FSinfo Logo
Office Sign
en de

Menü

Studies

Examinations

FSinfo collects exam protocols and exam details from students so that upcoming students can better prepare for the exams. You can get old exams from us by sending an email request to klausuren@fsinfo.fim.uni-passau.de, use your student email address for this. Help us and pass on memory protocols to the student council!

Projects in your studies

Internship

In all Bachelor’s degree programmes at FIM as well as in the Master’s degree in Computer Science, it is possible to complete an internship of at least 240 hours (e.g. six weeks of full-time work). The internship is ungraded, but you will receive four ECTS points in the area of key competences. Before you start the internship, you have to find a professor who will supervise the internship. Furthermore, you have to write several interim and one final report and have an interview with your supervisor. Please note that according to the current module catalogue, only 50% of the content is required to be relevant to your studies; the rest is not assessed as your own experience and is therefore not included in the ECTS assessment.

SEP and EP

The Software Engineering Practical (SEP) for the Bachelor’s degree programme in Computer Science and the Development Practical (EP) for Internet Computing represent an important part of the respective degree programme. Such an internship is not provided for the Bachelor of Mathematics.

Within the framework of one of these internships, a team of three to six students works on a medium-sized software project for the duration of one semester. In the SEP, a total of five phases of development are run through: Requirements specification, design, specification, implementation and validation. The work packages for the EP are analogously analysis, design, implementation and validation. The lectures Software Engineering, Programming II and Algorithms and Data Structures are prerequisites for the SEP, while the EP also requires the courses Fundamentals of Databases and Web and Data Engineering.

The practical courses are scheduled for the fourth or fifth semester. Experience shows that the time required is very high, which should be taken into account when planning the other courses during the “internship semester”. You can get advice and help from the student council at any time. During the internship, you will not only gain a lot of experience in software development and administration, but also in the competence areas of time management, teamwork and communication.

At the end of the semester, there is a final event in which the projects are presented in the form of the finished systems. This event can and should be attended by all students in the semester before their own internship. It is also important to attend a compulsory (S)EP kick-off event, which, according to experience, always takes place towards the end of the previous semester. You must not miss this event in order to be able to participate in the SEP or EP with your team in the following semester! The dates of the events will be announced in good time on notices in the FIM as well as on the social media channels of the student council.

Languages and semesters abroad

For the Bachelor’s degree programmes in Computer Science and Internet Computing, English, French and Russian can be credited as key competences. In addition, a so-called UNIcert certificate can be acquired for a fee. In order to enter a language with previous knowledge, placement tests are usually required. Students of the FIM take the test for cultural industries. Afterwards, you can register for one of the courses via Stud.IP according to your placement. If you want to learn a language from scratch, it is sufficient to register for a course for “Grundstufe 1.1”. We recommend that you go to a course even if there is a big crowd, even if you are only on the waiting list or there are not enough seats in the course room. Experience shows that you will still get a place if you come to the course very regularly.

In order to consolidate your language skills and gain relevant experience, a stay abroad is also a good option, for example a semester abroad or an internship abroad. Various institutions and organisations such as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the EU’s ERASMUS+ programme provide funding for this. The International Office can advise you on organisational questions and funding regarding semesters abroad. If you are interested in an internship abroad, the ZKK (Future: Carrers and Competencies) can advise you.

Independent of the official partner universities of our university, you can apply to a foreign university on your own as a freemover, but usually with increased work and organisational effort. For this reason, free placement agencies such as IEC or College Contact are available. In any case, you should start planning as early as possible (about two semesters before)!

If you would like to complete coursework at the foreign university during your stay abroad and then receive credit for it in your degree programme, you should clarify in advance which lectures this is possible for. As a rule, credits can only be awarded if there is an equivalent course in the module catalogue for your degree programme. If necessary, the study advisor for your degree programme can help you with this.

Scholarships

Scholarships are only for nerds? Wrong! Getting a scholarship is easier than many people think. It is often possible to apply before or directly after graduating from high school.

Permanent scholarships with financial and non-material support are available from the 13 organisations for the promotion of the gifted, which work together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. When applying, you should make sure that the profile of the respective foundation matches your own views. A suitable personality profile significantly increases the likelihood of acceptance. The scholarship holders of many foundations have organised themselves into university groups at the University of Passau and are available for support when applying.

