Frequently Asked Questions

At the institute we understand sociology as a science, that tries to reconstruct and analyse social phenomenons in their history and the interaktion between social action (micro), institutional embedding of these actions (meso) and the macrosocial contextual conditions.

The bachelor studies are made of the introduction into sociology, social theory, methods of empirical social research, statistics and the study topics of comparative analysis of society, education and course of life, culture and communcation as well as work and organisation.

The bachelor studies teach a wide but basic understanding of sociological knowlegde concerning theory, methodology and subject-related topics. Additional you can achieve a multitude of knowledge and skills essential for many different occupational fields:

• reading and understanding of highly complex texts and their depicted correlations (in German and in English)
• Analysis of complex correlations (including the analysis with the help of statistical programms like SPSS)
• Interpretation of essays and emprical findings
• Presentation of conclusion
• academic writing

VL Lectures (5ECTS) (partially with excercises and tutorial assistance): Lectures help with the teaching of basic knowlegde concerning a big group of students. Lectures usually conclude with a written exam.

Exercises and tutorial assistance: Some lectures offer accompanying excersise lessons and tutorial assistance during the semester. They are designed to help with the preperation and follow up of the lectures as well as with preperation for exams.

PS Proseminars (5ECTS): During your studies you will take different seminars. These are focused on important foundational sociological knowledge and more current research. Discussions and working on different questions concerning these topics are the base of this kind of seminar. The grades are achieved by the writing of essays or term papers as well as presentations. Special to the proseminars are the so called “base seminars”, they offer a standardised overview of different topics of research. They consist of comparative social analysis, education and course of live, culture and communication as well as work and organisation. We recommed this type of seminar first-year student and as introduction into a new field of study.

HS Advanced Seminar (7,5ECTS): Taking part in advanced seminars require good knowledge in the thematic field. They should be taken in the last semesters of your studies. Complex and current scientific research is being discussed. The grades are achieved by the writing of essays or term papers as well as presentations.

Additional Qualifications (20ECTS for One-Subject, 10 ECTS for Two-Subject Bachelors Degree): The additional studies offer the possibility of acquiring insights into additional topics, technical abilites or language courses. A Grade is not compulsory.

OS Post-graduate Seminar (voluntary): Post-graduate seminars offer discussion and presentation of current (final) thesis papers and research, it also includes the discussion of current literatur and presentations of external speakers. The institute offers four different post-graduate seminars: recent research in social and culturals theory, recent research in the methodology of social sciences, recent research in work and organisational sociology and the research colloqium.

The course catalogue for the next semester is communcated through the homepage, the commentated course catalogue and Campo. There you can find essential information about the title, the professor, the amount of ECTS, the place and time as well as an optional description and exam modalities.

The current dates concerning the instructional events of the faculties and the institute, include date and place, can be found here.

In school you are being presented with an already fixed time table. Studying sociology at the institute offers an individual time table that has to be assembled by the student themselves. This can be seen as intimidating and complicated but should be very easy to learn and excecuted. The student advice cener (IBZ) recommends to do the following:

1. Use the Dowload Page of the Website to acquire the needed study and examination regulations (FPO). This will show you which seminars, courses or lectures should be taken in each semester.
2. Take a look at campo to find the recommended modules and the corresponding courses.
3. Mark your chosen course in your temporary time table (My Studies/schedules). Any overlapping courses it will be shown there.
4. Take your time table with you to the introductional events of your study subject.

Enrollment is organised with StudOn starting in the first two weeks of the semester. The links to the courses can be found on Campo in the Details of each course. Registration follows the method of “equal opportunity” during the first four hours after the opening of registration. This means that after that time there will be a draw out of all at that time registrated people to fill the seminar. Due to work and room reasons the count of participants is limited to 35 people in Proseminars and 25 people in advanced seminars. If you don’t want to participate in a seminar after being accepted it is very important that you opt out of the course so that your fellow students can get access to a seminar space trough the waitlist.

