FAQs
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1) The most important sources of information about the program
2) The program requirements/credit points
3) Course requirements/course certificates ("Scheine")
4) Standard duration of studies for the M.Sc. program
5) Standard time slot for a course
6) Registration for course requirements
7) Retaking course requirements (exams)
8) Progress evaluation
9) The Master's Thesis
10) Immatriculation until completion of Master's Thesis

1. our web pages http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/, in particular the pages under "Information for Students", where you will also find course schedules with course descriptions of the present and past semesters.
2. The Study and Examination Regulations ("Studien- und Prüfungsordnung"), which are official, legally binding documents.
3. The module handbook of courses ("Modulhandbuch"). This is a compilation of very detailed course descriptions, mostly about the core courses. The course descriptions of the M.Sc. courses are in English.

Abbreviations:

The program consists of a number of courses in the various areas plus the Master's thesis. Each course comes with a certain number of credit points (ECTS) that determines the weight of the course. The M.Sc. program consists of altogether 90 ECTS where

1. 57 ECTS come from courses of various categories in various areas
2. 30 ECTS come from the Masters thesis
3. 3 ECTS come from presenting the results of the Master's thesis in a colloquium talk

The program offers 4 specializations:

• Computational Linguistics
• Language Technology
• Computational Psycholinguistics
• Phonetics and Speech Technology

There's also a general version called "No specialization". The details are regulated in the SPO. More readable versions can be found under Specializations. You need not commit yourself to a specialization until it's time for your Master's diploma.

In each course you take you must do something for its successful completion. These requirements depend on the category of the course. Typically, in a lecture you will have to take a written exam, whereas in a seminar you will usually give a seminar talk and/or write a paper. The course requirements of each course are stated in its course description (see Courses). Upon successful completion of the course requirements you will receive a course certificate ("Schein") stating the grade and the ECTS for that course, among other things. The department retains a copy for your file. (Passing grades range from 1 ("excellent") to 4 ("adequate"), with increments of ± 0.3 in between.)

The standard duration of studies for the M.Sc. program is 3 semesters. Within this period the program can - and should - be completed. There is an additional grace semester. However, if you take longer than 4 semesters you may incur additional fees for exceeding the standard duration.

This number indicates the semester at which a course should have been completed. E.g. with seminars the standard time slot is the 2nd semester, meaning that seminars should be taken within the first 2 semesters of the program. A course requirement successfully completed within this period may be retaken in order to improve one's grade. The better result is counted. The standard time slot for a course is stated in its course description under "Stellung im Studienplan".

You must register for the course requirements of your course - as a rule - electronically in a data bank listing all the courses offered that semester, indicating the deadline for registration for each course. This deadline should also be announced by the instructor in the course description as well as in class. If you fail to register in time you will not be allowed to take part in the course requirements, e.g. the written exam. On the other hand, if you are registered for the course requirements, you must take part. A no-show means you failed the requirements. Before the deadline you may register and unregister (withdraw) an arbitrary number of times. We recommend an early registration. To be able to register for a course requirement, you must be known to the data bank. This is done once, at the beginning of your studies, at the office of examinations (Building C 72, Room 1.10 - Frau Maurus).

You may take part in the course requirements 3 times as a maximum, e.g. the regular exam and 2 repetitions in case you failed earlier. At the latest after the third attempt you must have passed the course with at least the grade 4. Exams that have been passed can be retaken once, but only if passed within the standard time slot for that course (see paragraph 5). For every repetition of an exam you will have to register separately. You can only take part in a repetition of an exam if you were registered for the original exam (even if you didn't show up).

The SPO for the program demands that your progress of studies is evaluated at specified intervals. This means you must have successfully completed a certain number of ECTS after a certain semester. If you fail this you will receive a written warning that reaching the goal of your studies is jeopardized. The minimum number of points for full time students are:

1. after 1 semester at least 9 ECTS
2. after 2 semesters at least 30 ECTS
3. after 4 semesters at least 45 ECTS

If you fail to meet these minimum requirements 2 times in a row you cannot continue with the program. The same happens if you haven't completed at least 60 ECTS after 5 semesters. The details are in the Examination Regulations, § 11 (PO).

This is usually the last requirement in the Master's program. The topic is - as a rule - assigned by a member of the department faculty or a related institution. The thesis is evaluated by 2 evaluaters ("Gutachter") one of whom is the person assigning the topic. One of the evaluaters must be a professor of the department. After registering the thesis with the examination office, indicating the topic and the two evaluators, you have 6 months to write the thesis, with a possible extension of 3 months. The thesis is worth 30 ECTS and must, upon its completion, be presented in a colloquium (3 ECTS). After handing in the completed thesis to the examination office (4 copies), the evaluators have 2 months to review it. Details are in § 22 of the Examination Regulations (PO).

You must be immatriculated in the M.Sc. program until you have handed in your thesis, even if you do not live here any longer.