Google offers the international Women Techmakers Scholars Program every year especially for women. Despite the high demand, you should not hesitate to apply.

Furthermore, the University of Passau offers the Deutschlandstipendium. Here, students are supported with 300€ per month for one year, regardless of their income. Half of this scholarship is financed by private sponsors and half by federal subsidies. It is particularly worthwhile applying if you have a very good average grade, as this criterion is primarily used in the first round of selection.

The AlumniClub of the University of Passau awards one or more scholarships from some larger partners every year. The chances for STEM students are very promising.

Students in at least their second semester who are eligible for BAföG have very good chances of receiving the Oskar-Karl-Forster-Stipendium, a one-time grant of 500€ to purchase learning materials such as books or even laptops.

The university has also compiled some information on scholarships, which can be found here.

Study plans

Here you will find our suggestions for the course of studies, i.e. the study plans. These represent the course of studies over the entire degree programme, i.e. which lectures should be taken in the first, second, third, … semester should be taken. The timetable, on the other hand, changes every semester and depends on the rooms and times in which the lectures and exercises are offered.

Attention: Please note that the following study schedules may differ from the official sample study schedules, as experiences from our own study courses have been incorporated.

Theses

When their studies are coming to an end, most students at FIM sooner or later ask themselves: Where do I actually get a place to supervise or a topic for my Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis? Unfortunately, there is no standard answer, as this topic is handled very individually by different departments. However, below you will find a few helpful tips and guidelines for successfully completing your thesis.

Basically, you should be clear about which subject area you are interested in (in computer science, for example, programming, software engineering, networks, security, deep learning). This way, you can contact the chair(s) that (best) cover the respective field of interest. The way of contacting and assigning topics varies from chair to chair:

Many chairs publish lists of possible topics on their website or have them available on request. A central overview is provided by the Information on Theses on the Faculty’s website. If applicable, chair-specific requirements or procedures are also described there.

Unless otherwise specified by the chair, it is often possible to clarify the chair-specific procedure and discuss possible topics in a personal conversation. The first point of contact is usually the course instructor; however, some chairs also prefer direct contact with the chair holder. For more informal contact, internal faculty events such as the annual barbecue are a good place to meet lecturers and possibly find a topic. Theses are often offered at the end of a seminar or similar, e.g. as a continuation of a topic that has already been dealt with. Some chairs are open to students’ own ideas; however, there is no guarantee that your idea or even a request for a company cooperation can be taken over one-to-one, as the content of the thesis should usually fit the research areas of the chair.

Everything else regarding the framework, scope and time period will then be agreed upon individually with the supervisor. After registration and granting of the declaration of consent by the supervisor, the processing time for Bachelor’s theses is three months until submission, for Master’s theses six months.

In general, it is advisable in any case to think about the topic early on in order to avoid conflicts (e.g. with the start of a consecutive Master’s programme).

End of study

Calculation of the overall grade

In general, according to all current subject study and examination regulations for Bachelor’s degree programmes at our faculty, one module per module group does not have to be included in the calculation of the overall grade.

If you have achieved more than the required minimum number of ECTS (usually 180 for Bachelor’s degree programmes or 120 for Master’s degree programmes), you can have modules certified as “additional qualification” in a separate document so that they are also not included in your overall grade. In this way, modules with lower grades can be kept out of your main transcript (as long as they are not compulsory in your study and examination regulations and you do not fall below the minimum number of ECTS by omitting them).

Afterwards, a weighted overall average is calculated from all these grades. The weighting depends on the ECTS points of the course. In concrete terms, this means: The sum of all grades of all modules (Note_i) multiplied by the respective ECTS points (ECTS_i) divided by the total number of ECTS points results in the overall grade.

Overall grade formula

The overall grade only counts to the first decimal place, but is not rounded. A 2.59, for example, is entered as 2.5 on the report card.

You can find more information on this in your examination regulations. You can also request binding information from the Examination Office.

Certificate application

Once you have completed your degree programme, all you need is a transcript of records. You will not receive this automatically, but must submit an application for it. You can find the application form for each degree programme on the website of the Examination Office. In this application, you also determine the elective options of your degree programme, for example, the compulsory elective area or focus, and which modules should not be included in the overall grade (as described in the previous section).

