subject-related internship certificates and job references
• Completed and signed application cover sheet (available for download here in advance)

Applications for the semester abroad should be sent to the IfKW's international officers, Miriam Schnick and/or Bernhard Goodwin, using the IfKW's online application portal. The portal opens around mid-December each year. You can upload all the necessary documents as PDF files there. Applications sent by post will no longer be accepted.

You can apply to a total of four universities within and/or outside the EU, regardless of whether it is for the winter and/or summer semester. The universities you list must be partner universities for your major or minor. You can assign priorities, and we will always endeavor to find you a place with the highest possible priority based on your suitability.

In addition, you can apply for exchange places outside the EU (LMUexchange) through the LMU International Office. To do so, you must apply independently of your application to the IfKW. We are happy to assist you with your application. Please note that the application deadlines and documents differ from those of the IfKW. Applications are submitted online.

Further details and tips can also be found on the International Office website.

If you are studying communication science as a minor subject, you can apply for an exchange through the IfKW partnerships without any restrictions.

If you are majoring in communication studies and would like to apply for a semester abroad through a partnership in your minor, please inform yourself in good time about the requirements of your minor and, if necessary, contact the responsible international affairs officer or ERASMUS coordinator.

If you plan to apply for partnerships in your major and minor, please remember to indicate the same priorities (with the corresponding name of the Erasmus program coordinator at LMU) and to submit the application documents to both institutes, taking into account the different requirements for your application documents. The application documents will not be forwarded.

For your application to the IfKW, only a language certificate for your first-choice host university is required. For your application to the IfKW, please submit a DAAD language certificate, which you can obtain free of charge from the LMU Language Center.
Possible options include DAAD language certificates, TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge certificates, and others. However, these are not mandatory, even if you may need one for the final registration at your future host university. The language certificate should not be older than two years at the time of application (except for Cambridge).
New additions include language certificates from language courses in the transcript as “additional achievements,” certificates from the LMU Language Center, and the high school diploma, provided that the level is explicitly stated (English BZ; other languages B1).

Once you have received confirmation of acceptance from your chosen university, your future host university will ask you to register online and upload documents (in rare cases, these may also be sent by post). The registration period varies from university to university and can be between March and May for the winter semester and between September and November for the summer semester.

Most partner universities require proof of your language skills at this point. The minimum level required varies from university to university and must be researched individually. In many cases, the DAAD language certificate is sufficient, sometimes even the high school diploma or an individual placement test by the host university. Outside the EU, TOEFL, IELTS, or Cambridge certificates are often mandatory (the tests cost over $200 and are taken at external test centers, which are often booked up months in advance. Please take this into account when applying for the relevant programs). If your desired university requires TOEFL or IELTS, any other language certificate is still sufficient for your application to the IfKW.

Once the application deadline has passed, all applicants' documents will be reviewed. If there are more applicants than places available at a university, your personal suitability (motivation, language level, current grade point average in KW, academic progress, and the benefits of studying abroad for your studies and career) will be taken into account. If you have not yet achieved any grades in KW, this will not put you at a disadvantage.

By the end of February at the latest, you will receive an email from us informing you whether we can offer you one of your preferred places. Once you have been selected, we will first send the partner university a nomination email with your name and email address. You will then receive a written request from your partner university (usually by email) to register online (in rare cases by post). This may take until May. If you are not going abroad until the summer semester, your nomination and registration may not take place until September or October, depending on the host university.

Please note: The documents you submitted in the local application process will remain at the Institute for Communication Studies or the LMU International Office and will not be sent to the partner universities. The further application process is therefore your responsibility. The partner university cannot reject you as a student once you have been nominated by your home university and you have met all deadlines. The only exception is our partner university DMJX, based in Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark, which still has an additional application process for some of its study programs.

Before your departure, you will also receive an Erasmus information package with additional documents from the LMU International Office (does not apply to exchange programs outside the EU). These documents must be completed and submitted before your departure (including the Grant Agreement and Learning Agreement Part I, see next questions).

