International Course Offer
Information on courses available for exchange students at the UP
Subject-specific course offer
Please note: Although exchange students at the University of Potsdam are assigned to a specific subject area during their stay, they can combine and take courses from different subject areas and faculties.
Click here for the course catalog: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/studium/studying/coursecatalogs
Including:
- course catalog for the current and previous semesters,
- course catalog for English-language bachelor courses,
- course catalog for English-language master courses
Publication of course catalog:
- 15.09. for the following winter semester (semester start: 01.10.)
- 15.03. for the following summer semester (semester start: 01.04.)
As the current course catalog is published shortly before the start of the semester, we advise exchange students to complete their preliminary Learning Agreement based on the courses offered in the previous academic year.
Did you know? German universities and universities of applied sciences adhere to the principle of freedom of research and teaching. For this reason, not all courses are offered every semester. For exchange students, this means that there is a high probability of changes to the preliminary Learning Agreement if it was completed before the current course catalog was published, i.e., based on the courses offered in previous semesters.
At the University of Potsdam, exchange students can take courses at the following faculties:
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Human Sciences
Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Science
Law Faculty
Digital Engineering Faculty
Things to know about the teaching language
The primary language of instruction at the University of Potsdam is German.
Most English-language courses are offered at Master level, as the University of Potsdam has numerous English-language Degree Programs at Master level.
At Bachelor level, there is a reliable selection of English-language courses offered at the following institutes/departments:
- Department of English and American Studies
- Department of History
- School of Jewish Theology
- Department of Linguistics
- Social Sciences
- Institute of Physics and Astronomy
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biology
Please note: For Bachelor courses at Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), German and English language skills at a level of at least C1 level are required despite courses being offered in English. For courses at the Law Faculty, German skills at a level of at least B2 are required.
Things to know about ECTS
The number of ECTS awarded for a course is usually listed in the respective course description in the course catalog in PULS. In the "Comments" section for each course, you will find information on the "credit points (LP)". Some institutes also publish information on ECTS on their websites.
In case there are no ECTS listed in PULS, this is due to courses often belonging to different degree programs, in which the same course can have different ECTS values.
The departmental exchange coordinators and the respective course lecturer can also provide information about ECTS.
Furthermore, our faculty tutors can assist with questions regarding course selection.
As a general rule, the number of ECTS awarded depends on the number of hours of the course and the type and number of assessments in the course.
Good to know: At the beginning of the semester, exchange students can make individual arrangements regarding ECTS with the respective lecturer of a course.
Non-binding guidelines for ECTS at the UP:
- 1 Leistungspunkt (LP) = 1 ECTS
- 1 ECTS = workload of 25-30 hours
- Please note: The following values are mere non-binding guidelines (cf. remarks on the left)!
- Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences: 6 or 9 ECTS/ course
- Faculty of Arts: 2, 3, 4 or 6 ECTS/ course
- Faculty of Human Sciences: 2, 3, 4, or 6 ECTS/ course
- Faculty of Science: 6 or 9 ECTS/ course
- Law Faculty: 4 or 6 ECTS/ course
- Digital Engineering Faculty: 6 ECTS/ course
Language Courses
Good to know: The language courses listed here can also be included in the Learning Agreement and completed with ECTS.