Change to the Master

If you have completed your degree programme and decide to take up a Master’s degree at our university, in theory you only have to observe the application deadlines. You can find specific information about this on the university website for the Master Computer Science, the Master AI Engineering or the Master Computational Mathematics.

You can also apply for the Master’s programme even if you have not yet received your Bachelor’s degree. According to the General Study and Examination Regulations for Master’s Programmes of our faculty, you have the possibility to submit the grades required for the Master’s until the 10th week of lectures. However, all examinations required for graduation must have been completed before the start of lectures.

Termination of studies

If you end your degree programme prematurely, either because you do not like the subject or because you have definitively failed a compulsory module, you have a few options:

Of course, you can change your degree programme within our university, but you only have to observe the enrolment/application deadlines. Under certain circumstances, you can even have modules you have already passed credited to the new degree programme. The best person to help you with this is the (Fach-)Studienberatung.

If you receive BAföG, you can generally change your degree programme once up to the second semester without losing your entitlement. After that, it is only possible under certain conditions. You can find detailed information about this on the Studentenwerk website.

If you have failed a compulsory module, you still have the following options: If you were unable to pass the exam for serious reasons, e.g. health reasons (for this you must provide a certificate from a public health officer), you can try to apply for a hardship case at the examination board. Alternatively, you have the option of changing your degree programme as mentioned above. For example, if you have not passed Linear Algebra I, Internet Computing is still open to you. Thanks to the same examination numbers, it is relatively easy to transfer modules that you have already passed. Of course, it is now also possible for you not to have individual grades credited, but to improve them by taking another exam.

But if you can’t/won’t stay at our university, you can still try other universities/specialist colleges in other/similar degree programmes.

If you are enrolled in the same degree programme (especially one with the same name), you may have problems starting over at another university. Universities of applied sciences are usually more accommodating.

The world of education is also open to you. When applying, you can present the modules you’ve already passed, your achievements don’t have to disappear.

If you want to look for alternatives yourself, we can recommend the Higher Education Compass or the Student Advisory Service at our university. The staff have a lot of information and flyers and will be happy to support you for your future.

Survival Tips

Office hours are overrated

In the corridors of the departments, the doors are usually open and invite you to ask questions outside of office hours. The same goes for FSinfo: you can almost always find someone in the office - just drop by. You can also arrange a counselling interview with the professors, where they can point out problems in your own study programme, for example. In general, it is also advisable to post problems relevant to your course of study for discussion in the respective Stud.IP forum, as this will also help other students.

Parking situation

You are allowed to use the student underground car park (below the refectory, WiWi and central library) if you live outside the city area and no more than 90km away from Passau. Your CampusCard will be activated in the administration in room JUR 017. The parking permit, which you can download from HISQIS, must be placed in the front of your car and be clearly visible. You can find an overview of the opening hours above the entrance to the underground car park or here.

Registration deadlines for exams

You must register for all exams via the campus portal unless otherwise stated. However, the deadlines may differ from faculty to faculty. Depending on the elective subject, you may therefore be affected by different registration periods! The exact period will be announced in the lectures, on the university homepage and via our social media channels. Registration after these dates is usually no longer possible. At FIM, there are usually two dates per semester for which you can register independently of each other. Please also make sure that you are registered for the correct date and bring your printed registration confirmation with you to the exam.

Examinations

An exam may not be failed more than twice and must be repeated within one year at the latest. It is not possible to repeat exams that have already been passed (e.g. to improve your grade). Especially in the Master’s lectures, but also in the Bachelor’s programme, professors often choose oral examinations as examination performance. You should prepare for these in a slightly different way than for written exams: Study together with others and ask each other questions to make sure that you can also reproduce the knowledge orally in a comprehensible way.

Exam review

After an exam has been corrected, you have the right to know how your grade was arrived at. This is what the examination review is for. At the FIM, you usually don’t even have to register for this. Use this opportunity to look for possible mistakes in the correction - because even the correctors can miss something right. In this way, the grade can possibly be improved a little. It’s also the only way to see exactly what you did wrong and to learn from your mistakes.

