Credit Transfer

No credit transfer if you took the exam in your current studies

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

Credits can only be transferred into to study program

The request for credit transfer includes the request that these credit shall count towards the final grade of the study 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.

Only once from previous studies or after leave semester

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 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.

You can not prolong your studies by holding back credit transfer

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.

Credit transfer in TUMonline

Please keep in mind that credit transfer is not a passed exam – the credits are transferred from the other study program you did not pass the exam within your study 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 study program (application Curricula Support via Study Status/Curriculum and click on the program) as well as the grade report (with footnote).

Inclusion on grade report and Transcript of Records

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.

Prerequisite for the transfer of examination and study achievements from abroad is that there are no "significant differences with regard to the competences acquired (learning outcomes)" (cf. BayHSchG, Art. 63, Lisbon Convention Art. V1).

Credit transfer options

• 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

Step by step

Before going abroad

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

Write down your own detailed study program including all modules you would like to attend at the host university, including their corresponding codes and credits. You should consider if and how 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 academic advisor for internationalization can give you information about the credit transfer options. As part of the Erasmus+ program, she can also then confirm your oficial study program (so-called 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 the study program or further details on the modules should be discussed directly with the academic advisor for internationalization 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 from the "Course Alignment" document, which is required from TUM Global to receive the Erasmus+ stipend.) 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 (PDF) needs to be submitted to the academic advisor for internationalization.

Grade conversion

Grades are converted using the “modified Bavarian formula” \[N_{\text{TUM}} = 1 + 3 \frac{N_{\text{max}} -N_{\text{orig}}}{N_{\text{max}} - N_{\text{min}}}\text.\]

where \(N_{\text{orig}}\) is your grade at the host institution, \(N_{\text{max}}\) is the maximum grade and \(N_{\text{min}}\) 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.

Credit conversion

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.