First, contact your university's international or ERASMUS office to ask if there is a student exchange program between your home university and Freie Universität Berlin. If there is no institutionalized program, you can still apply individually to Freie Universität as a regular student. Please check for more information on the bi-lingual platform for International Students. If there is an ERASMUS exchange program you will be officially nominated by your home university and receive admission confirmation as an exchange student from Freie Universität Berlin by e-mail/letter. You can learn more about partnership programs at Freie Universität Berlin here.

Please note that most of the courses in the bachelor’s program are normally held in German. Some graduate courses in the master’s program are taught in English each semester (about 25%). Only shortly before your arrival detailed information and course descriptions will be published online in the Lecture and Course Catalog (at the beginning of each semester).

Further information:

• German Language/German Courses

Freie Universität Berlin's Language Center/Sprachenzentrum (in German) offers pre-semester and summer classes for advanced students. It also has an Independent Language Learning Center (pdf-file), which is a useful resource. The academic programs designed for international students, FUBiS and FU-BEST include German language classes at different levels. To prepare for the TestDaF or for the Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang (DSH) German classes can be taken at the Goethe-Institut, at private language schools in Germany, or in the student's home country. The DAAD provides further information on German Language.

German courses can also be downloaded at:

• Deutsche Welle
• All about German

DAAD, Fulbright, and Erasmus Mundus are examples of organizations and programs that offer individual scholarships and grants for students who study abroad for one or two semesters.

Further information:

• Scholarship Database of DAAD

All courses offered by Freie Universität Berlin are listed in the Lecture and Course Catalog. The specific courses and descriptions offered at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies are published in the structured summary of the Course Catalog (in German). This information will help you to prepare your individual schedule. The summary shows which courses belong to which study units and which courses can be combined. You choose your courses from the course catalog first and register for courses via your Campus Management account afterwards during the first two weeks of each term. Please check the course catalog regularly for updates on rooms and times of your classes as the Campus Management System is not always up to date.

It is generally necessary to register for study units and courses online via the Campus Management System within a specified registration period (usually, within the first two weeks of each semester). More information on course registration is available here: Student Service/ Campus Management.

In case you did not yet receive your Student ID (Matrikelnummer) by the beginning of the semester, please register for courses personally with your instructor. Do not miss classes only because your Student ID is missing!

An overview of the ECTS credit point and grading system for international students at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies can be found here.

Freie Universität Berlin offers a lot of information for international prospective students in the prospectus "Become an Exchange Student at Freie Universität"(pdf-file) and on its websites International Students and International Education & Research. Further useful information can be found on the homepages of the German National Association for Student Affairs (Deutsches Studierendenwerk) and the Berlin Office for Student Affairs (Studierendenwerk Berlin) as well as on the homepage Study in Germany by the DAAD. The Higher Education Compass provides extensive information on Germany's higher education institutions. 

• Digital services for members of Freien Universität
• CeDis information page for students in times of digital learning
• Current information/ developments regarding university operations under pandemic conditions

• Psychological counseling at FU
• Psychological tips for stress caused by COVID19 pandemic
• Mental Health and Support.Points at FU
• Counseling services offered by Studierendenwerk Berlin (regarding BAföG, counseling for disabled and chronically ill students, psychological-psychotherapeutic counseling, social counseling

• Counseling for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses
• Dual Career & Family Service

Further information on various questions independent of the study program can also be found in the FAQs (in German).