Study Abroad - Gain New Experiences

As a student at University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, you can go to one of our partner universities for one or two semesters. You have many advantages if you take part in our organised exchange programmes.

For example, there are contact persons at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and at the host university who have a lot of experience and will help you to organise your stay. You also pay no tuition fees at the partner universities. And best of all, the credits you earn abroad are generally recognised for your studies in Germany.

Yes, it is generally not possible to enter into new partnerships at short notice if the desired university is not included. However, as a free mover you can study as an exchange student at the university of your choice.

You must then apply there individually. Please contact us for information on suitable funding.

Please send your application to the selection committee of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. To do this, please submit your application completely in German.

Exceptions are possible, for example, if you are studying an English-language degree programme at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam or if your native language or first language is not German. Please discuss this with the International Office before applying.

Erasmus+

Please submit the application documents exclusively via the online portal Mobility-Online.

Bilateral exchange and Switzerland

Please send the application as a PDF to international@fh-potsdam.de. Please use the application form for Bilateral Exchange and Switzerland.

You can indicate a first preference and a second preference in your application. Please organise your application documents according to your first preference.

You can also address your second preference in your letter of motivation.

You can apply for both programmes at the same time. To do so, you must submit two separate applications. If you are selected for a place on both programmes, you must inform us in writing which place you prefer.

Please note the differences between the exchange programmes in terms of funding and organisation.

The required language skills and language level are determined by the partner university and relate to the language of instruction.

You can find an overview of the partner universities and the required language skills in our interactive exchange database.

Please note: The required language skills should already be available when you apply on the 15^th of January, but at the latest when you start your studies at the partner university.

You do not need to submit a language certificate if you are studying in a German-language degree programme at the partner university.

The prerequisite is that you are not studying an English-language degree programme at University of Applied Sciences Potsdam or that your first or native language is German.

A language certificate is not required if the language of instruction is your mother tongue or first language.

To apply, you must submit proof of the language skills required by the partner university. The proof must not be older than 3 years. The following are accepted as proof

• official language certificates such as TOEFL, IELTS, DELF etc.
• Informal confirmation of participation in a language course stating the level (e.g. VHS language courses)
• DAAD language certificate
• Language up to the Abitur as a performance subject, proof by Abitur certificate

If you have not yet acquired the necessary language skills at the time of application, please submit an overview of how you will acquire the necessary language skills instead. The language certificate must be submitted before the start of the stay abroad.

The language certificate must not be more than 3 years old at the time of application.

The letter of motivation is the centrepiece of your application. In it, you explain why the planned stay abroad is relevant to you academically or professionally and what personal or linguistic development you hope to achieve by studying abroad. You can also show that you have already familiarised yourself with the partner university or the courses. Explain to us why participating in the exchange programme and studying at the partner university are important to you.

The letter of motivation should be one to two formatted A4 pages.

A PDF extract from MyCampus without a signature is sufficient.

The selection process is expected to take up to six weeks. You will be informed of the decision by e-mail.

If you have unfortunately received a rejection from us, you can apply for a remaining place in the following summer semester. We will send you an overview after the selection process. You are welcome to make an appointment with the International Office to discuss alternatives.

Before applying, please consider carefully whether you will actually go on the exchange programme.

If you are accepted, you accept the exchange place with binding effect and undertake - also out of fairness to other students - only to withdraw from the exchange programme for urgent reasons, such as illness or changes to your course of study. Before you make a final decision, we ask you to talk to us.

If you are not yet registered with Mobility Online, please complete an online application form first. The application period is from the 15^th of December to the 15^th of January.

If you are already registered with Mobility Online, you can log in directly to the online application portal.

The data from your application and your stay abroad will be stored in accordance with the programme specifications. After five years, all personal data records will be deleted and a corresponding statistical entry will be generated.

The following data is compressed:

• the application data record with assignments (so that these still appear in statistics)
• the user data record (this is also set to inactive)

The following data is deleted:

• Remaining application data (uploads, progress data/history, etc.)
• Remaining personal data (person, addresses, bank details, allocation to institutions, etc.)

Please check the spam folder of your e-mail inbox first. It is possible that your e-mail provider has incorrectly categorised the message as spam.

If you do not receive an e-mail from Mobility-Online or the International Office, the e-mail address may be incorrectly stored in the online portal. Please check the information and send an e-mail to international@fh-potsdam.de so that we can make the change.

The online application portal Mobility Online only accepts PDF and JPG file formats for uploaded documents. Please note the file size limit of 10 MB. An exception is the file upload for the portfolio of design students with a maximum file size of 20 MB.

The online application portal Mobility-Online is not displayed correctly in some browsers. We recommend that Windows users use Firefox or Chrome. For Apple users, we recommend Safari or Chrome. If you continue to experience problems with the user interface of Mobility-Online, please contact international@fh-potsdam.de.

If you have problems with your Campus.account, please contact IT. Is your problem still there? Please contact international@fh-potsdam.de.

Students of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam log in with their Campus.account. If you have forgotten your password, please contact it-service@fh-potsdam.de.

First click on "Exchange opportunities" (Austauschmöglichkeiten) in the overview. Then select your degree programme under field of study and click on Search.

If you filter by country or study level instead, for example, all exchange opportunities will be displayed, not just those for your degree programme. Then remove all filters and only search by degree programme.

If you have any questions about the online portal, the exchange database or Mobility-Online, please send them exclusively to international@fh-potsdam.de.