On this page, prospective students and students of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science can find out more about the recognition of achievements from other universities or faculties and of study and examination achievements obtained abroad.
Are you already studying at another university or do you want to change to a degree programme at the Faculty of Economics and Management Science within Leipzig University and apply for a place in a higher semester? Then please first find out about the various application modalities and deadlines for our Degree programmes.
In the application procedure for a higher semester, you will need, among other things, a so-called placement form from the relevant examination board. This placement form documents the decision on the placement of the semester.
Previous credits and examination results are decisive
The basis for the placement is your previous credit and examination results, whereby a workload of 30 credit points/ECTS per semester, primarily in the modules provided at the Faculty of Economics and Management Science at Leipzig University is decisive. In the placement examination, importance is attached to ensuring that the compulsory modules applied for recognition are equivalent in terms of content, scope and level; if necessary, you can also draw on several modules that have already been completed for this purpose. There is a little more flexibility where the compulsory elective modules are concerned, as long as their content is within the subject area of the relevant degree programme and they do not overlap significantly with our compulsory modules. In the case of Bachelor's degree programmes, achievements that are not specific to the subject matter may be recognised under certain circumstances in the inter-faculty key qualification area and in the case of Master's degree programmes with a corresponding Master's level in the so-called freely elective area. Since the subject area of business and administration (teaching profession at vocational schools) contains only compulsory modules, there is little flexibility here. You should use these guidelines to complete the relevant application for recognition/placement.
Submission of documents
The following documents are required for the placement:
- Placement form; please fill in the top half of this form.
- Application for recognition/classification of the respective degree programme with the required enclosures:
- Bachelor's degree programme in Economics
- Bachelor's degree programme in Business Information Systems
- Subject area economics and administration in the teaching profession for vocational schools
(please apply separately to the respective examination board for classification/recognition for the second subject and for recognition of the educational sciences) - All Master degree programmes
The application for recognition/classification must be accompanied by a current transcript of records and the relevant module descriptions (not complete module handbooks; for Master's degree programmes including proof of the Master's level). Only in the case of modules already completed at our faculty is the submission of module descriptions unnecessary.
All the completed placement documents, including the required supporting documents, must be submitted either or in writing to the Study Office of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science, Grimmaische Str. 12, 04109 Leipzig, by 18 August of the year (for the application for the winter semester) or by 15 February of the year (for the application for the summer semester). In exceptional cases, the current transcript of records can be submitted by 8 September of the year (for applications to the winter semester) or by 8 March of the year (for applications to the summer semester) if the examination results of the current semester are to be included in the placement examination. After enrolment, all documentary proof (certificates, transcript of records) must be submitted again as originals or as certified copies. Partial applications are not permitted; all existing eligible benefits must be submitted in one application.
If a placement form can be issued, it must be submitted to the Student Office (for prospective students with a German university entrance qualification) or to the International Office (for prospective students with a foreign university entrance qualification) by 15 September of the year at the latest (for applications to the winter semester) or by 15 March of the year (for applications to the summer semester).
After the enrolment, your recognised achievements are transferred to the credit account of the relevant degree programme in AlmaWeb. Please inform us when you have been enrolled. After enrolment, also note the deadline for module enrolment Module enrolment on the homepage of the Study Office. This is usually before the start of the semester.
Deadlines for applications differ
Please note that different deadlines are valid for applying for a place on a degree programme. For degree programmes that also have an internal university Numerus Clausus in the higher subject semester, the application for the correct subject semester must be submitted by 15 July of the year (for the winter semester) or by 15 January of the year (for the summer semester). You can find out more here.
If you want to be sure in which semester you will be placed by us, we recommend that you apply in good time before the application deadline according to the procedure described above. Especially if you change universities, experience shows that only a part of the credit points/ECTS acquired can be recognised here.
You are already studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management Science and would like to have credits and examination results from another degree programme (previous degree programme/parallel degree programme/double degree programme etc.) recognised? Then fill out the application for recognition/classification of the respective degree programme and enclose the required documents. Required are a current transcript of records and the relevant module descriptions (not complete module handbooks; for master's programs, including proof of master's level). Only in the case of modules already completed at our faculty is the submission of module descriptions unnecessary. Please do not forget to sign the application. When examining the documents, importance is attached to ensuring that the compulsory modules applied for recognition are equivalent in terms of content, scope and level; if necessary, you can also draw on several modules that have already been completed for this purpose. There is a little more flexibility where the compulsory elective modules are concerned, as long as their content is within the subject area of the relevant degree programme and they do not overlap significantly with our compulsory modules. In the case of Bachelor's degree programmes, achievements that are not specific to the subject matter may be recognised under certain circumstances in the inter-faculty key qualification area and in the case of Master's degree programmes with a corresponding Master's level in the so-called freely elective area. Since the subject area of business and administration (teaching profession at vocational schools) contains only compulsory modules, there is little flexibility here.