Generally the participation in proseminar is limited to 35 sudents and in advanced seminars to 25 due to room and work limitations. Participation as person on the waitlist is only possibe if another students signs off of the course or if the teaching person offers the participation. If you have to low placement on the waitlist we reccomend to visit the first meeting of the seminar to be able to occupy a free space. But the wide range of seminars should offer you enough possibilities for different courses.

We reccomend to follow the sample curriculum that you can find in the examitnation regulations. Your first semester should therefore consist of the lectures “Introduction into sociology” (“Einführung in die Soziologie”) and “Introduction into social structure analysis” (“Einführung in die Sozialstrukturanalyse”) both are being held in German. You should also visit a proseminar in one of the four qualificational fields comparative social analysis, education and course of life, culture and communication or work and organisation. There we recommend taking a base seminar to acquire a foundational understanding of the corresponding field.

Two lectures and a seminar can seem like not enough courses for the first semester. Please keep in mind that an intensive participation is being required of all the courses. This includes preperation (reading texts), follow up (tutorial assistance, repeating and studying the materials) and taking exams, preparing presentations and writing essays/papers.

Every one of those courses require 5 ECTS. 1 ECTS is equal to approx. 30 hours of work. The first semester will aquire about 450 hours of work. One week will consist of 20 hours you will have to spend on sociology if you are part of the Two-Subject-Bachelors degree. 6 of those hours will be actively spend in university. Additional there will be the work you have to do for your second subject, which can be more or about the same. If you study only sociology there will be, according to the sample curriculum, additional lectures in statistic, theory of science and the proseminar “Sociological View”. This concludes to 12h in aktive courses, a 40h week and about 900 hours of work for the semester.

Additionally there are outside factors as well. You will have to get used to a new instiution, depending even a new city and the construction of a new social network.

If you still feel that you will have enough time you can of course, take part in additional seminars if the spaces are available.

1st Qualification Module SozQI: The sociological qualificational profile I (1st-2nd semester) consists of two proseminars included in one of the four qualificational fields comparative social analysis, education and course of life, culture and communicaton and work and organisation. Please note: Both seminars have to be part of this qualificational field! This module is part of the GOP and has to be finished by the end of your 3rd semester.

Module Sociological Theory 1 SozTI (2nd-3rd Semester): This module consists of the lecture “Introduction into sociological theory” (“Einführung in die soziologische Theorie”) including tutorial assistance and a proseminar from the field of sociological theory.

Module Sociological Mothods SozMI (2nd Semester): This module consists of the lecture “Introduction into the methods of empirical research” in the 2nd semester.

Module Statistic Analysis (SozS) (3rd-4th semester): This Module consists of the two lectures Statistics I and Statistics II, additionally there is a tutorial assistance and a weekly lessons to work on statistical exercises.

2nd Qualification Module SozQII (3rd-4th semester, only if you study sociology as One-Subject Course and as your first subject): The sociological qualificational profile II consists of two proseminars included in one of the four qualificational fields comparative social analysis, education and course of life, culture and communicaton and work and organisation. Please note: Both seminars have to be part of this qualificational field!

Specialisation: If you study sociology as two-subject-course you can choose between three modules Sociological Theory II (SozT-II), Sociological Methods II (SozM-II) and the Specialisations Module (SozV-I). There you will have to take two advanced seminars consisting either of sociological theory, empirical methods or one of the qualificantional fields. If you study sociology as one-subject-course you have to take modules Sociological Theory II (SozT-II), Sociological Methods II (SozM-II) and the Specialisations Module (SozV-I). For the last you will have to visit two advanced seminars included in one of the qualificational fields.

Only in the 1-subject-course: Basics of sociological analyses (SozG) (1st semester): This module consists of the proseminars scientific theory and the sociological view.

Only in the 1-subject-course: Immersion into sociological methods (SouM-V) (3rd semester): This module consists of the proseminar Introduction into qualitative methods.

The GOP is an abbreviation for the Preliminary Examination. It concerns the first two semesters and consists of different modules that have to be passed before the end of the 3rd semester. The concerning exams can only be attemted twice instead of four times.

