4. Select your courses

1. Choose courses from the lists on this page. Make sure that the courses you choose will be accepted by your home university
2. Read the course descriptions and prerequisites; they can be found in the online catalogue Ocasys (switch to English and the correct academic year at the top right of the main page)
3. Decide the number of credits you have to take. The minimum depends on the requirements of your home university. The Faculty of Arts recommends 25-30 ECTS per semester, but this is not compulsory. Always choose extra courses as back up. The standard workload for a semester in the ECT system is 30 ECTS
4. Check the semesters and blocks. Many courses are only taught in one block of the semester, and some courses are taught throughout both blocks of a semester. Try to spread the workload evenly over both blocks, approximately 15 ECTS per block. The blocks are labelled as described in this table:

   	Semester 1	Semester 2
   Block A	1A	2A
   Block B	1B	2B
   Block A+B	1	2

5. Keep our language requirements in mind.
   The level of English required for all courses is TOEFL iBT 92 or IELTS 6.5 (minimum 6.0 for each section) or Cambridge C1 Advanced.
   Exceptions:

   Department	Cambridge	TOEFL	IELTS
   Dutch	C1 Advanced
   Linguistics, MA courses	C1 Advanced	100 (minimum of 25 for writing skills)	7 (minimum of 6.5 for each section)
   Journalism, MA courses	C1 Advanced	100 (minimum of 25 for writing skills)	7 (minimum of 6,5 for each section).
   American Studies, MA courses	C1 Advanced	100 (minimum of 25 for writing skills)	7 (minimum of 6.5 for each section)
   English Language and Culture, MA courses	C1 Advanced	110 (minimum of 25 for writing skills)	8 (minimum of 7.5 for each section)

6. Notice our course levels:
   Introductory means that there are no specific entry requirements, no previous knowledge in that field of study is required.
   Intermediate means that you need basic knowledge in that field of study. This must be proven by your transcript of records.
   Advanced means that you can only be admitted to the course if your degree programme or major is in that field of study.
   MA/master means that you need a Bachelor’s degree in that field of study. Do not apply unless you have a BA in the relevant field of study. The enrolment officer will always check your admission with the department.
   Always check in Ocasys if there are any other specific entry requirements.
   

Other options:

1. Courses in other faculties: In some cases, exchange students in the Faculty of Arts are allowed to take a maximum of two courses in other faculties, which you can include in your Course Selection form. Do not contact the other faculty yourself; the enrolment officer will do that for you. If you decide to include courses from other faculties (go to the list of faculty exchanges to see what might be on offer at other faculties), include back-up courses from the Faculty of Arts as well.
2. Writing your BA/ MA thesis while you are here: Unless your university coordinator has made previous arrangements with a member of the teaching staff at the Faculty of Arts in Groningen, it is not possible to receive supervision and credits for writing your BA or MA thesis during your exchange period. You can work on your thesis while you are here, of course, but your home university has to provide supervision and credits.
3. Dutch and other Language Courses:
   At the Language Centre you can take language courses in various languages (Dutch, English, German, Spanish etc.) at various levels. These courses are not available to exchange students in the regular curriculum. For more information and application, contact the Language Centre.

During the application process, the enrolment officer will be assessing course selections. The response to the course selections will be sent out to all students at the same time, providing equal opportunities to all students. After that, you get the chance to change your preferences once, based on the assessment and suggestions in your course selection.

Possible comments in your course selection:
<sub>- OK
- No, you do not meet the requirements (this comment will often be accompanied by a suggested alternative for the course)
- No, course is full
- To be checked by department/other faculty (the study adviser will check this for you)
- Other</sub>

All courses that are approved (initially, or by department/faculty), will be registered in ProgressWWW by us.

Timetables

Timetables will become available via the schedule generator.

• A course may have different seminar group times (you will see gr. 1, gr. 2, gr. 3 etc. in the schedule), in which case you only need to attend one of those group times each week.
• Course overlap? Try to change seminar groups first. If that does not solve the overlap, you can discuss this during your personal appointment during the introduction week.

Course and seminar enrolment

The Office for Student Affairs will enroll you in all your approved courses. You will have to take care of seminar group registrations yourself. Instructions for that will be sent before the start of your exchange.