Department of English

Completing your Stay Abroad

You can find all information on completing your stay abroad as well as the dossier in the following section.

Stay Abroad Dossier

Once you have completed your stay abroad requirement of 24/12 weeks (whether done in one stay or several) you need to submit your complete dossier, in one email but as separate files, please, to the International Coordinator so it can be processed and entered into KSL. Use the checklists to prepare your dossier.

Your complete dossier should contain:

  • The Stay Abroad Submission Sheet: this is the cover sheet of your dossier. It summarises all you have done on one page;
  • The original Stay Abroad Agreement Sheets, one for each part of your stay;

  • Flight or train tickets on either side of the stay.

In addition please include:

  • A university transcript, or other certificate, if applicable; or
  • A letter from the student’s employer/manager, if applicable. You can use the template for the confirmation letter.

And lastly please provide eithera 750-word report or a 10-minute podcast outlining the positive and/or negative aspects of your stay. The International Coordinator will upload these onto ILIAS. For the benefit of students in the planning phase, include your learnings, do’s and dont’s, tips on the practicalities of organising the stay. Please include your email address and make sure to name the file according to the following format: Place_Work/Uni_Student Name.

Please note that the processing of your dossier can take up to 3-4 weeks. Submit it right away once you have completed your requirement and do not wait until the beginning of the new teaching term.

Deadline: The latest possible date to submit your dossier is 1 September / 1 February before the term you write your BA thesis. Please indicate “will write my thesis next semester” on the Stay Abroad Submission Sheet - if this should be the case - to alert the International Coordinator that the dossier needs to be processed more quickly than usual.

 

Recognition of courses from abroad

University courses taken abroad are usually accredited either as

  1. Wahlbereich: graded, can be any discipline
  2. Optional credits: ungraded, must be related to English language, literature or linguistics (i.e., a course you might find in our course-booklet).
  3. Freiwillige Zusatzleistungen: if the credits are not required to complete the BA

On the Stay Abroad Submission Sheet , indicate in which KSL category you want your courses counted. Please also insert and translate the host university’s grades into the University of Bern grades so it is clear to the International Coordinator what you are expecting to get.