Following the study and examination regulations (FPO) (starting 2014) you have to successfully pass 20 ECTS (two-subject-bachelor)/40 ECTS (one-subject-bachelor)  till the end of your 3rd semester. As soon as the correponding ECTS-Points are being recorded in Campo, the GOP has been passed successfully.

Die GOP ist die Abkürzung für die Grundlagen und Orientierungsprüfung. Sie erfolgt im Laufe der ersten beiden Fachsemester und beinhaltet Veranstaltungen, die bis zum Ende des 3. Semesters erfolgreich bestanden werden müssen. Dabei können die jeweiligen Prüfungen nur einmal anstatt wie sonst im Studium zweimal wiederholt werden.

Nach der geltenden Studienordnung (ab 2014) müssen für die GOP 20 ECTS (im 2-Fach-Bachelor) bzw. 40 ECTS (im 1-Fach-Bachelor) aus einschlägigen Lehrveranstaltungen der ersten Semester erbracht und bestanden werden. Sobald die entsprechenden ECTS-Punkte im Studiengang in meincampus erfasst sind, gilt die GOP als bestanden.

Retaking an exam as part of the GOP is possible, but this can only be done once more. You have two tries in total.

No, registering for your courses does NOT replace an registration for the exam of the course. Registration for the courses usually start in the first or second week after the beginning of the semester and is open till one week after the start of the lecture period (accurate times can be found on Campo or the homepage). About four to six weeks after the start of the lecture period is the start of the registration for the examination period. This process is taking place on Campo and is usually open for about three weeks. This makes it possible for students to decide if they want to take their exams or not.

Every exam is assigned a certain exam number correponding to the strukture of the strukture of the degree. The exam number is designed to inform about the crediting of the exam inside the courses.

Because you can choose a seminar for different types of modules in sociology it can be possible for different exam performances to be credited at a multitude of modules- for example in one of the qualification modules or as one of the specification modules. This entails that a course has to have multiple exam numbers. This is why you should know which module is the one you would like to take your exam in.

To find the corresponding exam number you can ask yourself the following questions (it is best to have the study and examination regulations (FPO) next to you)

• In which qualificational field is the exam?
• Which module corresponds with the exam?
• In which part of the module is the exam supposed to be credited?

If you are starting your studies after the WS 2014/15 it is regulated that you have to take one exam per module that consists of two seminars. In correspondance you only have to register once for examination. In the second seminar, that has to be part of the same qualificational field as the one where you take the examination, you only have to take a proof of performance. The professor decides what has to be done to aquire this but it can include a presentation or the writing of essays. Both seminars have to be recorded on a module certificate, the so called “Modulschein”, where both professors provide a signature to proof your taking part in their seminar. Only if both seminars are documented on the certificate the grade will be recorded on Campo.

If you started your studies before the WS 2014/15 you have to take two exams for every module that consists of two seminars. This is because there are different examination regulations. This is also the case for modules that are being completed as part of sociology as a minor subject.

We recommend keeping your module certificates safe as your “Transcript of Records” at the end of your degree will only show the module but not the titles and the contents of your seminar. If you want to proof what kind of seminar you took, this will only show up on the module certificate.

Students starting their studies after the WS 2014/15 are part of a new examination regulation (this includes both the one-subject and the two-subject bachelors degree). Modules consisting of two seminar only have one graded examination. The second seminar will have a proof of performance, but this will not be graded. The professor decides how this proof will be obtained. To document this the module certificate was developed. This assures that the grade will be registered AFTER both seminar were successfully completed but also that the student can document what type of seminars were visited. The transcript of records in the graduation certificate does not show the titles of the seminars. That is why you should keep the module certificate to document the title and content of your seminars during your studies.

Choosing an internship has to be done by the student themselves according to their interests. Take a look at the noticies postet at the institute and the website of the “Studien Service Center” of the faculty. You can also search at the job portal of the Career Service.

The mandatory internship has to includes 320 hours of work, this is the same as two months of a 40 hours of work per week. Interships with more work-hours can be counted as the module as well, but only until 10 ECTS-points are reached.

