Application:Minimum requirements

Applicants should have a strong background in computer science or a related field since programming and mathematical knowledge is assumed. Moreover, applicants need to have a very good comand over the English language in order to follow the lectures and exams. Therefore, you have to fulfil the following formal requirements in order to apply to the Master in Intelligent Adaptive Systems.

• A Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field with 60 ECTS credit points acquired in the core field of computer science. The 60 ECTS must be listed in your transcript of records.

• Proof of English language proficiency by (or comparable to)

 CEFR/TELC: Level B2
 IELTS: 6.5
 TOEFL: IBT 90, PBT 575, CBT 230
 Cambridge: CAE or CPE

Requirement: 60 ECTS credits or comparable from computer science

A formal requirement for the MSc IAS is a Bachelor’s degree with 60 credit points (ETCS) from core Computer Science courses/modules. The admission board only counts finished university courses obtained in one bachelor in cs or master in cs or a related field. These exclude math, engineering, mechatronics, electrical engineering, economics or soft skill subjects unless they specifically focus on cs centred content.

The ECTS credit system is not used in my country, how can I calculate the correct amount?

ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System and it is a measure for the estimated workload per module of a student. At Universität Hamburg a BSc in Informatics/Computer Science has a regular length of 3 years and requires 180 ECTS credits. One ECTS credit corresponds to about 30 hours of work and the amount of credits per module is set by the lecturer. Each regular semester of a full-time student contains 30 ECTS credits. 60 ECTS credits equal one year of full-time study. Thus you can use 1/3rd of your BSc as a rough estimate.

What modules will be counted towards the 60 ECTS?

Here are some examples of module names which will likely be counted as CS content: digital signal processing, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, software engineering, programming in ..., human-robot interaction, neural networks, introduction to computer science, data mining, image processing, algorithms, and data structures, data bases...

How should I evidence and display my 60 ECTS?

• Evidence: Official transcript of records issued by your university and/or other evidence attested by your university containing the credit points/hours per module/course, the total amount of credit points/hours along with the standard length in years of your program and the length you have needed to complete your study.

• Display: Provide a structured table of all core computer science courses you have completed/will complete with a short explanation of content, credits, credit hours of each course, as well as the total amount of credit hours of your cs courses all together and the total amount of credits/credit hours of your your degree/program. If a course was based on specific literature, please add the name of the book as well. All the courses as well as mini/major projects or the CS seminars you mention need to be detectable in your transcript of records. The given information should be short and precise (e.g. name and number of course as exactly given in your transcript). If they aren't listed in your ToR, please provide another source of evidence attested by your university, e.g. letter of recommendation.

Please do not send full module handbooks of your program.

I have not finished the BSc or do not have the official certificate yet?

You can apply if you have finished 5/6 and can evidence 150 ECTS credits (or comparable) of your first degree. This must be detectable in your official transcript of records showing the amount of already acquired credits and the number of minimum credits required for completion. The final transcript and graduation certificate have to be handed in for enrolment if you are admitted.

I do not have "standard" BSc but a comparable degree:

Please submit all documents that can together be counted as comparable to a BSc degree (e.g. in some countries, an associative + 2 years BSc degree).

Can I complete courses after application to make up for missing credit points in computer science?

No, unfortunately not. The requirement of 60 ECTS needs to be fulfilled upon application. If you do not fulfil this requirement, your application will be rejected by the admissions board before entering the selection process.

What does this mean for the documents I should prepare?

See Required documents for detailed information.

Requirement: English language proficiency

I have a language certificate that is not listed on the website, can I send this as proof?

Only sending a language certificate that is listed on the website with a sufficiently high score will lead to an automatic acceptance as proof of language proficiency.

You can also send a language certificate that is not listed, which then will be handed to the admission board that has to decide whether this is comparable to the listed certificates. It is always a good idea to provide information about the certificate and why you have acquired a different language certificate than listed. Please understand that only internationally established certificates can be counted. Certificates from local language schools and universities cannot be easily verified and therefore have to be rejected.

I am a native English speaker. Do I still have to send a certificate?

If you are born and living in a country with English as its native language, you do not have to provide further evidence. This might also apply if you have been living, studying or working in such country for a long time, but this will be decided on a case to case basis by the admission board. If the admission board decides that it is not sufficient proof, it can still be counted in addition with other evidence.

My previous degree was taught fully in English, does that count as sufficient proof?

No. However if your certificate/transcript explicitly states that English was the medium of instruction within your entire degree (=3+ years) or you provide a letter by the University stating that all modules were taught and assessed in English, the admission board may accept this as proof of proficiency. Again this will be decided on a case to case basis depending on country and institution. Over the last years - it was more likely to be rejected than accepted without language proficiency test. If you have studied in a country where English is the native language, the evidence carries more weight since you were fully immersed in an English speaking environment.

I have a TOEFL certificate but can't find the institution code of Universität Hamburg?

If you want to submit the TOEFL scores through ETS, the departmental code is B406. Since there usually is a considerable delay between test and the arrival of the score card, please ALWAYS add a copy of the scorecard or the results page to your documents. If your documents do not arrive in time or never your application will be rejected. Only by adding a copy to your application - you can be sure that the admission board has the information by the time a selection decision has to be made.