1. Study programme
Language and Communication Technologies (LCT). It is embedded in the local program “Language Science and Technology” at Saarland University. I was at Saarland University for my second year of the LCT program.
2. Language
English is the language for daily use. Little command of the German language is recommended to live in Saarbrücken/Dudweiler.
3. Finance and other conditions
I am self-funded as a non-EU student. It is worth noting that besides the annual tuition fees of the LCT program (8,500 EUR), a semester fee of 279 EUR is charged (but Saarland University will reimburse 158 EUR afterward). This was an unexpected expense because other LCT fellows and I did not know we had to pay extra semester fees.
4. Preparation and contacts with the faculty before, during, and after your stay
Before:
Administration - Basically, you can ask Bobbye Pernice anything related to
matriculation and administration. It is recommended to arrive at least a week before the semester starts because matriculation beforehand is needed. Matriculation will take place upon your arrival and it is mandatory to provide your high school
diploma for matriculation. Bobbye Pernice and LCT assistant will help with the rest
of the procedure so it should be fine.
Administration (visa) - As a non-EU student, there could be a lot of bureaucracy for the visa work. I experienced a lot of confusion and chaos for those papers passing around different departments and bureaus because my case was rather unusual. If you are also a non-EU student and with a Dutch residence permit for the duration of the LCT program (2 years), then Mobilität nach § 16a
AufenthG should apply to you. You will have to fill in a form and send it to the
Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. Once your residence is approved, you will receive a letter by post indicating the duration of your legal stay. And this will serve as proof to get the monthly reimbursement from your blocked bank account . 1
Note: this worked with my case in winter semester 2019/2020. It might change in the future. Please consult Bobbye Pernice 1
for any specific requirements.
Course selection - You would meet the LCT coordinator in Saarland during the LCT annual meeting. If you have any problems or questions about the course selection, just write them an email. It is worth noting that you have to meet the local
requirements regarding credits needed for each field to graduate from this program. I
would advise checking with the LCT study coordinator (Dr. Jürgen Trouvain) in Saarland for the course selection and possible exemption for some mandatory courses.
During:
Course selection - Once you have a course plan, you can just follow your plan, take the courses, do the assignments and meet the requirements. You do not have to do anything for the course registration until the registration deadline (usually around January for the winter semester.)
However, the course registration procedure could be not so pleasant compared with what we have in RuG. Before the registration deadline, you should receive a letter containing the “Start-TAN” which can be used to create the iTAN-list. If you,
unfortunately, did not receive one, you can request one by writing to HiZ
(Hochschul-IT-Zentrum) or dropping by their office (Building A4.4 Room 0.020). With the
Start-TAN thing, you can generate an “iStart-TAN list” which is used to do the actual course registration . As usual, you could write to LCT assistant/Bobbye Pernice for help. 2
Another tricky thing here is the list of available courses. Some courses which you might want to take are not listed in the course catalog so you could not register. This happened to me when I wanted to register for “Human-Computer Interaction” from the CS department. You can write to/visit Dr. Stefan Thater for this matter and it should be fine.
Master thesis - In the summer semester of 2020, I started writing my thesis. I decided to have my main supervisor from the University of Groningen while I still need supervision from Saarland University to graduate from this program. You can also have both supervisors from Saarland as you prefer. But in either case, you have to approach professors for the thesis supervision. You will then start the master thesis seminar if the professor agrees with the supervision. It is mandatory to 1) hand in a 10-page thesis proposal and 2) present your proposal in the master thesis seminar to 3
have your master thesis registered in the system. The date you hand in your proposal to the exam office is the starting date of your thesis and you must finish your thesis within 6 months. For example, if you hand in the proposal on June 24, 2020, then the deadline to submit your final thesis is 24 December 2020. For any questions regarding the proposal and final thesis submission, you could consult the exam office
You can log into your LSF portal, at the left panel there is “Study administration”. Then you click on “create a new iTAN list”. 2
The rest should be straight-forward enough to follow.
The master thesis seminar is a 12 ECTS unit. However, for LCT students, it is not counted as part of the LCT program. That 3
is, we do not get any credits from it but it is still mandatory to have it passed.
(exam-office@coli.uni-saarland.de). Once you submitted your thesis, it is mandatory to present and pass the defense (master colloquium) within 6 weeks. I would advise taking a thorough look carefully at the checklist of thesis submissions for LCT students.
After:
Grading and accreditation - It could take a long time for the lecturers to grade the courses, for the thesis as well. Just write them an email if it takes too long. To
graduate from this program, you will need to provide your transcript of records from the University of Groningen to the exam office in Saarland for credit accreditation. You will also need to do the same for the University of Groningen.
5. Housing
Before you leave Groningen, you will receive a list of housing agencies and vacant rooms to rent from the LCT coordinators. It was hard to find a place in Saarbrücken so I decided to live in Dudweiler which is a little town next to Saarbrücken. It takes around 10-15 minutes by bus to the campus and 30 minutes to the city center. It is a quiet and peaceful town but if you prefer to go to bars and restaurants then
Saarbrücken city would fit you better.
6. Culture
The city center of Saarbrücken has a rather modern/industrial look. Saarbrücken also has a beautiful and medieval castle located up on the hill. During Christmas, there will be two Christmas markets, one located in the city center and another one in the castle. Saarbrücken old town district is nice and not crowded at all. You can just grab a drink with friends and sit outdoor enjoying the afternoon sun. If you would like shopping, there are also plenty of shops and department stores.
7. Free time
Hiking was one of the favorite things I did when I was there. Saarbrücken is a hilly city and just within the campus, there are several hiking trails! I usually took the one whose entrance is located behind the Coli building (7.03 as far as I remember). It leads to an observatory (Schwarzenbergturm) and from there you could overlook the city and campus. It was nice and helped me to refresh my mind from all the heavy studies. There is also a wild park (Wildpark Sankt Johann Saarbrücken-St.Johann) nearby.
8. Travelling
With the semester ticket included in your semester fee, you have free buses/local 4
trains (RB, RE, and Saarbahn) in Saarland. If you want to travel a longer distance on regional trains, you need tickets from certain train stations onwards. Here you could find really useful information if you want to know more about traveling with semester tickets. You can even travel for free to Luxembourg with this semester ticket.
9. Your host and home institution’s management of Covid-19, and the extent to which the virus (countermeasures) affected your mobility
I did the whole master thesis seminar online via Skype with my supervisors from Groningen and Saarland. Thesis supervision, thesis proposal submission, and final thesis submission were all made online. It was smooth and without any substantial problems.
10. Other
In this report, I listed out the things I wish someone had ever told me so I could have avoided all the hassles and confusions I had before/during my stay. If you still have questions, you are welcome to contact me at yuwenchen.tp@gmail.com.
It is a stamp on your Saarland student card. Once you pay the semester fee and it is confirmed, you can get this ticket 4
stamped on your card via the machines on the campus. If you forget to bring your student card when taking the bus, just show the bus driver your certificate of enrollment (digital document is accepted) and you can still have the free ride!
