Credit Transfer

Credit transfer is not possible if you took the exam in your current studies (trying is sufficient; i.e. neither if you got a lesser grade nor if you failed the exam within your degree program, you may come back to your grade from previous studies). Exams not passed at TUM can only be repeated at TUM.

The request for credit transfer includes the request that these credit shall count towards the final grade of the degree program. A grade by credit transfer may not be an "additional exam" in the appendix of the grade report/transcript of records. This means that in elective catalogs (e.g. special courses or non-Physics elective) a grade from credit transfer may not be replaced by a (better) grade anymore.

APSO states in §16 (4) S. 3 that credit transfer from previous studies may only be requested once. Analogously §10 (3) S. 10 of the statutes governing Enrollment states that credit transfer from a leave semester may only be requested once in semester following the leave. Hence, you need to state all the grades in your request that you e.g. want to be transferred from your Bachelor’s studies into your Master’s studies (please note that only additional credits from the Bachelor's degree, i.e. credits that do not contribute to completing the Bachelor's degree, can be transferred). You may not use salami slicing and request your grades to be transferred one by one.

It hence makes sense to request the credit transfer from previous studies into your Master program in physics, BEMP or QST after you finished your elective and required elective courses. The examination board is very tolerant about the one-year deadline of §16 (4) S. 3 APSO – as long as you are still doing your research phase.

In contrast to that the revocation of a credit transfer request since you managed to get a better grade in a different course of the same catalog is seen very critically. Revocation is only possible in exceptional cases with good reasons; contact the program manager (see list above) for this.

Credit transfer cannot be requested after you passed the last exam of your studies. Especially, it is not possible to hold back the request for credit transfer in order to postpone the completion of the degree and hence the enrollment.

Please keep in mind that credit transfer is not a passed exam – the credits are transferred from the other degree program and you did not pass the exam within your degree program. Hence, credit transfer does not show up in TUMonline as exam results. But transferred credits/exams are visible in the tree view of the degree program (application Curricula Support via Study Status/Curriculum and click on the program) as well as the grade report (with footnote).

Transferred credits/exams are included into the grade report and the Transcript of Records and noted by a footnote. To complete these documents, you need to add the original certificate.

• 1:1 credit transfer: with an explicit TUM module correspondance, if the course from abroad largely corresponds to a required or required elective module in one of our Bachelor or Master programs
• Free credit transfer: without explicit TUM module correspondance, as an elective module in one of our Bachelor or Master programs

Before going abroad

It is important that before you leave you inform yourself well and that you do everything possible up to then!

Write down your own detailed study plan including all modules you would like to attend at the host university, including their corresponding codes and credits. You should consider if and how the credit transfer is possible (compulsory, compulsory elective or elective modules). Please also compile as detailed as possible module descriptions from the host university.

Based on this information, the person responsible for you (see information at the beginning of this page) can give you information about the credit transfer options. As part of the Erasmus+ program, you shall use the feedback of this person to fill out your Online Learning Agreement (OLA).

It is often the case that not all information is available before you leave Munich and some issues can only be clarified on site. It is important that you stay in contact with us about this.

During your stay abroad

Any changes to your study plan or further details on the modules should be discussed directly with your responsible person via e-mail. Within the Erasmus+ program, these changes need to be confirmed in the OLA.

After your stay abroad

After returning from the host university, you actively submit your application for credit transfer, taking into account the information above. (Students going abroad with the Erasmus+ program should consider that the application for credit transfer is independent of the "Course Alignment" document, which is required from TUM Global to receive the Erasmus+ grant!) If you have not yet clarified the possibilities for credit transfer, detailed module descriptions must be attached to the application. In addition, the original transcript of records from the host university must be submitted, which you will receive back after completing the procedure. The transcript can be submitted as a PDF, if the document has a valid digital signature or can be verified online. The application for credit transfer from exchange studies needs to be submitted to the person responsible for you (see information at the beginning of this page).

The course alignment is a document required for the Erasmus+ grant and not a application for credit transfer. If you wish to transfer credits from your Erasmus+/SEMP stay abroad, you need to request the credit transfer in our School after having filled out the course alignment.

In the course alignment you need to compare your learning agreement with your transcript of records, explain possible differences and indicate your intended transfer of credits:

• Recognition 1:1: when explicit TUM module correspondence is possible, that is if the course from abroad largely corresponds to a required or required elective module in one of our Bachelor or Master programs
• Containermodul, Mobility Window, Electives, etc.: when free credit transfer is possible, that is for other credit transfer as an elective module in one of our Bachelor or Master programs
• Waiver of recognition: when credit transfer is not wanted
• No ECTS/fail: when no credits were earned or the course was not passed
• Others: when for other reasons credit transfer is not possible (e.g. the course was already taken before going abroad or it does not fit into the study curriculum)

Grades are converted using the “modified Bavarian formula”

N_TUM=1+3(N_max−N_orig)/(N_max−N_min).

where N_orig is your grade at the host institution, N_max is the maximum grade and N_min is the minimum passing grade. The result will be cut off after the first decimal place (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 ...), there is no rounding to the TUM grading system.

If percentage and letter grades are available, the percentage and not the letter grades are used for the conversion.

See also TUM site on Grade Conversion using the Bavarian Formula. (TUM Seite zum Thema Notenumrechnung mit der Bayerischen Formel)

Maximum grade does not equal the highest grade possible

In some countries (e.g. France and UK) or universities, the theoretical maximum grade on the grading scale is usually not awarded, which leads to a very disadvantageous grade conversion. If you can prove this, the highest awarded grade is used as N_max in the Bavarian formula. For this purpose, an official confirmation from the respective examiners or the examination office of the host institution is required, showing how many students have completed the examination in the last three years and what was awarded the highest grade in this period. In particular, it is not sufficient if the maximum grade was not achieved in a semester or year!

In the European Higher Education Area, ECTS credits are used and these credits should be included in the application for credit transfer. For other credit systems, the annual load of a full-time student at the host university shall be determined and converted on the basis of our 60 ECTS credits.
ECTS credits

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is an academic system of credit points. It is based on the estimated workload that students will need to achieve the goals and learning outcomes of a module or degree program. It was developed to make it easier to transfer achievements and allow students to be more mobile. The ECTS is the recommended credit point system for higher education in the entire European Higher Education Area. The ECTS credits are a measure of the workload of a module, based on factors such as the number of teaching hours, the number and length of written or oral exams, exercises, preliminary and self-study, laboratory courses, internships and others.