First of all, it must be checked whether the courses as stated are actually offered by the FU. The best way to do this is to use the course catalog. Both the course number and the course title should match the information there. If students take a module consisting of several courses, the courses should be listed individually. If, for example, in a seminar there is the option of taking the course with or without a final term paper, the planned form of examination can be included at this point, as this is relevant for the number of ECTS credits awarded.

The next step is to check that the number of ECTS credits is correct.

Courses or exams that may be taken by the visiting students in the same semester at the home university must not be listed on the Learning Agreement.

The FU does not have deadlines for Incoming Students' Learning Agreements. The deadline is always set by the home university.

ECTS Credits: The The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is an instrument of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), that increases the transparency of studies and courses and thus helps to improve the quality of higher education.

The number of ECTS credits students receive for a course may differ from the number of FU credit points (LP)! Each FU institute has its own ECTS overview, which can be found online.

At Freie Universität Berlin, 1 ECTS-credit should correspond to 1 credit point if possible.

More information about ECTS credits can be found here: https://www.fu-berlin.de/studium/information_a-z/punktemodule.html.

For your area it is best to create an overview (if not already available), which you also upload on the website for incoming Erasmus students of your area. If you are unsure about a specific case, you can consult the study and examination regulations of the respective program and calculate the ECTS credits for a course from the working hours indicated there (30 hours of work correspond to 1 ECTS point, whereby the domestic workload also counts) and contact the relevant Erasmus+ department coordinators*.

It is also possible to award more or less ECTS credits for a course than actually intended in exceptional cases. In this case, concrete agreements must be made with the relevant lecturers as to which work is to be omitted or additionally completed in order to explain the difference in the points awarded.

Some Erasmus students prepare a thesis during their stay at the FU and conduct research for it in the laboratory or in the library (BA, MA or PhD thesis). However, the rule applies that the thesis must always be supervised and graded by the home university. ECTS credits are also awarded entirely by the home university; the FU does not award ECTS credits for research.

However, it is possible to include research at the FU in the Learning Agreement, but with the addition that ECTS credits are not awarded by the FU, but only by the home university.

If, in exceptional cases, you are willing to supervise the thesis entirely at the FU, please discuss this in advance with the central Erasmus office at the FU (incoming@fu-berlin.de).

In principle, when you sign the Learning Agreement, your signature is valid for the entire Learning Agreement. Signatures of several Erasmus+ department coordinators are not foreseen. Therefore, when you sign a Learning Agreement, you need to make sure that all information about courses at FU is correct. With regard to ECTS credits, you will either have to research the relevant FU websites, consult the study and examination regulations of the respective degree programs, or ask the relevant Erasmus+ department coordinators of the other departments for help. You can also get an up-to-date ECTS-FU overview from us: incoming@fu-berlin.de. Since there are frequent updates here, please request it again each semester.

If you are unsure about individual courses, or if students take courses exclusively or mostly from other areas, you can also forward the Learning Agreement to the Incoming Erasmus Team (incoming@fu-berlin.de) for review and signature in exceptional cases. If there are also courses from your area on the forwarded Learning Agreement, please pass on to us whether this information is correct.

It is not uncommon for the home universities to request a learning agreement before the course catalog at the FU for the semester in question has been published. In this case, we recommend that students consult the course catalog of the previous year (for the WiSe, the previous WiSe and also for the SoSe) and prepare a Learning Agreement on this basis. You are welcome to point out to the students which of your courses are offered on a regular basis and which courses can be expected to change. After the start of the studies on site, when it has been clarified which courses will actually be taken, the students revise the Learning Agreement and submit it to you again for signature (WiSe: end of October/beginning of November; SoSe: end of April/beginning of May).

In principle, the same points apply to the OLA as described above. If you can confirm all the information in the OLA, place your signature below it and click "Confirm". However, if there are any problems with the OLA, enter them in the "Reasons for declining" box and click "Decline OLA". The form will then be sent back to the student for revision.

You should have received a guide from Ms. Putbrese on how to use the OLA. If you do not have it, please contact outgoing-erasmus@fu-berlin.de to have the guide sent to you.

The information we provide to students on the OLA can be found here:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/studium/international/studium_fu/auslandssemester/erasmus_in/ola/index.html 

Feel free to also include information about the OLA on your department's Erasmus Incoming website. It is important that your area's email address that has been enabled for the OLA dashboard is here. If students enter an e-mail address in the OLA that has not been activated for the system, the OLA cannot be signed.