General information

1.1 Prerequisites for participation

Please check that you belong to the circle of students eligible for ERASMUS participation. In case of doubt please contact your departmental coordinator or the international office (IO) at auslandsstudium@uni-frankfurt.de. Eligible for ERASMUS participation are all students of Goethe-University:

  • who are regular degree-searching students. Thus guest students at Goethe-University are not allowed to apply for Goethe-University's outgoing ERASMUS program.
  • Students in their first year of studies cannot parttake in the ERASMUS program, but can apply for participation in their third or fourth semester. Participation is possible in all study cycles, if the bilateral agreement with the host institution includes the study cycle you are in.
  • You can take part in the ERASMUS program in each study cycle, that is bachelor, master and doctorate for a period of minimum three and maximum 12 months in each study cycle, in combination maximum 36 months during your studies. Students in the traditional degree programs Magister, Diplom and Staatsexamen are allowed maximum 24 months during their studies plus 12 months in their doctorate. Included in these maximum 12 month-periods are placement activities within ERASMUS. Stays at two different universities within one study cycle are possible as well.

1.2 Nomination and application

At Goethe-University the ERASMUS program is implemented in part at the departmental level by departmental coordinators or study abroad offices (depts 01, 02, 16). They accept the paper applications, select the students, nominate the participants at the host and home university and they are the contact for all matters concerning the study program and in most cases recognition of credits. That means after you registered online in mobility online and created your application and were selected as an ERASMUS participant your departmental coordinator nominates you at the host university with the basic details including your email address. After a while you should receive an email by the host institution concerning your direct application as an ERASMUS incoming student there.
Please keep in mind that you have to apply as an ERASMUS exchange student at the host university after your Frakfurt departmental coordinator has nominated you there. Mostly the application is done online, but sometimes you still need to send a paper original to them. Be sure not to do this last-minute. Please research the deadline for the application on your own at their website, and contact your Frankfurt departmental coordinator a month before that deadline if you have not received any email or information from the host institution at that point.  
In order to receive the ERASMUS grant and documents and be guided through the administrative side of the program, your departmental coordinator also nominates you to us at the IO. We set your status to participant in your application account which now becomes your participant's account. This account is the center of all administrative matters. There we provide you with your participation certificates, and mandatory documents such as the learning agreement, grant agreement, confirmation of period of study etc. There you upload these and other documents, language course certificates and bills, apply for extension of your ERASMUS period etc.

This applies for all applications: Applicants do not have a legal claim to an ERASMUS participation or funding. If the applicant receives a justified negative answer in the course of the application process at Goethe University or at the host institution, this has to be accepted. If an application the internal application process at Goethe University has been successful, this positive answer is not equivalent to a positive answer by the host institution. The host institution may still decide to decline a nomination or an ERASMUS-application on formal grounds or with respect to study plan contents, both of which rarely happens.

1.3 Visa for host country? Non-EU-Nationals and mobilities to Non-EU-Countries
 If you don't hold an EU nationality, please acquire information on visa-regulations for your ERASMUS-host country very early on. Also please check if you have to deregister at the registration office in the German city you reside in and register again upon return from your ERASMUS studies. And as a EU national you will/might need a visa or residence permit for some countries (e.g. Turkey), so please make sure to get information on the regulations way ahead of the start of your ERASMUS study period.

On the basis of the REST directive (directive (EU) 2016/801) ERASMUS participants with a non-EU-nationality, who hold a residence title for specific purposes in Germany, have under certain conditions special mobility rights within the EU. That means these students may complete a part of their studies in a second EU country for up to 360 days.

Please notice: Directive (EU) 2016/801 is not being applied in Denmark, Great Britain and Ireland.

Detailed information can be aquired at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees at https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Downloads/Infothek/Migration/faqs-rest-richtlinie.html and at the international  office of your host university.

 

1.4 ERASMUS participation certificate

You have to show proof of participation in the ERASMUS program at different agencies and institutions. E.g. you need a participation certificate at the Studierendensekretariat (student registrar's office) to request an Urlaubssemester (sabbatical or holiday semester) or if you want a partial refund of the Semesterbeitrag (semester contribution), for Auslands-BAföG, for insurance companies or Kindergeldstelle (child allowance office) and also in the host country and at the host institution. 

Participation certificates in English and German will be available for download in your participant's account after we have changed your status to participant (see 1.2), at first excluding the amount of the ERASMUS grant, but by early June including the ERASMUS grant, since we will know the funds available to us and the number of participants and thus will have completed our calculations by then. The duration of your ERASMUS mobility mentioned in the participation certificate is calculated from the planned start and end-dates you provided at the time of your ERASMUS application. If the factual duration turns out to be different, this will automatically be accounted for in the final calculation after you uploaded your confirmation of period of study after the conclusion of your ERASMUS mobility. Then we might transfer additional funds to your account, if they are available to us, or we might have to demand a back payment, if it turns out that the duration of your ERASMUS study period was in effect shorter than planned. If you come across a mistake in your participation certificate please do not hesitate to contact us at the IO.

