Information for Partners

On this website, you will find important information to make your students' mobility - from the point of nomination until its conclusion - as easy and transparent as possible. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us at

incomings-exchange@th-koeln.de.

For a first overview, please read our current factsheet. Feel free to also share it with your students.

Language level:

Exchange students need a level of at least B1 (CEFR) in the language of instruction. A few study programs require an even higher level. To find out whether the language of instruction is English or German, please go to our website "Informationen für das Studium an der TH Köln".

Please note that the required language level has to be reached by the application deadline (May 1 / November 1). This helps us ensure that your students have the chance to spend a successful and academically valuable mobility. In addition to certificates such as telc, TestDaF, Goethe etc., we also accept confirmations of language proficiency from your university's language learning center as well as online tests from reputable providers. However, mere participation in a language course at B1 level does not count as proof of language proficiency.

Exceptions can only be made after prior consultation with the faculty.

Further information on TH Köln's faculties and the working languages of the different study programs can be found at: "Informationen für das Studium an der TH Köln". Some faculties also provide an overview of English-language courses here.

Study level:

Only students who are enrolled in Master's / Second Cycle studies can take Master courses at TH Köln.

Please note that they need to reach the Master level by the start of their mobility, at the latest. In case a nominee unexpectedly does not manage to progress to the Master level, we must ask you to cancel the mobility from your side. Exceptions can only be made after prior consultation with the faculty (e.g. for students who have already completed 6 successful semesters in a Bachelor / First Cycle program with a duration of 8 or more semesters).

Semester Fee:

In order to enroll at TH Köln, every student must pay a semester fee.

This system applies to all public universities in Germany. All students - regardless of whether they are exchange students or (prospective) degree-seeking students - must pay the semester fee in solidarity. Without it, enrollment and thus (exchange) studies at TH Köln are not possible.

The semester fee is not intended for TH Köln, but for services that go directly to the students themselves. Comprehensive information on this can be found on our website.

TH Köln does not charge fees for enrollment, tuition, examinations or access to facilities such as libraries and laboratories.

Every academic year at TH Köln consists of a winter semester (September 1 - February 28 / 29) and a summer semester (March 1 - August 31). The actual lecture periods vary from year to year; they can be found in our academic calendar. At the end of each semester there will be an exam period of about 1 month. In certain cases, exams can take place over the course of the semester or at the start of the following semester. For you, this means that you can use the academic calendar for an initial orientation. For precise planning of your arrival and departure, please ask your Departmental Coordinator at TH Köln about the start and end of the lectures.

Please observe the following deadlines:

Mobilities in a winter semester or for a whole academic year:

• Nomination by April 15
• Students complete their application by May 1
• Students submit their Learning Agreement by June 1

Mobilities in a summer semester

• Nomination by October 15
• Students complete their application by November 1
• Students submit their Learning Agreement by December 1

Please observe the following nomination deadlines:

Mobilities in a winter semester or for a whole academic year: nomination by April 15

Mobilities in a summer semester: nomination by October 15

Important note: If you notice during the nomination process that you cannot select the intended faculty, study level, study program etc., please do not select another option! Contact us and we will look for a solution together. In case of incorrect nominations, we cannot ensure that your students will get an exchange spot or that there will be suitable courses for them at TH Köln!

More information on TH Köln's faculties and the relevant persons of contact can be found on our overview site. Some faculties also provide an overview of courses for international students here.

Please only nominate your students through our platform MobilityOnline. We cannot accept nominations through other avenues.

• You don't have access to MobilityOnline yet? Contact us at incomings-exchange@th-koeln.de to receive an invitation email with further instructions.
• You already have an account in MobilityOnline, but you're encountering problems during the nomination process? Please see whether our MobO nomination troubleshooting.pdf provides a solution (PDF verlinken).
• If your problem cannot be solved with the troubleshooting, please take screenshots of when and where the problem is occurring and send us an email at incomings-exchange@th-koeln.de . The more detailed your description, the easier it will be for us to help you.

You will be asked for certain information about your nominee. To avoid errors, please keep in mind:

• Please fill out the form "from top to bottom, beginning to end". If you skip fields at the top, you might not find the right options for selection further down.
• You cannot select the intended faculty or study program at TH Köln? It's possible that the relevant Inter-Institutional Agreement (IIA) has elapsed or that you have already used up the available exchange spots.
• Erasmus partners: The nomination form includes the question whether or not your student will be submitting a Digital Learning Agreement (DLA) via the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) network. This will lock in certain settings for the application process, so it's important to get it right. In case the EWP/non-EWP preference has to be changed later on, please let us know as soon as possible.
• Please make sure to enter the correct email address and date of birth for each nominee. We will be sending credentials to your nominee at this email address so they can complete their application. To allow to your nominee to successfully log into MobilityOnline, the date of birth entered during nomination must be a match as well.

Mobo nominations (Image: TH Köln R2)

Once you completed the nomination, your student will automatically receive an email to let them register in MobilityOnline. After registration, (s)he has to add further information and upload some documents. To provide a better overview, the necessary steps are arranged in the so-called "workflow". When a step is completed, a check mark will appear next to it.