Request for recognition/classification:
- Subject area economics and administration in the teaching profession for vocational schools
(please apply separately to the respective examination board for classification/recognition for the second subject and for recognition of the educational sciences)
If you only want to have the recognition of a few individual credits and examination results checked, the general simple form may also be sufficient under certain circumstances:
Since a recognition procedure requires a case-by-case examination and, as experience shows, takes some time, the application (with the required enclosures) should be submitted at the latest two weeks before the start of the module enrolment and submitted either as a scan by or in writing to the study office of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science, Grimmaische Str. 12, 04109 Leipzig. All certificates (transcripts, overview of achievements) must be submitted again as originals or certified copies before recognition. Partial applications are not permitted; all existing eligible benefits must be submitted in one application.
This information is aimed at students who are already studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management Science and are considering doing a semester abroad.
In principle, we would like to promote stays abroad as part of your studies. To ensure that you don't lose any valuable study time during your stay, you can usually have your credits and examination results recognised for your studies here relatively easily - as long as you keep a few rules in mind. The following information provides you with an overview of these rules. In the first section, you will learn about these framework conditions and who you can contact if you have any queries.
Information and contacts
In addition to this information on recognition issues, you can find detailed information on our website ob studying abroad. If you have any questions, you will find the contact persons below.
Further information is also available from Leipzig University’s International Office – both online and offline.
Which foreign credits and examination results can be recognised?
In order to be fundamentally eligible for recognition, the credits and examination results must have been completed at institutions that are recognised as higher education institutions in the respective country of origin (accredited, certified or similar) and, based on this, are to be regarded as higher education institutions in Germany. This is always the case with the partner universities within the framework of the Erasmus programme; however, so-called free movers should enquire in good time at the International Office whether their desired host university meets the above criteria. Information on this can also be found on the information portal on foreign educational qualifications Anabin.
Furthermore, eligibility for recognition depends on the courses taken abroad on the one hand and on the degree programme and the area in which the foreign credits and examination results are to be recognised on the other. The following applies for all degree programmes: When choosing a course, make sure that you do not select modules with the same or very similar content to the modules you have already completed and to the compulsory modules you still have to complete, as credit points may not be awarded twice as a matter of principle. Furthermore, in the compulsory area there will be an individual and careful examination of adequacy with regard to the following criteria of the Lisbon Convention: Quality (accreditation of external higher education institution/degree programmes), level (Bachelor's or Master's programme/programme section), learning outcomes (with regard to the requirements of further study), scope (workload), profile (areas of specialisation, qualification and competence goals). The recognition of foreign courses for compulsory modules here is therefore rather the exception. If you nevertheless want to take courses abroad and replace compulsory modules with them here, you should apply for this via the examination board or the Study Office before your stay abroad.
In the B. Sc. in Economics and Management Science, the recognition of credits and examination results can be performed relatively unproblematically in the compulsory elective area (maximum 30 credit points). The prerequisite for this is that the subjects must belong to the field of economics and management science. In this case it is not necessary to search for courses at the host university that are similar in content or title to the modules offered here. When choosing courses, ensure that there is no overlap with the compulsory modules here. Otherwise, there is a risk that the module in question will not be recognised. Courses not related to economics and management science, for example language courses, can be recognised as inter-faculty key qualifications (maximum 10 credit points).
In the B. Sc. In Information Systems, the recognition of credits and examination results can be performed unproblematically in the compulsory elective area (maximum 10 credit points). The requirement to this end is that the courses are either related to economics and management science or business information systems. Courses not related to economics and management science or business information systems, for example language courses, can be recognised as inter-faculty key qualifications (maximum 10 credit points). A further 10 credit points can be recognised in the area of subject-related key qualifications through courses that are subject-related to business information systems, e.g. from the field of computer science. Due to the lack of a window abroad in this degree programme, the recognition of compulsory modules can also be an option in order to be able to meet the standard period of study.