If you very urgently need a participation certificate before one can be provided in your account, please contact your departmental coordinator, who received a blanco template from us that he can fill in individually. After successful completion of your ERASMUS mobility and all administrative matters you will receive a final certificate, the ERASMUS Plus alumnus certificate, in English and German in your participant's account.

 

1.5 ERASMUS mobility grant for students

All ERASMUS participants - except for ERASMUS freemovers and students going to Switzerland - receive an ERASMUS mobility grant on top of the tuition waiver at the host institution. This is intended to help pay for the additional costs in the host country and varies depending on which group that country is in:

Group 1 - Program countries with higher living costs:
Denmark, Finnland, France, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Norway, Austria, Sweden, United Kingdom: minimum 250€ per month (ca. 8,33€ per day)
Group 2 - Program countries with medium living costs:
Belgium, (Germany), Greece, Iceland, Croatia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slowenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Cyprus: minimum 200€ per month (ca. 6,66€ per day)
Group 3 - Program countries with lower living costs: 
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Macedonia (FYROM), Poland, Romania, Slowakia, Hungary: minimum 150€ per month (5€ per day)

All students receive a lump sum of 4 monthly rates per ERASMUS semester, 8 monthly rates for a full academic year, even if the ERASMUS period may last longer.

The outpayment of the grant to the ERASMUS participants is administered by the international office of Goethe-University. Typically there will be two outpayments: Minimum 70% of the grant will be paid in advance, and the outstanding amount after the mobility. All participants starting their ERASMUS stay in the winter semester will receive their first outpayment in early September. Students starting in the summer semester will receive their first payment in mid-January. After this first outpayment has been made there will be no changes possible in the grant until the completion of the ERASMUS stay, except in the case of an extension or shortening of the ERASMUS period by one semester. The extension period of one additional semester may be supported by four more monthly rates, if we have sufficient funds left and if you apply for additional funding at least four weeks before the origianlly planned end date. If you don't apply in due time, you still might extend your stay and receive a tuition waiver, but the extension will be valued as zero grant days which means no financial support. Minimal extensions from a couple of days to a couple of weeks have to be registered by us, but will not be funded.

Since we are obliged to record the exact duration of your ERASMUS period from actual start date to actual end date, we will do this once you have uploaded your Confirmation of Period of Study. If this shows the duration to be shorter than 4 months (120 days) per semester or 8 months (240 days) per academic year, we are obliged to request a backpayment from you for the difference in days. Mostly though a reduction in the outstanding second outpayment suffices to cover the difference.

The outstanding amount of the grant will be paid out to the participants after the completion of their mobility, once they completed the upload of all mandatory ERASMUS documents into their participant's account and handed in their original Grant Agreement as a paper document. You are only entitled to 100% of the grant if you provide all documents in due time.

The claim to additional student funding through national grants or loans shall not be restricted during the ERASMUS period. All ERASMUS participants are required though to notify us about additional funding including the amount (except for Auslands-BAföG), because in rare cases the ERASMUS grant has to be limited.

Notice: Students nominated for the host country Switzerland get more information on this page.

1.6 Cancellation, termination or shortening of mobility

If you have to cancel your ERASMUS participation please notify your departmental coordinator AND Mr. Purkert at the International Office at outgoing@uni-frankfurt.de immediately. The same goes for terminations and shortenings of the mobility, that is if you reduce the actual duration below the planned duration, also in case you reduce a mobility planned for two semesters down to one semester only. Mr. Purkert will contact you concerning the backpayment of the grant. If the duration of your ERASMUS mobility drops below 3 monts (90 days), you have to pay back the grant in full, since this is the minimum duration in the ERASMUS program. If the duration is 90 days or more, you will have to pay back a partial sum of the grant. If the duration drops below 4 months or 8 months (see above) the outstanding outpayment will be reduced accordingly.

In case you encounter problems during the ERASMUS stay, that make it impossible for you to continue your studies in an orderly way, please contact your departmental coordinator and Mr. Purkert at the IO at outgoing@uni-frankfurt.de. This can be an accident, health and mental problems, financial problems. Then it has to be decided whether the continuation of the mobility is possible and reasonable under the circumstances. 

 

1.7 No principal residence in ERASMUS host country

The ERASMUS guidelines state that "The sending and receiving organisations must be located in different countries and the receiving country must be different from the country of residence of the participant." This means if an ERASMUS participant has or changes his principal residence in/to the host country, he can not receive any ERASMUS funding including the tuition waiver!