Courses at the Department of History for external and international students As a guest at the Department of History

The courses offered by the Department of History are generally open to Heidelberg University students from other subjects as well as international students spending a semester abroad in Heidelberg.

Course offerings are published on heiCO, the central campus management system of the university. We also maintain a traditional course catalogue, the ‘VVZ Geschichte’, with additional information about studying at the Department of History.

Please keep the following in mind:

• The language of instruction is usually German. You can find details about the language of a course in the detailed view of the course on heiCO. In general, you can assume that a course will be held in English if the default course description in heiCO is written in English.
• Certain specific courses and course types, such as the three introductory lectures and the source analysis exercises, are reserved exclusively for students of History, including international students who are in Heidelberg via through the department's cooperating programs (Erasmus, etc.). We ask students of other subjects to attend other lecture courses or seminars as an alternative.
• Many of the courses in the Department of History have prerequisites. Examples of such prerequisites include passing a preparatory course (i.e. one must first pass the Proseminar of a given sub-discipline before the corresponding Hauptseminar), or documented competency in Latin for the Pro-, Haupt-, and Oberseminare in Ancient and Medieval History. Further information about these requirements can be found in the Module Handbooks of the individual degree programs.
• Please note that how one registers for a course before the start of the instructional period often varies depending on course type. Information about this can be found under ‘Participation Criteria & Registration’ in the detailed course overview in heiCO.
• The number of ECTS credits to be earned and the work expected of you in each course are based on the module handbook for the various degree programs in History. For example, a lecture is worth 4 ECTS credits with an examination at the end of the lecture period (oral or written) and 2 ECTS credits for regular attendance. Please be aware that we are unable to to make individual exceptions to the required work and the number of credit points in a given course. Visiting students and regularly enrolled students from Heidelberg do the same work for the same credit points.
• To get a sense of what type of student a given course is geared toward, please look at the detailed course view in heiCO and the modules that can be counted toward. The Erasmus Coordinators of the department will provide you with information about the course types and how many credits they are worth.
• How “difficult” is a course? Courses that are designed with more advanced students in mind tend to build on the skills that students acquire over the course of their first several semesters in the Department of History. To get a sense of what this entails, please read through the “Studienplan” in heiCO. Please pay special attention to any possible linguistic prerequisites for a given course.
• Courses in the Department of History are also open to international students who are in Heidelberg outside of the Erasmus programs. Please be sure to contact the Student Advisors ahead of time to discuss your potential plans. Keep in mind, however, that listing a course in your Learning Agreement is not necessarily a binding agreement for your participation in the course. 

Registration for examinations is a separate process from securing a fixed spot in a course and is not automatic. Examination registration via heiCO takes place at the Department of History in December/January (Winter Semester) and June/July (Summer Semester). Information about this can be found on the homepage of the Department of History. Heidelberg University students who are not enrolled in History usually register for the examination online via ‘free registration’. 

Please be careful in choosing the correct examination type and their corresponding credit points. You can learn more about these  in the module handbooks of the B.A. and M.A. History programmes. Only those examination types/credit points specified in the module handbooks are possible. Individual arrangements for the acquisition of a different number of credit points are in almost all circumstances not possible. If you have any questions about credit transfer, please contact the academic advisor for your subject.

Grades and course credits are recorded in heiCO by each instructor and can be found under ‘My Achievements’. For students of Heidelberg University from other departments, these can be transferred to your own subject by the relevant academic advisor. For Erasmus incoming students, this can be done by the subject-specific advising service of the Department of History on request.