Incoming students
We are happy to welcome international students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology! We will give information with regards to studies at our faculty as an incoming student on this webpage, as well as links to webpages containing further information, e.g. on contact persons at the International Office and living in Bochum. In case you are a student at RUB and are looking for information on your semester/year abroad at one of our partner universities, please switch to our websites on Erasmus exchanges, on our exchange programme with Purdue University in the USA or on our exchange programme with Nagoya University in Japan. If you would like to participate in the Double Degree programme between Universidad Nacional de Colombia and us, please visit our website on Double-Degree Incomings or Double-Degree Outgoings.
General Information
The majority of your stay will be organised by yourself, your home university and our International Office. In order for you to find the correct contact persons and websites for various topics while you are in Bochum, we would like to give you an overview of the most important matters:
Websites of Ruhr University Bochum (RUB)
RUB offers an extensive amount of information on their website. You can for example start directing from the central homepage, the website of our faculty or follow the links stated on this website. You will find information on the semester deadlines, such as the academic calendar, here.
International Office of RUB
There is a whole team at our International Office who will answer your questions with regards to your studies at RUB. They will send information on topics such as orientation days, housing and language courses to you once you have been accepted to come to RUB for your exchange stay. General information by the International Office on your stay at RUB as well as contact persons are given here. Please contact the International Office if you have any questions on these topics.
The city of Bochum and the surrounding area
Most likely, you will be living in Bochum while you study at RUB. The city of Bochum offers lots of activities, culture, etc. which are described at their website (available in German only). Bochum is located in the centre of the former industrial coal mining area of Germany, the "Ruhrgebiet", with lots of activities on offer as well. You can reach these places (and also use local and regional public transport in all of Germany) using the ticket for public transport you will receive upon enrollment. Information on activities in the Ruhrgebiet is given on their website.
Information on studies
Aside from having a good time in Bochum and at RUB, we hope you will also enjoy your studies at our Faculty and successfully take home credits of passed courses. You may choose courses offered by our Faculty (almost) freely. Additionally, other faculties often offer the possibility for exchange students to join their courses as well. If you are an Erasmus student, your choice of courses will be agreed on in your Online Learning Agreement (please contact the Erasmus coordinator at your home university first for this).
Courses offered at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
The vast majority of courses offered by our Faculty is taught in German. We recommend a level of German of at least B2 in order for you to be able to follow these courses. Our faculty offers the following bachelor’s and master’s programmes (please follow the respective links in order to find information on the structure of the programmes):
- Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
- Master's in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: Please select one of our 8 majors for information on the structure of this master’s programme”.
- Master's in Lasers and Photonics: All courses within this programme are taught in English, but are only open to students with prior knowledge in this field. Please contact the student advising service if you would like to choose courses of this programme.
Please note the following: In order to expand the tables showing the course structure, simply click on the arrow of the different fields. The right columns of the table indicate in which semester the courses are offered. In order to get all essential information about each course, please click on the module name (it links to the University’s course catalogue) and choose the course in the course catalogue.
Aside from the courses offered within the master's programme Lasers and Photonics, there are other courses also taught in English. You can find them on our website on Courses:
Please expand the tab "Courses by degree programme and (subject) semester (audience groups)", choose the correct semester and the audience group "Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Veranstaltungen in englischer Sprache im B.Sc. & M.Sc. ETIT". You will then receive a list of courses taught in English at our Faculty aside from the master' programme Lasers and Photonics.
Courses offered by other faculties and institutes at RUB
You may choose courses offered by other faculties than the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology if the respective faculty or institute agrees to your participation in these courses. The following websites are a good starting point for choosing your courses:
- General Course Catalogue: This course catalogue lists all courses offered at Ruhr University, sorted by faculties and institutes. In order to search for courses, please choose the correct semester in the top left corner first. Courses taught in English that are open to exchange students, as long as places are available, are listed in the International Course catalogue which you will find close to the end of the list of faculties and institutes.
- The Department of German as a foreign language offers German language courses to non-native speakers. Please see their website for information on application deadlines for these courses.
- The University Language Centre (ZFA) offers language courses for various languages. Please see their website for information on the offered languages and application deadlines for these courses.
Confirmation of your course selection
We would kindly like to ask you to send your choice of courses to the student advising service of our Faculty in order to confirm that these courses are available to you. Erasmus students have to do so anyway through the Learning Agreement. In order to secure that you will be able to attend your chosen courses, we strongly recommend you to contact the student advising service if you are coming to Bochum through another exchange programme as well.