In the B. Sc. in Business Education and Management Training credits and examination results that are not related to economics and management science or to the chosen second subject can be recognised in the area of inter-faculty key qualifications (maximum 10 credit points). A further 10 credit points can be acquired in the area of subject-related key qualifications through the module Stay Abroad (07-101-5209) - for this purpose, an experience report must be prepared after the stay abroad and submitted to the Study Office with the student's own signature as well as the other recognition documents (see below). Depending on the second subject, limited recognition may also be possible there, but this must be approved by the responsible examination board. Due to the lack of a window abroad in this degree programme, the recognition of compulsory modules can also be an option in order to be able to meet the standard period of study.
The following applies for all Bachelor degree programmes: Further examination achievements amounting to 10 ECTS, for which no recognition is given in the Study Office can be applied for as an inter-faculty key qualification - SQM 32a - if applicable. This module is ungraded. For more information on the procedure, please visit the Homepage of the Language Centre.
The following applies for all Master’s students: You have to take Master's courses and also prove the Master's level in the course of the recognition process. Exceptions to this rule are only made subject to strict conditions. In the Master's degree programmes, the recognition of credits and examination results can be performed relatively unproblematically in the elective area (maximum 30 credit points; exception: M. Sc. Business Education and Management Training in the current version of the expiring examination regulations from 20 October 2015: 20 credit points; in the version of the examination regulations from 2023, there is also an elective area of 30 credit points in the M. Sc. Business Education and Management Training). For this purpose, the courses do not necessarily have to be subject-related, but can also come from other disciplines. In addition, recognition in the compulsory elective area is also possible under certain circumstances, whereby the students must prove that they are a good match for a module offered here in terms of content, scope and level (subject modules with teaching content in economics and management science, business information systems, pedagogy).
To what extent can credits and examination results attained abroad be recognised?
In the case of Erasmus in particular, you are expected to be oriented towards taking courses abroad to the extent of 30 ECTS credits per semester. In principle, however, you do not have to have all the courses you took abroad recognised here afterwards, but can decide for yourself which courses you want to include in your degree programme with us. Foreign credits and examination results can theoretically be rendered and recognised to an unlimited extent - however, as a rule, when applying for recognition of more than 30 credit points, a more intensive examination of the criteria of the Lisbon Convention is performed (see above). The recognition of Bachelor's and Master's theses is extremely rare. Writing the thesis abroad is an exceptional case; this intention must be applied for and justified to the examination board before commencing.
Should a semester off be applied for?
Yes, especially if you are unsure how many examinations you will finally pass during your stay abroad, e.g. due to insufficient language skills, and how many credit points you would like to have recognised to a sufficient extent (the guideline is 30 credit points per semester), then you should apply for a semester off at the Student Secretariat of Leipzig University within the re-registration period of the previous semester (see Details). You can have the full credit points recognised after the stay abroad, if applicable, despite the semester off.
Steps to recognition before the stay abroad
You can choose between two paths, which you should think about before going abroad. The first path (mainly for students in the B. Sc. in Business Information Systems and B. Sc. Business Education and Management Training, who wish to have achievements recognised, and who insist upon this) shall be gone down with a due advance notice. The second pathway is preferably aimed at all students in the B. Sc. in Economics and Management Science, at all Master’s students and additionally students in the B. Sc. in Business Information Systems and B. Sc. Business Education and Management Training, who do not need to have the issue of recognition clarified in advance.
In the case of the first path, you insist on a decision relatively soon (allow enough time for the contact person's holidays, etc.). If you are going abroad via Erasmus, submit your Learning Agreement (further information can be found here) including module descriptions to the Erasmus coordinator's office; Mrs Noack will forward the documents to the Study Office, which will check the information. If there are any queries regarding recognition, Mr Heinisch (Study Office) will contact you. Following this, you can collect the Learning Agreement from Mrs Noack. This does not entail any further advantages or disadvantages for you. However, very many students abroad change part of their courses (due to the fact they are not offered, due to the fact they are not suitable,...). Then you must again have the changes approved (via Mrs Noack with module descriptions), even though the semester has already begun. This entails a lot of work for you as well as for Mrs Noack and the Study Office.
