General Studies and Internships

In the area of General Studies, students can choose courses both on subject-related topics as well as courses on transferrable skills. General Studies only form part of the curriculum in study programs with compulsory specialties. They account for 36 CP for major studies in geography and 18 CP as specialty subjects (in each case with an additional 15 CP for the careers-relevant modules GEO-B1 and B2). The courses in General Studies serve to train learning techniques and general key qualifications as well as to provide career orientation. The course offerings include topics such as scientific methods, literature search, foreign languages, writing, presentation and moderation techniques, project management, time management, media literacy, career-related studies: Internships, foreign language skills, careers orientation.

In the area of General Studies, students can also acquire CPs in neighboring fields. Depending on your major, we recommend taking courses and modules in the subject areas of health sciences, cultural studies, political science, sociology, economics and business studies, law, biology, chemistry, geosciences, information technology, or physics. The best thing would be for you to seek advice from the student advisors in the geography department or the respective neighboring subject areas as to which courses or modules would be right for you. At the moment there is only one such recommendation for our students and that is in the area of geosciences:

In the event the course leader does not allocate CPs, the studies coordinator in Geography will determine how many are due and enter them accordingly.

Internship

It is compulsory for all students on a geography major (B.A. und B.Sc.) and studying specialty courses to undertake an eight-week internship. The regulations on studies and internships foresee that this work experience should take place in the semester break following students’ fourth (or fifth) semester. The internship is in the frame of module GEO-B2 and carries 12 CP. In the course of their internship, students gather first-hand knowledge of the tasks geographers deal with in the practice, have an opportunity to apply some of the things they have already learned during their studies, and develop their own professional identity. This period of work experience also tests their aptitude for careers in the field of geography, raises motivation, fosters the introduction of practice-related issue areas in university studies, and contributes towards the development of key qualifications such as teamwork, communication and articulation skills, and promotes students’ powers of persuasion as well as their ability to work in a team. Students prepare for their internship in the module GEO-B1: “Career Orientation 1”. You can obtain quick answers to your questions and up-to-date information on available work placements by visiting the section “Praxisforum FB8” in StudIP. Be sure to have your proposed internship approved by the department’s Placements Officer before you actually start.

Evaluation and post-processing of your work experience takes place in the frame of a course offered every semester in module GEO-B2. You should register your colloquium presentation in in StudIP-Forum for the respective course in the semester following your work experience. At the latest on the date of your colloquium presentation, you must hand an internship report together with an internship certificate (Praktikumsschein) to the course leader. The report (which is not graded) must fulfill the requirements set down in information sheet on internships (Merkblatt zum Praktikumsbericht). Provided the requirements have been fulfilled, the Placements Officer signs the internship certificate and a digital version of the report is submitted in pdf format.