Intership should center around qualified tasks with a connection to sociology. Later opportunities for sociologists include of wide range of jobs, which is why a wide range of internships can be included. We recommend contacting the study advisory to confirm that your internship qualifies.

In extreme cases the intership can be split into parts. We ask to contact the study-advisory for cases like this.

Two documents are needed for the internship to be acredited. There has to be a confirmation of the internship position to prove that 320 hours of work were completed. This can be turned in as a letter or trough a internship certificate, if the work hours can be evidenced by this. An internship report concluding in 2-3 pages has to be additionally turned in.

Additional to the confirmation of the internship, incuding the duration and the work hours of the intership, a internship report has to be turned in. You should write about the development of your tasks as well as relating them to the operational field of your employer. This should include a reflection of these tasks according to your study of sociology. The report should be about 2-3 pages long. The attached document (written in german) includes core questions and inspirations to aide in writing your report.

The institute of sociology maintains erasmus-exchange-programms with the Jagiellonian-University in Krakow and the Univerity Helsinki. You can apply for both of these universities through the study-advisory of the institute. You can also find informational events, general information and individual consultation to study and internship  abroad at the international office of the philosophical faculty and department of theology.

Crediting of courses taken abroad is possible if the contents are consistent with the study of sociology at the institute. This will be reviewed by the study-advisory according to each case individually. Please have documents includiing course details like module and course descriptions ready.

The bachelor thesis is the final assignment of your bachelors degree and includes 10 ECTS-Points. The paper should scale about 40 pages. The topic can be chosen after finishing either SozT II, SozM II or SozV I, so normally after finishing your 5th semester. After assigning the topic you have 3 months to complete your work.

The most important criteria for choosing your topic should be your own field of interest. This is because you will spend considerable time working on your topic. Using a paper as a starting point is a good way to start. Everything else should be talked over with your supervisor.

Normally every professor with authorized status at the instiute can supervise the bachelor thesis. Other professors can additionally be requested to aide.

Your work has to be submitted twice in a printed edition and once electronically at the Office of Examinations during their openign hours. The signed declaration of originality is one of the most important inculsions. You also have to include, at the latest, the so called “Notenmitteilung BA-Arbeit”. This document will be filled in by your supervisor after correcting your thesis paper and be send to the Examinations Office. Correcting your thesis should be done after about six weeks but can take longer depending on the workload of your supervisor. If you need your grade at a certain time (for example for the application for a masters course) we recommend submitting your bachelor thesis according to this and not at the last minute. Possible complications should be communicated with your supervisor!

If you want to apply to the masters course sociology you should have a bachelors degree in sociology (at least 2.5). Applicants with a final grade or in case of § 34 Abs. 4 ABMStPO/Phil an average so far grade of 2.51 to 3.00 take part in an interview; remaining applicants will not be admitted to the second stage of the qualification test and will receive a notice of rejection with according reasons.

Applicants with non corresponding bachelor degrees have to be able to proof sociological knowlegde trough at least 50 ECTS to be accepted into the programm. They can also acquire the additional requirements in the course of a year, but only after corresponding application.

The master studies sociology are complemented through course specific modules aquired trough other subjects at the philosophical faculty. These modules have to be in accordance with the chosen subject and do not include the so called “key qualifications”. In both Modules “Open additional studies I and II” you can choose two selectable modules included in the offered courses of the philosophical faculty.

The possibility of crediting a course should be cleared by the study advisory if you are unsure. Participation and the type of examination is decided by the professor responsible for the course. You should contact them in time.

The open additional studies are not graded but have to be passed should you register for the exam.

To prevent a manual crediting you have to contact your professor in time to ask for the exam number. It is essential to contact the student advisory concerning the exam number, professor and title of the course. The course will be added to the master studies and should appear on your transcript of records should you pass your course. Please do this on time before the begin of exam registration.

The Master of Sociology is explicity research oriented. Key qualifikations or interships can not be credited. But you can still take part in them just not as part of your studies.

Studying abroad is possible, but has to be well planned due to the short duration of the master studies. We recommend a consultation with the study advisory. The crediting of taken courses will go through them as well.