Active and Regular Participation: Due to regulations both active and regular participation are required. Regular participation means showing up to class each week and not exceeding accepted number of missed classes. This number depends on each semester so if you are unsure, ask your lecturer. Active participation can take many forms such as presentations, reading responses or discussion participation. What counts as active participation depends on your seminar and usually is discussed during the first week of term.

Hochschullehrer*innen: Generally, Hochschullehrer*innen (Prof. Dr.) are eligible to supervise an MA thesis.. This category refers to full professors, junior professors and temporary/ honorary professors.

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter*innen: The non-tenured academic staff – research associates; Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter*innen (Dr.) - are not eligible to supervise your thesis, despite being authorized to teach classes and supervise and grade research papers.

ECTS: German universities generally follow the European Credit Transfer and Accululation System (ECTS) and award credits within this system. One ECTS credit is meant to represent 30 hours of work and thus this system assumes 30 ECTS credits per term are equivalent to a regular full time work week.

Regelstudienzeit: Standard period of study. This is the expected time period it would take to complete the program when studying full-time. Unlike in some other countries, it is not essential to complete the program within the 'standard' period.

Course Plan: This is a recommendation for organizing classes within the Standard period of study within the two-year period and does not outline a mandatory sequence. Students can extend the time to complete their degree and may take modules in a different order.

Modul: In general, two courses make up a module. For the most part, a module consists of a lecture (Vorlesung - VL) and a seminar (Seminar - SE). However, modules can also consist of advanced seminars (Hauptseminare – HS) and group work (Übungen – UE).

Seminar: In seminars (Seminare - SE) students and lecturers elaborate on a specific subject matter. During the seminars, students are expected to acquire basic academic knowledge and the methodology of academic work while dealing with selected topics.

Vorlesung: During a lecture (Vorlesung - VL), the classic teaching format at universities, a lecturer presents the subject matter, and students take notes and expand upon the topic through private study.

Übung: Group work (Übung - UE) gives students an opportunity to study in-depth the subject matter presented during lectures.

Hauptseminar: Advanced seminars (Hauptseminare - HS) are an introduction to working independently in an academic setting on a fairly broad subject for senior students.