Helpful Information

The International Office  is your contact for many mobility programs and scholarships and provides information on its study abroad pages about planning and the different types of stays.

The International Office developed the Certificate Mobility for students who wish to go abroad. The certificate acknowledges all your international activities and abilities that you have acquired during your studies at RWTH Aachen. The certificate encompasses an intercultural training, the stay abroad, and follow-up work. Additionally, you must complete at least four international and intercultural mandatory components from among what RWTH institutions and Aachen university organizations offer.

You must submit proof of your knowledge of the national language for many mobility programs and scholarships. Even if you will mainly complete your stay abroad in English, you should have at least basic knowledge of the national language. The RWTH Language Center offers foreign language courses every semester for students and doctoral candidats from all RWTH Aachen faculties. During the lecture free periods, students can register for intensive courses in Spanish and French.

You can find experience reports from former Outgoings in the RWTH Aachen Moveonline Exchanges database. The Faculty of Civil Engineering ERASMUS Office also has lists with contacts to former ERASMUS students in the faculty.

in certain circumstances it makes sense to complete your study abroad during a semester of leave from RWTH. During a semester of leave you can apply to the RWTH AStA to have the costs for the mobility fee (partially for the semester tickets) reimbursed. Additionally the cost for the social contribution is also reduced during a semester of leave. You remain enrolled during a semester leave and can remained insured by the student health insurance.

Semesters of leave do not count as core semesters. For this reason you cannot acquire any proof of academic performance or complete any exams during your semester of leave. This does not apply to retaking exams previously failed or for credits attained at the host university. Students on a semester of leave cannot receive BAföG for studies in Germany. You can submit an application for a semester of leave to the Registrar's Office upon proof of acceptance to the host university.

The Foreign Office has information on its webpages about travel and safety tips as well as visa and entry requirements.

A good overview of the different semester dates abroad can be found within the descriptions of our partner universities as well as in the database of the international office.