In the case of the 2nd path, you take note of the "Guidelines for the recognition of credits abroad" (please contact the Erasmus representative for this), confirm this with your signature and waive a recognition check before and during the stay abroad. In this case, the Study Office only has to deal with the recognition of your achievements once (after your return) and will do so just as sympathetically as they did the first time around. This path is open to Bachelor's students in economics and management science and, to a limited extent, in business education and management training and business information systems (see above), and also to all Master's students. During Erasmus stays abroad, the form is attached to the actual Learning Agreement (without module descriptions) and on page 3 under table B1 at Other/Miscellaneous note "See attachment for recognition of the subject (guide)". We encourage you to embark on this 2nd path. Erasmus students then still have to do two things: You notify the International Office of changes in the module choice that occur abroad (Table A2, page 5); Table B2 (page 6) remains empty. After your return, contact the Study Office directly for the recognition of your courses (see below).
Steps towards recognition of your courses during the stay abroad
If you are funded through Erasmus and have gone down the first path (see above) for recognition of your courses and the need has arisen to take different courses than initially agreed, please contact Mrs Noack regarding a change to the Learning Agreement with the relevant new course descriptions.
If you are not funded through Erasmus and wish to have your eligibility for recognition checked, please contact the Director of the Study Office directly with the relevant new course descriptions.
Steps to recognition of your courses after your stay abroad
Application for recognition
For the recognition of study and examination achievements completed abroad, the application form of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science (optionally for Bachelor’s or for Master’s Students), the transcript of records of the host university as well as the module or course descriptions in German or English (with proof of Master's level, if applicable) must be submitted in writing. Applications by email will not be accepted for legal reasons. The transcript must be submitted as an original (i.e. on paper with stamp and signature or alternatively in a digitally verifiable form); if the host university does not issue an original, you can alternatively ask the host university to send a PDF version directly to the Director of the Study Office. If the host university does not have German or English module descriptions, you can translate the course descriptions yourself and attach them. If there are no module descriptions for the courses in the language of the host country either, you can summarise the module contents independently, by way of an exception, and support this with evidence if necessary. Following the submission of all the required documents - please attach everything in one process if possible - the head of the Study Office will carry out the recognition procedure on behalf of the Examination Committee. In cases of doubt, the relevant subject advisors or subject representatives are consulted. If you have any queries, you can seek advice in person during his office hours (make an appointment online).
It is advisable to apply for recognition promptly after the end of the stay abroad in order to be able to plan the further course of studies. However, it may also be possible to apply for recognition at a later date (for example, due to internships that follow the stay abroad). The application process takes approximately 4-6 weeks to complete.
Conversion of grades, awarding of ECTS
Grades obtained abroad are converted into the grading system applicable in the degree programme by the Head of the Study Office on behalf of the Examination Committee on the basis of conversion keys. These conversion keys are based on tables provided internally by the International Office of Leipzig University or from other universities, as well as on subject traditions and empirical values at the Faculty of Economics and Management Science. They are not public, but can be requested from the head of the local Study Office in the course of the recognition process if necessary, i.e. if you are unsure whether you want to have certain achievements recognised. If necessary, you can also enquire about this in advance of your stay abroad with the Head of the Study Office without obligation. If no conversion keys are available, the so-called modified Bavarian formula for grade conversion is used (for more information, see the Resolution of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany).
If the ECTS system is used at the foreign higher education institution, the credit points acquired abroad are usually transferred. If the ECTS system is not applied at the host university, the credit points acquired abroad are converted into ECTS points on the basis of the actual workload (criteria: Number of scheduled lectures/assignments, duration of a lecture or assignment unit, learning time hours). In general this also takes into account empirical values.
Transfer to the credit account in AlmaWeb
If the credit points of the courses completed abroad and applied for recognition do not fit into the credit point scheme of Leipzig University (modules amounting to 5 or 10 credit points), slight rounding is possible in the course of recognition - both downwards and upwards. The rounding is performed in the overall view of the courses applied for and is always a case-by-case decision. In addition, it is possible to combine several courses into blocks that have a credit point scope of a multiple of 5, so that they meaningfully complement/complete the degree programme completed at Leipzig University.
The courses are entered in your credit account in AlmaWeb by the examination manager responsible for you (usually using the original course title and indicating the host university). This concludes the recognition procedure and, if necessary, you can pick up a copy of the application form (= recognition notice) from your responsible examination manager and submit it to the International Office as proof; it replaces the Erasmus form used there.