Recognition and Transfer of Credits Earned Abroad
To make a recognition request for credits earned abroad DURING your TUM studies, a personal application must be submitted via the online Credit Transfer Application. For applications of credit transfer PRIOR your studies abroad please contact our departmental Academic Advisors (Studienberatung).
The procedure via the online form does not apply to the following degree programs:
1. MSc Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence - for this program, please contact your degree program coordinator
2. MSc Computational Science and Engineering - for this program, please contact your degree program coordinator
3. BSc & MSc Bioinformatics - for this program, please contact the secretary of the examination board
An application has to fulfill three conditions:
- The university abroad must enjoy an equivalent academic and scientific status as TUM.
- In style and amount, the courses and credits have to be equivalent to the courses and credits of TUM.
- All required documents and other agreements already have been collected for the application (see online form and explanations)
In general, there are three types of recognition:
TUM professors are responsible for deciding if the courses and exams abroad are equivalent to TUM modules. Please contact the responsible person for the module (see module catalogue) with your Antrag Anerkennung TUM-Modul (upper right) who either can fill out the word form Antrag Anerkennung TUM-Modul or send an email with the necessary information to credittransfer(at)in.tum.de.
The person responsible person for support electives (soft skills) can be found on the website for support electives; please contact them by email.
Accepted electives are regulated in §40 of the program-specific Examination Guidelines (FPSO). The responsible person (mostly the degree program coordinator) will check if the course at the university abroad corresponds to the requirements and contents of the TUM course. Please contact the respective person:
- Master Informatics: consultation with Vladimir Golkov
- Master Informatics: Games Engineering: consultation with Georg Groh
- Master Information Systems: consultation with Markus Ewert
- Master Data Engineering and Analytics: consultation with Alexander Beischl, degree program coordinator DEA
- Master Automotive Software Engineering: consultation with degree program coordination ASE
- Master Bioinformatics: consultation with and request for credit transfer to Prof. Volker Heun
- Master Biomedical Computing: consultation with BMC Coordination
- Master Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence: consultation with and request for credit transfer to degree program coordination RCI
- Bachelor Informatik: Absprache mit Vladimir Golkov
- Bachelor Wirtschaftsinformatik: Absprache mit Jana Vatter
- Bachelor Informatik: Games Engineering: Absprache mit Sven Liedtke
- Bachelor Bioinformatik: Absprache mit und Antrag bei Prof. Volker Heun
For confirmation at TUM, every course abroad must fulfill the following requirements:
For the recognition in a Master’s degree program the course:
- must present a Master’s level (i.e. builds on Bachelor’s contents)
-
needs to fit content wise into the elective are
-
is concluded by passing an appropriate exam
The student has to confirm to their respective contact person that the courses fulfill all the requirements mentioned above by uploading the necessary documents, such as for example:
-
curriculum of the Master’s degree program or module description of the course
-
learning outcomes, syllabus and the module’s reference material
-
grade report: normally, the Transcript of Records of your stay abroad
The documents are exclusively accepted in German and English. If the documents only exist in another language, please submit a certified translation.
Even if not every module you take abroad is recognized by TUM, don't let it discourage you from studying abroad. After all, you’re not going abroad to complete exactly the same curriculum you could have completed here at TUM. We encourage you to expand your academic and personal horizons!
Ideally, the recognition process should be initiated before the stay abroad:
- Step 1 - Initiate the credit recognition process before your stay abroad:
Draw up a study program that includes all the modules you wish to attend at the host university. This plan must be approved by the International Affairs Delegate; to this end, please provide as much detail about the modules as possible. You should consider if and for which TUM modules you will seek to have those on the approved study program recognized. After consultation with the International Affairs Delegate, you can begin contacting the relevant professors for approval. In most cases, however, students wait to see if module offerings change (overlaps, new interesting modules, module cancellations) when they arrive at the host university. - Step 2 - The credit recognition process during your stay abroad: Any changes to the study program or further information on the modules should be discussed directly by email.
- Step 3 - The credit recognition process after your stay abroad: After returning from the host university, you must submit an Credit Transfer Application. With the exception of elective modules (Wahlfachbereich) to the respective degree program, you have to provide the approval for "recognition as support elective" confirmed by email or the module is already indicated in the List of Previously Recognized Credits earned Abroad; for “Recognition as discipline-specific module” (1:1), confirmation of approval from the relevant TUM professor or module coordinator must accompany your application (Form or email).
For credit transfer applications to the MSc degree programs CSE, RCI and Bioinformatics please contact the respective degree program coordination (see above). - Step 4 - Entry of Recognized Credits in TUMonline: The processing from your online application to the entry in TUMonline can take several months. Once your application has been processed by the degree program coordinator, you will receive an automated notification from the Confluence system by email that you still need to validate your original transcript of records (further information in the email). You will then see your recognitions after a further step, i.e. with the entry in your TUMonline transcript of records.
Grade Conversion
As a rule, the grades you got at your host university will be converted into TUM grades (1.0 - 4.0) according to the Bavarian Formula. For more information, please contact Claudia Philipps.
Credit Conversion
If no ECTS are indicated on your Transcript of Records (= grade report from abroad), the workload must be determined. Please provide as much information as possible that is relevant for determining workload/credits from your host university and contact Claudia Philipps before leaving, so that any missing information can be obtained while you are still on site.
How long does the procedure take?
Generally, it takes between 8 and 10 weeks (in lecture-free periods it might take a bit longer) to complete the credit recognition procedure and enter recognized credits into your grade report in TUMonline.
In case your degree program coordinator can't give you sufficient advice, Claudia Philipps is happy to help you find the appropriate contact person and assess the equivalency of the credits in question. We strongly recommend that you take advantage of this offer.
If you are going abroad within the scope of a TUM exchange program (Erasmus+, TUMexchange, Partnerships), you must draw up a study program / learning agreement before the beginning of your stay and have discussed it with your degree program coordinator. If you are organizing your stay abroad yourself, it is also recommended to ask for consultation.