Philosophy Student Guidance and Deanery of Studies

The individual supplementary area enables you to expand your knowledge and skills by making it possible to complete additional modules or courses from your subject(s) or other subjects.

The individual supplementary area of the academic bachelor’s degree as a major makes up 30 credits. The individual supplementary area of the academic master’s degree makes up 15 credits. You can find detailed information on what your individual supplementary area can/should contain here.

You can find infformation on the transition to the Master of Arts here. You can find information on the transition to the Master of Education here.

The individual supplementary area is part of the academic major and makes up 30 credits. Of these, 20 credits must be obtained by fully completing one module or more. These do not have to be philosophy modules. You can also study modules belonging to other subjects. Please note that module regulations from other subjects will differ from ours. The remaining 10 credits can be obtained by completing various courses from every subject or by participating in special programs. Further information can be found in the document list entitled “Overwiews and fact sheets”.

Credit Points or ECTS-Credits are synonymous. They don’t describe the achievement itself, but the time and work put into attending, preparing and reviewing courses. (The actual achievement is described by the grade). One Credit Point corresponds to 30 work hours. We use the following calculations to define the amount of Credit Points obtained for some of the most studied courses:

Basic Courses: 2 Credit Points = 60 hours of work. With a semester being 15 weeks long, 30 hours are spent attending the lecture and 30 hours are intended for reviewing them and preparing for the exams. 1 Credit Points = 30 hours of work is added for the tutorial, in which you further review the Basic Course. 2 Credit Points = 60 hours of work (including preparation time) are allocated to the 90-minute exam which closes the Basic Course.

Logic lectures: 1 Credit Point = 30 hour of work during the lecture. Once again, this course is accompanied by a tutorial which is valued at 2 Credit Points = 60 hours of work. Of these, 30 hours are allocated to the tutorial itself, while the other 30 hours are intended for preparing and reviewing the sessions. 2 Credit Points = 60 hours of work (including preparation time) are allocated to the 90-minute exam which closes the Logic lecture.

Philosophical Introduction & Philosophical Writing: 4 Credit Points = 120 hours of work are allocated to each course. Of these, 45 hours correspond to the attendance of the course itself, while 75 hours are allocated to the preparation and review of the course. 1 Credit Point = 30 hours of work is attributed to both the portfolio which closes the Philosophical Introduction and the short paper which closes the Philosophical Writing.

Seminars: 3 Credit Points = 90 hours of work are allocated to each course. Of these, 30 hours correspond to the attendance of the course itself, while 60 hours are allocated to the preparation and review of the texts. 4 Credit Points = 120 hours of work are attributed to the module exam.

Modules are thematic units composed of different courses, which are laid out over two semesters at most, which means you should complete a module within one academic year. An academic year begins in the winter semester. We can only guarantee that courses corresponding to a certain module will be offered in the winter semester and the following summer semester. This means that, if courses belonging to the main module Action Theory are offered in a winter semester and the following summer semester, there is no certainty that courses corresponding to this module will also be offered in the subsequent winter semester.

Basic Modules (Grundmodule) are composed of one Basic Course (Grundkurs), the corresponding tutorial (Tutorium) and either the Philosophical Introduction (Philosophischer Einstieg) or the Philosophical Writing (Philosophisches Schreiben). The Logic Module (Logikmodul) is composed of Logic 1, Logic 2, and the corresponding tutorial. Main Modules (Hauptmodule) are typically made up of two seminars and one module exam. The Subject Didactics Module (Fachdidaktikmodul) is composed of Didactics 1, Didactics 2, and one course imported from educational science. Basics Modules (Grundlagenmodule) and Specialisation Modules (Vertiefungsmodule), which are part of the small minors, as well as Philosophy for School (Philosophie für die Schule), which is part of the educational degrees, are structurally identical to main modules. The Basic Knowledge Philosophy Module (Grundwissen Philosophie) in the small minors is composed of both Basic Courses.

These modules are mandatory.

These are a series of modules of which a certain number is compulsory. You are free to choose which of these modules you wish to study. However, you may only study every module once (for example, the main module Applied Ethics may not be studied twice).

To complete a module, you need to successfully pass an examination, which is why examinations are also called module exams (Modulabschlussprüfung). For main modules the possible forms of examinations are papers of about 4.000 words, oral exams of 30 minutes, or written exams of 90 minutes. The number of main modules that must be completed with a paper or an oral exam varies depending on you study profile. You can check this in the subject-specific regulations (FsB) and our study plans.

A few different forms of examinations (portfolios, internship reports, presentations/talks etc.) are used in some other modules. This too can be verified in the subject-specific regulations (FsB) and our study plans.

This abbreviation in the module lists stands for “graded examinations” (benotete Prüfungsleistung). Using this, you can check how many graded examinations are necessary to complete a module.

This abbreviation in the module lists stands for “ungraded examinations” (unbenotete Prüfungsleistung). Using this, you can check how many ungraded examinations are necessary to complete a module.

Within the philosophy bachelor only the examination within the Philosophical Introduction (Philosophischer Einstieg) and the internship report that is part of the optional Internship Module (Praktikumsmodul) are ungraded.

Within the academic philosophy master’s degree only the internship report that is part of the optional Internship Module (Praxismodul) is ungraded.

Both examinations within the Logic module are graded, but only the better of the two grades makes up the final module grade.

Study requirements document your participation in a course and are entered into your transcript by your lecturer after having completed it. Study requirement are typically ungraded and can take the form of presentations, exercises, discussion or seminar reports, short essays etc. In any case, lecturers cannot expect students to exceed written contributions of 1.200 words or oral contributions of 10 to 20 minutes within the philosophy bachelor’s degree and the educational philosophy master’s degree. Within the academic philosophy master’s degree, lecturers cannot expect students to exceed written contributions of 2.000 words or oral contributions of 20 minutes.

The different degrees you can study for are the Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, the Master of Arts in philosophy, the Master of Education in philosophy and the Master of Arts in History, Economy and Philosophy of Science/Interdisciplinary Studies of Science (HEPS/ISoS).

There are many different study profiles to choose from within the different degrees. How important the share of philosophy is and which modules you must study depends on your study profile. You can find an overview of all study profiles here.