Please observe the following application deadlines:

• Mobilities in a winter semester or for a whole academic year: application completed by May 1
• Mobilities in a summer semester: application completed by November 1

Once the application is completed, our Incomings Team will conduct a formal review. From this point at the latest, your student will be assigned to a Departmental Coordinator at TH Köln. He or she will supervise the mobility in all academic aspects.

After passing the formal review, the student can create a Learning Agreement (LA)

For worldwide mobilities (non-Erasmus), the Learning Agreement is optional, so your student has to state whether he/she wants to create one or not as part of the workflow.

For Erasmus mobilities, the Learning Agreement is obligatory. There are two ways of creating a Learning Agreement: If your university is using Erasmus Without Paper, your student can create a Digital Learning Agreement (DLA) in your own university's platform and transfer it to TH Köln digitally. If not, your student will enter the selected courses directly in MobilityOnline and generate a PDF document from there. If you have questions about course selection, the responsible Departmental Coordinator at TH Köln will be happy to help.

Before selecting courses, your students should ask the responsible Departmental Coordinator at TH Köln for an overview of the available courses. This might be a custom-made list of courses for international students, or the Module Manual of the relevant study program at TH Köln.

As a Digital Learning Agreement is created on the home university's platform, please instruct your students on how to enter their courses correctly. TH Köln's team can not support your students in this context.

Please observe the following deadlines for submitting the Digital Learning Agreement - Before the Mobility (DLA-BTM):

• Mobilities in a winter semester or for a whole academic year: DLA-BTM submitted by June 1
• Mobilities in a summer semester: DLA-BTM submitted by December 1

Before selecting courses, your students should ask the responsible Departmental Coordinator at TH Köln for an overview of the available courses. This might be a custom-made list of courses for international students, or the Module Manual of the relevant study program at TH Köln.

If you stated during the nomination process that your student will NOT be submitting a Digital Learning Agreement via the EWP network, then MobilityOnline will present the so-called "Course Manager" as part of your student's workflow. Your students can enter their selected courses into the course manager and generate a PDF Learning Agreement.

Course Selection Learning Agreement (Image: TH Köln R2)

Please observe the following deadlines for submitting the PDF Learning Agreement - Before the Mobility (LA-BTM):

• Mobilities in a winter semester or for a whole academic year: LA-BTM submitted by June 1
• Mobilities in a summer semester: LA-BTM submitted by December 1

Important note:

If you run into questions or problems with the "Course Manager", please contact us!

For worldwide (non-Erasmus) partners: Your students have to answer the question whether or not they want to create a Learning Agreement. Without answering this question, the student will not be able to proceed through the workflow to reach the point of admission!

All important documents about your students' mobility (Confirmation of Arrival, Confirmation of Stay, Transcript of Records) are issued digitally by default. Your students have to download those documents (or, in certain cases, request them via email) themselves.

Confirmation of Arrival: Your students enter the date of their arrival in MobilityOnline, where it will be checked by our Incomings Team. After verification, your students can download their Confirmation of Arrival from MobilityOnline themselves. In case your students need to use the template of their home university, they should send us this template by email.

Confirmation of Stay: By default, we will enter the date of the final examination or final official course session at TH Köln as the end date of the mobility. After the end of the mobility, your students have to notify us of that date via email. After verification, we will issue the Confirmation of Stay. Once again, if your students need to use the template of their home university, they should send it to us by email.

If your university has further requirements regarding the duration of the mobility, please inform your students in advance so that they can organize their stay accordingly. We cannot issue a Confirmation of Stay that differs from the actual stay!

Transcript of Records: Please note that the Transcript of Records is not issued by the Department of International Affairs. Your students will download it from our examination platform PSSO themselves. The ToR is valid without signature or seal. If you have reason to doubt the authenticity of a ToR, ask your student to log into their PSSO account and generate the ToR in your presence. Due to limited personnel resources, TH Köln can only send ToR on paper/with signature/with seal in justified exceptional cases.

Important note: 

In order to gain credits, all  exchange students at TH Köln have to actively participate in the coursework and exams (or other relevant assessments) of their chosen courses. Without participation in coursework and exams, it will not be possible to pass courses or earn credits, nor will courses a student did not participate in be listed in the Transcript of Records.
Mere attendance is not a measure of success for our courses, so TH Köln will generally not issue certificates of attendance for courses/exams.

We'd like to ask for your support by reminding your students that:

- they should inform themselves about the course requirements at TH Köln before the start of lectures
- they must fulfill all course requirements (including exams or other assessments)
- it is not possible to omit parts of the coursework or exams, even if your university would only require certain parts
- it is generally not possible to get a certificate of attendance for courses or exams.

If your students intend to visit TH Köln for more than one semester, please make sure to communicate this during the nomination and application process via MobilityOnline. This enables us to admit the student for two semesters from the start.

In case your students decide later that they would like to extend their stay at TH Köln, they need to inform us in good time, that is:

• by June 15 (to extend into the winter semester)
• by December 15 (to extend into the summer semester)

An extension is only possible with consent from both universities. In addition to that, you as our partner have to confirm that your student will remain enrolled at your university for the whole duration of the stay. Without being enrolled at the home university, it will be impossible to be an exchange student at TH Köln.

Informing us too late about an extension request might lead to problems with re-registration and visa extension.