What are examination regulations?
The examination regulations (German „Prüfungsordnung“) are a list of rules that tell you which modules you are required to take for your degree, and which ones can be taken optionally.
You will find the complete regulations for the sciences on the FAU website.
Please note that some of the regulations have not been translated to English
yet.
In the following you will find a small overview over the required modules for
most degrees. Please keep in mind that this is a summary and might not be
completely accurate. For a more detailed description you can read the
examination regulations, look at the departments‘ websites or contact the
departments directly. We will also list some technical terms you might not be familiar with at the bottom of this page.
Physics Courses:
Physics MSc
The Masters course in Physics is set at 4 Semesters totaling to 120 ECTS. In
the first two semesters you will have to earn 60 ECTS.
Here you will take advanced courses in both theoretical and experimental
physics. You will also have to take lab sessions and/or advanced programming
courses, and a physical seminar. The remaining credits can be earned with
electives, a part of which have to be physical electives.
In the third and fourth semesters you usually write your Master thesis, which,
together with its defense, is worth 60 ECTS.
The Master’s course can be extended by a maximum of 2 semesters.
For a more complete overview you can also look at campo.
You can check out the modules available in past and future semesters on the UnivIS website.
Materials Physics
The Masters course in Materials Physics is set at 4 Semesters totaling to 120 ECTS. In
the first two Semester you’ll have to earn 60 ECTS. Here you will take
advanced courses in theoretical and experimental materials physics and in
material sciences. You will also have to take lab sessions and/or programming
courses, and a materials physics seminar. The remaining credits can be earned
with electives.
In the third and fourth semesters you usually write your Master thesis, which,
together with its defense, is worth 60 ECTS.
The Masters course can be extended by a maximum of 2 Semesters.
For a more complete overview you can also look at campo
You can check out the modules available in the past and future semesters here.
Mathematical Curses:
Be adviced that right now the most mathematical courses are taught in German and you should ask the lecturer first whether or not it is taught in English.
The Master’s course in Mathematics consists of 120 ECTS with an emphasis on one of the three following following fields:
- Analysis and Stochastic
- Algebra and Geometry
- Modelling, Optimizing and Simulation
At the beginning you will get a mentor from the department who will help you to build your own personal schedule for your studies. There you will need to make a total of 40 ECTS in your chosen field and another 20 in the two other fields. 25 are free for you and although 20 of them have to be non-mathematical.
Finally your Master’s thesis and its defense with a total of 35 Points and the subsequent hard choice of what to make of your glorious future.
The other possibilities for your Master is to specialize either in computer schience („Technomathematik“) or in economics („Wirtschaftsmathematik“) combined with Mathematics.
Again you will have an emphasized field of either
- Modeling and Simulation (Modellierung und Simulation)
- Optimization (Optimierung)
or when you take economics
- Optimization and processes management (Optimierung und Prozessmanagement)
- Stochastic and risk management (Stochastik und Risikomanagement)
With your mentor you distribute your points mainly to your emphasized field and economics/computer science. The rest you will earn with your Master’s thesis, the other field, an advanced seminar and some regular mathematical lectures.
Technical terms
In the following we will explain some technical terms which you might
unfamiliar with:
- Module: A module is a „package“ of different events that can contain lectures, exercises or other activities like lab courses. Each semester you must choose different modules that upon passing will earn you a certain amount of study credits (ECTS). You can find a list of all the modules you can take in the current semesters on UnivIS.
- ECTS (European Credit Transfer System): ECTS is a European standard used to compare the workload of different modules. Each module is associated certain number of ECTS. To obtain your degree, you will have to earn a certain amount of ECTS by passing different modules depending on your course. A „large“ module consisting of two lectures and one set of exercises per week will usually earn 10 ECTS, whereas small courses like electives or seminars are rated by 5 ECTS. 1 ECTS corresponds to roughly 30 hours of work. The recommended number credits per semester is 30 ECTS.
-
SWS („Semester Wochen Stunden“ = hours per week per semester): This label gives the number of hours per week that you will have to spend at the university to attend all events associated with this module (e.g lectures, exercises, seminars…). It does not include the time you should spend studying or working for this module outside of classes.