If you have been accepted for a stay abroad outside the EU, you will receive an invitation from the International Office to participate in an intercultural support program designed to sensitize you to cultural differences. If you have obtained your place through the IfKW, this course is mandatory. As an Erasmus scholarship holder, you also have the opportunity to participate in intercultural training courses in advance or in follow-up courses offered by the International Office. Participation in these workshops is recommended without reservation by the IfKW for all outgoing students, regardless of how much international experience you have. Please always keep in mind that experience abroad does not automatically lead to intercultural competence.

Even in this extremely rare case, you will receive a message from us by email by the end of February at the latest. If we are unable to find a suitable alternative for you, we will gladly forward your application documents to the LMU International Office on your behalf for participation in the Erasmus replacement procedure. In April, any remaining Erasmus places from all faculties will be allocated there.

The Grant Agreement only applies to Erasmus scholarship holders and constitutes the “funding agreement” between you and LMU, which specifies the duration and amount of financial support as well as the general conditions for your Erasmus stay. It will be sent to you automatically by the International Office and must be returned to them in the original (by mail, in person, or via their mailbox).

The processing of ERASMUS scholarships and the crediting of credits for ERASMUS stays are strictly regulated. The most important instrument here is the so-called Learning Agreement (LA).

It forms the “study contract” between you, LMU, and the host university, in which the planned courses and their recognition options are specified. The LA is therefore signed by all three parties. Please note: Your program coordinator is responsible for signing on behalf of the IfKW.

The LA is available from the LMU International Office. It will be sent to you automatically, but can also be requested earlier if necessary (for example, if your host university asks you to do so in advance).

Some host universities outside Europe also require exchange students to submit an LA for course selection before the start of their studies. You can request this from your contact person at the LMU International Office. However, you can also use the template provided by your host university, if one is available.

The LA consists of the following three parts:

• Part 1 – During the first weeks of your stay abroad: Determining the course program and credit transfer options.
  The courses to be taken at the foreign university are entered in Table A. The LMU modules for which the credits will be transferred to LMU are to be entered in Table B. A direct correspondence with Table A is not required. However, if a course is not to be/cannot be credited, this must be justified. Reasons may be that the student has already earned all ECTS credits in a module or that the courses (e.g., language courses) are not part of the regular study program. There are corresponding fields in Table A that can be checked for this purpose.
  Part 1 of the LA must be signed by all parties involved (student, host university, and home university).

• Part 2 – During the stay: Any changes to the study program.
  This part only needs to be completed, submitted, and signed by all parties involved if there are changes to Part 1. Otherwise, Part 2 can be omitted. Part 2 is therefore only used if the program from Part 1 cannot be realized (e.g., if certain courses are not offered after all).

• Part 3 - After your return: Confirmation of the credits earned at the host university (transcript) and proof of credit transfer. Further information on the Learning Agreement can be found below regarding the recognition of courses.

You must earn at least 20 ECTS credits per semester at your host university, regardless of whether you are traveling within or outside the EU and regardless of whether you still need ECTS credits for your studies or not. At the end of your stay abroad, you will write a report on your experiences, which you will forward to the International Office and the IfKW. You will learn about further requirements shortly after receiving confirmation from the LMU International Office.

Please note that financial support from ERASMUS and/or any other scholarships may be subject to additional requirements.

At host universities within the EU, you do not pay any tuition fees under the Erasmus program and receive a monthly scholarship of currently 330 to 450 euros (depending on the destination country). Semesters abroad in Switzerland are financially supported by the Swiss-European Mobility Program. Here, visiting students receive a monthly grant from the respective host university (currently around CHF 420/month).

In order to receive the Erasmus grant, you must submit the original Grant Agreement and your enrollment certificate to the International Office, along with the LMU version of the Learning Agreement (a scan is sufficient), as this document contains all the necessary information (especially for later recognition). Learning Agreements from the host university and all previous, provisional Learning Agreements cannot be accepted.

You also do not pay tuition fees at host universities outside Europe (with the exception of semesters abroad at UCT in Cape Town; see partner universities). No further financial support is available here, which is why we strongly recommend that you apply for a scholarship at the time of your application, for example through PROSA LMU, DAAD, Fulbright (only for the USA) or other funding opportunities. You can find general information on applying for scholarships on the LMU website.

