You can find all the information on completing your stay abroad as well as the dossier here.
Stay Abroad Dossier
After the completion of your stay abroad requirement of 24/12 weeks (whether done in one stay or several) you need to submit stay abroad dossier so that your stay abroad can be properly accredited. Please, use the checklist (for study and work) 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 (see Planning Your Stay Abroad section), one for each part of your stay;
-
Flight or train tickets on either side of the stay;
- If you studied abroad: a university transcript, or other certificate, if applicable; or
- If you worked abroad: a letter from the your employer/manager, if applicable. You can use the template for the confirmation letter.
Submit all documents for your dossier in one file with your stay abroad report being a separate file to Dr. Nicole Nyffenegger so that it can be processed and entered into KSL.
Stay Abroad Report
In addition to your dossier, you need to provide either a 750-word report or a 10-minute podcast outlining the positive and/or negative aspects of your stay. This will help future students planning your stay abroad. Dr. Nicole Nyffenegger will upload these onto ILIAS.
Your report should include:
- Organisational details of your stay abroad
- Whether you self-organised your study/work abroad experiences or if you opted for a programme
- Whether or not you needed a visa, and how you approached this
- Helpful contacts
- Approximate costs – especially when self-organised
- Your academic and personal experience
- Tips and tricks
- A personal email address so other students can contact you even after you finish your studies
Please 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 Dr. Nicole Nyffenegger that the dossier needs to be processed quickly.
KSL and Recognition of Courses from Abroad
Every student will receive a set amount of ECTS for completing their stay abroad whether they have studied or not, 10 ECTS for 24 weeks and 5 ECTS for 12 weeks (other durations calculated accordingly). The amount depends on the duration of your stay and will be entered in KSL once your dossier is processed.
Please note that students do not have to enter any ECTS points themselves.
In addition to the points for the duration, you university courses can be accredited, up to a maximum of 30 ECTS. Your courses are usually accredited either as:
- Wahlbereich: graded, can be any discipline including English
- Wahlleistungen: ungraded, must be related to English language, literature or linguistics (i.e., a course you might find in our course-booklet).
On the Stay Abroad Submission Sheet , indicate in which KSL category you would like your courses counted.
Please see if your host university has a translation table from their point system to ECTS. Please also insert and translate the host university’s grades into the University of Bern grades so it is clear to Dr. Nicole Nyffenegger what you are expecting to get. She will be in contact if further discussion is necessary.
