Concept
Support electives are an essential component of all degree programs in the Department of Informatics. These courses will help you to develop practical skills that go beyond your academic focus, giving you a solid foundation in the following areas:
Economics, Management, and Entrepreneurship (for Informatics BSc and MSc only): Courses cover an introduction to economic principles and basic skills in entrepreneurship and management.
Law: These courses cover common legal issues in the informatics and information systems fields, particularly with regards to contractual arrangements and patent rights.
Social Competency: Courses in this area will help you to develop the necessary skills to work as a team member or manager. Topics may also include intercultural communication and verbal communication skills.
Communicative and Linguistic Competence: In these courses, you will develop written and verbal communication skills that will allow you to effectively communicate in your area of expertise in research or business environments.
Social and Ethical Considerations for Technology: Courses on these topics encourage thoughtful consideration and discourse regarding the ethical and social impact of the development and deployment of technology.
Course Offer
Requirements vary depending on your degree program, and you may fulfill these requirements through any of the courses listed on your degree program’s support electives page, through some language courses, and through courses offered by the Carl von Linde-Akademie.
To learn about the support elective requirements and courses available for your degree program, visit the appropriate page:
You may petition to receive support elective credits for language courses of up to a maximum of 6 credits, including the listed subject related language courses. Courses must meet the following requirements to be considered:
- You must take the course(s) through the TUM Language Center or through one of TUM’s partner universities during an exchange program abroad.
- The course must meet adequate standards:
- English: at least level C1 for a bachelor’s program or level C2 for a master’s program. (Credits from Courses Level "C1-C2" can not be taken into acccount for Master programs.)
- German for international students of the bachelor’s program: only the module 'SZ0324 Deutsch im Bachelorstudium - Informatik: Wissenschaftliche Texte verstehen und schreiben' OR the module SZ0328 Deutsch im Studium - Informatik: Schreiben, präsentieren und diskutieren can be credited, if proof of German language proficiency was required for admission.
- German for international students of the master’s program: lower standard can be credited if the language isn’t your mother tongue (nationality) and if the prior achieved bachelor’s degree wasn’t taught in German.
- All other languages besides German and English: courses with lower standard can be credited if the language isn’t your mother tongue (nationality).
- In each language each of the levels between A1.1 and B2.2 respectively A1 and B2 can only be recognized once as support electives. This also means, that because a B1 course includes the levels B1.1 and B1.2, a B1 course and a B1.1 or B1.2 course in the same language won’t be accepted both as support electives!
From level C1 on, more than one language course per level per language can be credited, if they have different topics/foci. For example Introduction to Academic Writing C1 and Intercultural Communication C1 can be both considered for a bachelor’s program.
How to Petition to Receive Credit for a Language Course for the Support Electives:
Courses completed at TUM: Often you cannot register for a language course via your curricuklum (preferred option), but only via Optional Subject. If you want it to be assigned to your support electives please proceed as follows: Once you have completed a language course that meets the requirements listed above and you can see the grade on your grade report in TUMonline, email your request to the secretary of the examination board of your study program, to be found via your study program: Contact. The processing time is about two weeks.
Courses completed abroad: All language courses taken at partner universities during an exchange stay abroad should be included in your credit transfer request, at which time you may request credit for the support electives.
All courses at Science ⋈ Technology ⋈ Society (Kontextlehre WTG), which yield credits, can be accepted as support electives. If the Examination Boards should exclude particular courses in exceptional cases, it will be announced here.
Please note that for courses with the same title but different number of number of credits only one can be credited.
Graded courses are strongly recommended so they can be taken into account for your academic average grade. However, non-graded courses can also be accepted as support electives.
If the course is not correctly assigned in your grade report to support electives please send an email to the examination board's secretary of your study program, to be found via your study program.