It is also worth checking whether you are eligible for foreign BAföG. Recipients of regular BAföG are also eligible for foreign BAföG; even if you do not receive regular BAföG, you may still be eligible for foreign BAföG.

For all exchange programs, you will receive personal advice from the IfKW's international exchange coordinators and will also have a personal contact person at the host university, so that individual support is usually guaranteed. You will also benefit from the experiences of your predecessors: The International Office maintains a collection of experience reports both online in the MoveOn database and in the information center in the main building of LMU. The international officers will also provide reports from former IfKW outgoings upon request.

During a leave of absence, the semesters of your degree program will not continue. This is particularly relevant for recipients of BAföG. If you do not receive any benefits that are dependent on your number of semesters, a leave of absence is optional. Please note that during a leave of absence, no academic work can be done at LMU. Internships or courses taken abroad can of course still be recognized after your return (see next point). So if you plan to take exams at LMU in the same semester, you should not take a leave of absence.

Please note that, with or without a leave of absence, it is mandatory to re-register on time and pay the fees until you wish to be finally de-registered!

Of course, we would like to recognize as many courses as possible. However, there must be a certain degree of correspondence between the selected course and the course to be recognized. That is why it is important that you inform yourself well in advance about your courses and, if necessary, consult with the ERASMUS advisor responsible for you at the host university and then also consult with your program coordinator at the IfKW. As a rule, many courses in the fields of PR, marketing, and journalism can be recognized without any problems and are also offered at almost all partner universities.

For recognition, discuss possible courses with your program coordinator before your departure. If you are an Erasmus scholarship holder, enter the result in the first part of your Learning Agreement and have it signed by your program coordinator.

If there are any changes to your course selection during your semester abroad, these must be entered in the second part of the Learning Agreement and discussed with your program coordinator, especially if they affect courses that you want to have recognized. Like the first part, you can send the second part of the Learning Agreement to your program coordinator by email for signature.

Back in Munich, please report to your program coordinator during office hours with the original transcript of records from your host university, a translation of your course descriptions, and proof that you have recorded your stays abroad in LSF.
Study-related stays abroad (such as studying or interning abroad) must now be recorded independently by all students in LSF. There is a new function for this called “Stays abroad.” Instructions can be found here or on the website of the Examination Office for Humanities and Social Sciences (PAGS). Only once your semester abroad has been recorded in LSF can credits earned abroad be transferred to LMU.

The funding is usually paid out in two installments. For the first installment of the scholarship, you must submit the original Grant Agreement and your enrollment certificate to the International Office, along with the LMU version of the Learning Agreement (Part 1), completed in full and signed by all parties (a scan is sufficient). This must be done no later than the beginning of your semester abroad.

After completing the semester and returning to Munich, you must also submit a transcript of records in which the host university confirms that you have successfully completed the courses agreed upon in the Learning Agreement. The transcript also serves as proof for the Office of International Affairs that you have earned the 20 to 30 ECTS credits required to receive the funding. For further details, please refer to the International Office website.

Of course. Internships abroad offer an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself even more deeply in the working world in an international context. The international affairs officers can also provide you with information on this, but the IfKW cannot arrange internships abroad. Within the framework of Erasmus, you can complete a financially supported internship within the EU. You can obtain assistance with your search and information on further funding opportunities from Student and Job Market at LMU.

With regard to recognition as compulsory internships, bachelor's students must contact their program coordinator.

At the beginning of each winter semester, the IfKW offers interested students a series of events with a weekly information evening, with plenty of time for your questions. Numerous speakers report on their experiences abroad (the dates can be found under “News” on the IfKW website or in LSF under “Study abroad with the IfKW”).

In addition, the international officers offer regular office hours (by appointment via email). An international mailing list will also keep you informed about news at the IfKW, scholarships, and offers from our partner universities. You can register for this at any time (and also unsubscribe).

The International Office has a wealth of further information available for you: on the websites, in the information center in the main building, and during consultation hours for study abroad counseling.