Information for Outgoing Students

Preparing the Mobility Semester

Overview

For their mobility semester, all MEi:CogSci students have to spend their third semester abroad at one of our parter universities. However, MEi:CogSci students and the programme coordinators start organising the mobility semester already in the first semester.

In the beginning of December MEi:CogSci students and the MEi:CogSci consortium members (professors and coordinators) from all partner universities meet at the Comenius University in Bratislava or online in times of the pandemic.

At the info meeting, each partner university presents its local MEi:CogSci mobility semester implementation and highlights some of the available options for project work and specialisation. The information provided will help students to chose preferred partner universities for their mobility semester. (You can find the presentations on the Downloads page.)

Furthermore, students from all the partner universities meet for the first time.

MEi:CogSci Mobility Semester Info & X-mas Meeting

When:  01 December 2023, 15:30
Where: Comenius University in Bratislava
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics
Mlynská dolina, 84248 Bratislava (map),
Lecture room: A

Preference Ranking of Partner Universities for the Mobility Semester

Students rank the partner universities for the mobility semester according to their preferences.

  • After the mobility semester info meeting you will receive an email with a link to an online form.
  • You fill in some personal information (name, matriculation number, email address, home university) and rank the partner universites (first/second preference).
  • You should specify your research interests in an optional field in this form. This informations allows the programme coordinators to provide feedback and help you to find a project supervisor, if necessary.

Deadline for Submitting Your Preference Ranking

The deadline for submitting the online form with your preference ranking is 31 December.

There is a limited number of places available at each partner university. That is, it is not possible for all students of a local cohort to do their mobility semester at the same partner university. Students need to be distributed equally among the partner universities with respect to organisational constraints.

The programme coordinators will inform you about the number of places available at each partner university. Students should negotiate a fair distribution with regards to students’ interests amongst themselves, i.e., their local cohort. Please take into account that some of your colleagues might need to see a doctor regularly, may have children, need to work to finance their studies, etc., and therefore may have a clear preference for going to a certain university.

In case the number of students exceeds the number of places available at a specific university, the programme coordinators will inform you and ask you to discuss the situation among your cohort. You can also ask the coordinators about alternative suggestions for partner universities with respect to your interests. If the conflict cannot be resolved, the coordinators will resolve the conflict by means of randomisation.

Applying for the Erasmus+ Scholarship

After the distribution of students among our partner universities has been finalised, students apply for an Erasmus+ scholarship via the website of the international office.

Deadline for Applying for Erasmus+

Be aware of the Erasmus+ application deadline on 05 March.

Information about Erasmus+ is available from the point of view of an outgoing student (from the home universtity, i.e., the University of Vienna) and the point of view of an incoming student (to the guest university, i.e., one of the MEi:CogSci Vienna partner universties):

Application at the Home University

Application at the Host University

You will receive an email by the Erasmus office after you have been nominated for an Erasmus+ scholarship. The email contains instructions for finishing the application procedure at the home and the host university.

Notes and Tips on the Erasmus+ Application/Procedure

  • Be aware that there are different application deadlines and procedures for incoming Erasmus+ students at the host universities. Check out the info-emails you will receive and the websites listed above.
  • The academic semester start and end differ across universities. We suggest that you fill in a period of 6 months in your Erasmus+ form (independent of the specific semester period of the partner university). You can start your stay earlier or stay longer than the official semester period(s). We recommend to stay longer, so that you have more time to finish your project work.

 

Considering Project Work and Potential Supervisors for the Mobility Semester

Start to think about your project work and potential supervisors at the end of the second semester. We recommend that you try to contact potential supervisors for project work before the mobility semester starts.

 

Preparing Your Learning Contract for the Mobility Semester

The Mobility Semester Learning Contract (LC) is the relevant legal document to recognise your modules/grades/ECTS for the MEi:CogSci curriculum at your home university. That is, grades cannot be recognised at your home university based on your transcript of the host university without the learning contract.
Be aware that the MEi:CogSci LC is a different document than the Erasmus+ LA!
(In the Erasmus+ LA you can specify ECTS still on the module level; in the LC you need to indicate the specific courses you take.)

Three types of learning contracts are available for the mobility semester. The type of learning contract depends on the type of project work you are doing.

You can download the Learning Contract from the Downloads section of our webiste.

Important Note

All the modules and project descriptions for the courses and projects you are doing must be in one document, i.e., hand in one learning contract document for all your Project work. (Please do not use two LC documents.)

  • In case you are doing two projects copy the sections from point 3 and paste them as point 4.
  • In case you are doing two different types of projects, copy the sections from the relevant type of the Mobility Semester Learning Contract document.

Note that the second project module is called "S-I Special Topic of Interest". (This is important for grade recognition.)

Starting the Mobility Semester

Please be aware that you need to have acquired 45 ECTS of the first year before you start your mobility semester.

Our partner universities have special webpages for incoming students. Make sure to check out these pages to be informed about necessary steps at your host university:


Deadline for the Initial Learning Contract

The deadline for your initial learning contract is 31 October.

Send your mobility semester learning contract via email to the programme coordinators of (1) your host university, and CC to (2) your home university and (3) your project supervisor(s).

You will get feedback whether the learning contract is formally approved or requires revision.

Optional: Extending the Mobility Semester

You have to extend your Erasmus+ mobility semester in case you would like to do your master's thesis abroad. Get informed about the required procedure and deadlines for Erasmus+ extensions.

In case you extend your stay, you need to attend the master's thesis seminar at your host university, include it on the learning contract and bring a transcript for it at the end of your stay.

If you want to extend your stay without being able to receive an Erasmus+ scholarship, please contact the local coordinators for possibilities. Be aware that without extension you will loose your student status at the host insitution.

 

Finishing the Mobility Semester

Final Deadline for the Learning Contracts

Deadline for the mobility semester learning contract is 31 March. This date has been set by the international MEi:CogSci consortium. If you miss this deadline, we cannot guarantee that you can successfully finish your mobility semester.

Please note that Erasmus+ deadlines might differ! Usually Erasmus+ requires grades to be recognised at the home university 2 months after return at the latest. (see webpage of the International Office)

The University of Vienna accepts scans/digital versions of signed and stamped learning contracts if (1) they are sent by the local coordinator (or the person who signed the learning contract on page 2) from their university affiliated email address to meicogsci@univie.ac.at and (2) scans of all relevant transcripts for courses on the learning contract are included in the email. 

Your grades will then be recognised and transferred to the University of Vienna and appear on your transcript of records/ in U:Space.

You will need to upload the final version of the Learning Contract together with the transcript from the host university to mobility-online.

In case you have extended your mobility semester the deadline can be postponed (in case your supervisor agrees). In this case contact the programme coordinators by end of January.

In Case You Face Issues

If you face any issues, please make sure to contact the programme coordinators as soon as possible! Please note that after you missed the deadlines (e.g. for the learning contract) we can unfortunately no longer be of assistance due to organisational/legal reasons.