Civil Engineering (M.Sc.)

It is important to pay attention to the fact that the creditable prior knowledge from a previous university education has to be comparable to the knowledge and skills taught in the B. Sc. Civil Engineering program at RWTH Aachen University (examination regulations M.Sc. Civil Engineering program §3, Abs. 2).

Often courses are related to the field of civil engineering, but the RWTH Aachen University does not offer equivalent courses. Therefore, these courses can not be accredited (e.g. Technical Drawing).

Additional qualifications such as apprenticeships, working experience, master craftsman diplomas etc. cannot be considered during the proficiency review. Only prior knowledge acquired from a previous university degree can be considered.

Please note, that there is no generalised scaling of credit points from foreign universities. At the Faculty of Civil Engineering RWTH Aachen University credit points (CP) stands for an equivalent of time (total workload), not the lecture hours per week (dt: Semesterwochenstunden (SWS)). The B.Sc. Civil Engineering at RWTH Aachen University is a full-time study program that encompasses 180 CP over a period of 3 years, 60 CP per year or 30 CP per semester, respectively. All applications from foreign universities are therefore reviewed concerning the equivalence of the workload of a semester. Should the workload be approximately equivalent to the workload at RWTH Aachen University, there is no scaling of the corresponding Credit Points.

Civil Engineering (M.Sc.)

Additional courses (“Auflagen”) are modules from the bachelor’s degree program for civil engineering at RWTH Aachen University. They need to be successfully completed prior to the registration of your master’s thesis. They are taught and examined in German language only. To complete these courses successfully, students need advanced German language skills. At no time students will be requested to provide a proof of proficiency in German language with regard to these additional courses “Auflagen”. It is the student’s own responsibility to acquire sufficient language skills in order to pass these additional courses (“Auflagen”).

Experience has shown that students who do not have any or very poor German language skills when applying and who do not require any German language skills for their Master's program (English language specification: Advanced Computational Method in Civil Engineering) have difficulties in successfully completing the additional courses. The Master's degree is not possible without proof of the additional courses.

Students who are nearly finished with their bachelor's degree program, but are not finished with their degree program can also apply for a master's degree program. The review of applicants subject specific educational background throught he faculty takes place based on the documents uploaded into the application portal (for example transcript of records).

The subject specific reviews can be accelerated by:

• Clear and Well Structured Documents
• Including only Relevant Documents (for example it is not necessary to upload a 200 page module catalogue. Module descriptions of descriptions of the completed courses are enough.
• Uploading the Documents as PDFs
• Good Quality and Legible Documents

Civil Engineering (M.Sc.)

If you extend your previous knowledge and apply again, there is of course always the possibility that you achieve an admission for the master's program civil engineering, provided that you meet the admission requirements according to §3 section 2 and 3 of the then valid master’s examination regulations civil engineering.

It is generally not possible to change your application after the deadline has passed. This also applies if you have accidentally applied for the wrong degree programme. The subject-specific examination is carried out for the selected degree programme.

Even application documents that have not been submitted in full during the application phase cannot be subsequently supplemented. This means that there will be no further technical examination. No exceptions are possible in this context. However, you can apply again at any time for the next application phase at RWTH Aachen University.

A module catalogue is an official document of your university that describes in detail the contents and the workload of the completed courses of your Bachelor's degree. This document is necessary to carry out the examination of the technical admission requirements, because during the examination not only the work load is taken into account. The course contents taken by the applicant are also compared with the course contents of the RWTH Aachen and a large degree of correspondence is checked.

In the case you do not provide sufficient information regarding the contents of your bachelor courses, it may not be possible to carry out a technical examination of the prior knowledge. This is also the case if you only submit documents that are not in German or English. The lack of documents can lead to a rejection - even if you already have some previous knowledge. Therefore, please make sure that you attach detailed information about the contents and the workload of the completed courses of your Bachelor’s degree. If you do not have a module description or something comparable, you have to submit your application online without a module description. Whether your previous knowledge, which you can provide is sufficient, will be determined during the technical examination.

A publication of empirical data or statistics is not possible due to legal restraints. For a self-assessment of how well your Bachelor's degree meets the admission requirements of the RWTH Aachen University, you must compare your previous education with the subject-specific admission requirements.

A preliminary assessment by RWTH Aachen University does not take place in principle. The examination of the technical admission requirements is only carried out after the application has been submitted.

A general rule for the admission of TU 9 graduates does not exist. Every applicant is considered in light of the requirements.

In general it is applicable that the necessary application requiremetns must be fulfilled in order to be granted admission with or without additional supplemental courses. Recognizable previous academic achievemetns must be comparable to the courses that the RWTH Aachen University offers as bachelor's degree courses (master's examination regulations §3 subsection 2).

Please note that at the time of application your previous academic achievements must be proven. If you are only registered for an examination, and cannot know if you have passed the examination, it cannot be included in the review of your previous academic achievements.

The examination board has the possibility to grant conditional admission, when you can prove that specific modules have been successfully completed until the registration of your master’s thesis. The conditional admission is not possible when the number of credit points in the required modules exceed a certain limit. In the area of mathematics and physics a maximum of 9 CP is permitted. In the area of civil engineering fundamentals, a maximum of 26 CP is permitted. Additionally, the total number of credits from both fields may not exceed 30 CP.