Master's Program in Business Informatics

Learning Agreements are your insurance that the courses you choose to attend at your higher education institution abroad will be recognized by your home university upon return.

Generally, there are two ways of recognizing coursework and examinations you complete abroad:

• direct recognition as an equivalent course (equivalent to a course of your program)
• indirect recognition as an ”International Course“ (complementary to the courses of your program)

Note that it is not possible to obtain a learning agreement for coures that neither meet the requirements for direct nor for indirect recognition.

Direct recognition

An abroad course that is essentially equivalent to a single course from the module catalog of your program can be directly recognized. Such courses must cover at least 70% of the compentencies that you aquire in the local course, based on the course description in the module catalog, and will then substitute the local course. To discuss whether a particular abroad course can be directly recognized, please contact the chair offering the equivalent local course in your degree program.

Indirect recognition

An abroad course that is not present in the module catalog of your program but relevant to the program can be indirectly recognized as an BI656 International Course. Such courses must provide at least 70% of competencies that are not provided by any of the courses in your degree program, based on the course descriptions in the module catalog. Indirectly recognized courses must not exceed 18 ECTS credits in total. To discuss whether a particular course can be indirectly recognized, please send your proposed learning agreement to the examination board via email (but do not contact a chair directly)..

Indirect Learning Agreements have to be send to the examination board via Email.

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Conversion of Credits from abroad to ECTS credits in cases of indirect recognition

The examination committee determines how many ECTS credits you will receive for a BI656 International Course. The number of ECTS credits awarded is calculated by converting the credits of the host university. In many cases, students are not awarded the usual 6 ECTS credits as in Mannheim, but different ECTS values. Keep in mind that we can only recognize a total of 18 ECTS credits for International Courses in the master’s programs. Higher education institutions in European countries usually also use ECTS credits or credit systems that are equivalent to ECTS.  

Should I choose courses for direct recognition or courses for indirect recognition?

As the number of courses subject to direct recognition is generally unlimited, unlike International Courses, you should choose such courses wherever possible. Courses that are directly recognized also bear the advantage that the credits obtained in these courses do not have to be converted.

Once you have been accepted by a partner university (in the case of free movers, the letter of acceptance will come directly from the university abroad), you should start filling out your Learning Agreement. We strongly advise you to conclude the Learning Agreement before you go abroad. That way, you are on the safe side and already know beforehand which courses will be recognized for your studies at home.

The Learning Agreement consists of this form:

• Fill out one Learning Agreement form (PDF, 417 kB) for each of the modules you intend to study abroad.

For the recognition of your courses and credits, you need to follow two steps:

After it has been decided which higher education institution you will be going to, but before departing, you take one Learning Agreement form for each module you intend to study abroad to the respective chair in order to have the module approved. The contact persons for courses in Business Informatics are the professors and lecturers who teach these courses. Meanwhile, for courses offered at the School of Humanities, in Mathematics in Business and Economics, at the Business School, or the Department of Economics, please contact: 

• all indirect Learning Agreements: Prüfungsausschuss WIM
• School of Humanities
• Mathematics in Business and Economics: PD Dr. Thomas Reichelt
• Business Administration and Information Systems Chairs:
  • Direct recognition: Learning Agreements Business Administration
  • Indirect recognition: Prüfungsausschuss WIM
• Economics: Christiane Cischinsky     
• Please note that we can only process complete applications and the processing time can take up to 4 weeks, depending on the effort involved and the current status of the applications for Learning Agreements.

After your return from abroad, please hand in the following four documents to your examination committee :  

• Request form for recognition of coursework and examinations (PDF)
• Transcript of Records from the partner university: Original Transcript of Records stamped and signed by your host institution or a transcript verified by the International Office in Mannheim. For this purpose, the host university must send the document digitally to the address transcriptsuni-mannheim.de. The verified transcript will then be made available digitally to the examination committee and you will be notified of this. If your host institution issues transcripts exclusively through an online portal and it is NOT possible to have your transcript sent directly to us through the portal, please inform us at transcriptsuni-mannheim.de  and we will let you know how to have your transcript verified.
• Learning Agreement(s), signed by the chairs at the University of Mannheim, as well as the cover sheet  
• Confirmation by the International Office that you handed in your report

Your documents will then be checked and your grades converted. Grades obtained abroad will be recognized by the University of Mannheim on the basis of these conversion tables. After your documents have been checked, we will return the originals to you and transmit a copy to Student Services.

Please submit your application via your university email address. Please send your documents to pruefungsausschuss.wimuni-mannheim.de. To verify your transcript, please ask your host university to send your transcript directly to the University of Mannheim (transcriptsuni-mannheim.de). Please note that we can only process complete applications and the processing time can take up to 4 weeks, depending on the effort involved and the current status of the applications.