Bachelor thesis

You should keep one semester free for your Bachelor’s thesis. Ask early and independently at a department of your choice for a suitable thesis. Once you have registered and received a declaration of consent from your supervisor, it takes three months to complete and submit your thesis. Please note that you may need a final grade for your Bachelor’s thesis before you can apply to other universities for a Master’s degree. Chairs are allowed to take up to three months for this.

FIM library

In the library, in addition to specialist literature and many current journals, you will also find a stapler (very helpful for handing in exercise sheets) and a book scanner, with which extensive collections of sheets can be digitised quickly, without much effort and - unlike at the campus printers - free of charge. There is also a group room that you can reserve for your projects free of charge.

Using the formal form of address at the FIM

Students are on first-name terms with each other. At the FIM, this relaxed approach goes even further: most academic staff are also on first-name terms. Caution: This does not apply to professors and most office staff!

Sick during an exam

If you fall ill immediately before an exam, you must obtain a doctor’s certificate for the day of the exam. If you fall ill during the exam, you must report to the invigilator immediately and present a doctor’s certificate afterwards stating that you are unable to take the exam. You can find more details on the website of the Examination Office.

Elective subject vs. compulsory elective subject

In every Bachelor’s degree programme, you have to choose a subject area in which you attend additional lectures outside your own subject area - the elective subject. During your Bachelor’s degree programme, you must achieve a fixed number of ECTS credits in the elective subject. You only have to decide on your elective subject at the end of your degree programme. Compulsory electives, on the other hand, are in-depth courses of the FIM and can be chosen from a list of creditable courses independently of the elective subject - only a certain number of ECTS points must be achieved. The number of points required is described in the study plans of the Bachelor’s degree programmes. Which courses are creditable depends on the degree programme and can be found in the respective module catalogue, which you can find on the university website.

Key competences

Key competencies are usually block seminars that usually take place at the weekend. Students of the Bachelor’s programme in Computer Science and Internet Computing can earn up to three ECTS points in such seminars of the ZKK (Future: Careers and Competencies) or creditable language courses during the course of their studies. In the Bachelor’s degree programme in Computer Science, at least 18 ECTS points must be achieved together with elective subjects, and 16 points in the Bachelor’s degree programme in Internet Computing. Students of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Mathematics need three ECTS points. Registration usually takes place via waiting lists in Stud.IP and is only possible for a certain period of time. You should also deregister in good time if you cannot attend a seminar, otherwise you will be given lower priority in the next semester. Please note, however, that only selected seminars can be credited. You must inform the lecturers in the seminar that you will need a grade at the end. Of course, you can also take non-credit-bearing seminars simply for personal further education.

Points count

If you do not comply with the points limits and maximum study duration of the respective degree programme, you may be exmatriculated. The following table gives you an overview of the points to be achieved. This number of ECTS points must be achieved in order to be allowed to continue studying or to receive BAföG.

Study University BAföG
Bachelor (all) >= 30 after 3 Sem. or >= 40 after 4 Sem. >= 72 after 4 Sem.
Lehramt (Gym) - >= 120 nach 4 Sem.
Master (alle) valid since WiSe 19/20 >= 20 after 1 Sem. or >= 30 after 2 Sem.

Tips for the teaching profession

Don’t put anything off

At the end of your studies, the very time-consuming state examinations are due, but the curriculum in the last semester also regularly provides for the completion of 30 ECTS credits. Therefore, it makes sense to bring some courses forward to earlier semesters. In addition, you can also take part of the state examination (the so-called EWS examination) early and thus “only” have to write the examinations in your two subjects and the subject didactics at the end of your studies. So it’s better to work a little harder at the beginning of your studies so that you have enough time to study at the end. In addition, you should think about the other requirements that are necessary for registering for the exam (e.g. school and company internships or the admission thesis), but which do not appear in the module catalogues or study plans.

Take notes carefully

Of course, no documents should be thrown away during your studies in any degree programme. Since teacher training students have to take the state examination at the end of their studies, it is especially important for them to write detailed summaries and keep them - this pays off during exam preparation.

Double degree

In order to open up further career perspectives alongside the teaching profession, a Bachelor’s degree can also be obtained alongside the Staatsexamen within the framework of a double degree course at a reasonable additional cost. We therefore recommend that you find out in advance which courses can be credited to both degree programmes and plan them well.