The University of Oldenburg and the University of Bremen have been collaborating in various areas since 2000. From the 2001/2002 academic year onwards, students were able to enrol for the first time on joint degree programmes at the other institution. In the 2002/03 academic year, the joint Bachelor’s degree programme in Comparative and European Law (“Hanse Law School”) was launched, which led to a new Master’s degree programme in 2005/06. Due to the transition to the Bachelor’s–Master’s system at both universities, the co-operation was suspended in 2005.

In March 2006, a newly revised cooperation agreement was signed. Since 2008/09, the two universities have been offering our current joint degree programme for specific subjects (and school types). There are three options in total:

• Option 1: Studying with a joint subject

In this option, you take one subject at the University of Oldenburg and a second subject at the University of Bremen, or vice versa. You are enrolled at both universities, but are administered by only one – your home university. If two co-operative subjects are studied together (e.g. French and Spanish), this is generally not possible under the co-operation agreement. In this example, students would study exclusively at the University of Bremen. Below, we explain the study options available under this option at both Bachelor’s and Master’s level.

IN THE TWO-SUBJECT BACHELOR’S PROGRAMME

For this Bachelor’s programme option, you can only choose from a limited number of subjects. The main feature of these subjects is that they are only offered at one of the two campuses. Please make sure you check carefully – particularly regarding language options – the entry requirements and the recommended study structure. You can obtain information on this from the Central Study Counselling Services and the subject-specific study counselling services (see left).

A selection of subjects is available that the other university cannot offer, giving you additional combinations of subjects to choose from. You will study one of your subjects at each of the two universities.

Bachelor’s degree programme with Oldenburg as your home university

You can study the following second subjects with a teaching qualification option at the University of Bremen:

• French and Romance Studies/French (GYM, Wipäd)¹
• Geography (GYM, special needs education)
• Spanish Studies/Spanish (GYM, Wipäd)

Bachelor’s degree programme with the University of Bremen as your home institution

You can study the following second subjects at the University of Oldenburg:

• Dutch Studies
• Material Culture: Textiles²
• Slavic Studies / Russian or Polish (GY/OS)

IN THE MASTER OF EDUCATION

You can continue your chosen combinations of subjects from a teacher-training Bachelor’s degree in a Master of Education programme. However, this is only possible if you have already completed your Bachelor’s degree as a joint programme at the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg. Students from other universities who wish to transfer to Oldenburg or Bremen to undertake a Master of Education cannot enrol on a joint degree programme!

Master’s programme with Oldenburg as your home university

You can continue the subject combination you started at the University of Bremen in the following Master of Education teaching subjects:

• French (GYM, Wipäd)
• Geography (secondary school, special needs education)
• Spanish (secondary school, early years education)

Master’s programme with the University of Bremen as your home institution

Your degree objective is a Master of Education (GY/OS) in the State of Bremen: you can continue studying Russian as a teaching subject at the University of Oldenburg.

• Option 2: Cooperative module use

Under Option 2, you are enrolled at just one university; you simply travel to the partner university for individual modules. These modules can be recognised as part of your degree programme – either through individual arrangements or through agreements between the relevant subjects. The aim of this option is to enable students from both universities to access modules at the partner university without red tape and to ensure that the credits earned there are recognised without the need for individual agreements (so-called equivalence modules). In addition, university cooperation can also take place within the framework of a module exchange.

Please note: this option is currently under development.

• Option 3: Collaborative teaching/degree programmes

Lecturers from both universities are responsible for a joint degree programme or design collaborative teaching programmes at both universities. This option includes, for example, the joint Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programme in Comparative and European Law ( Hanse Law School). This programme is run jointly by the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, as well as the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

Further information can be found here: www.uni-oldenburg.de/hanselawschool/diekooperation/

¹Abbreviations according to the respective school type: GYM: Gymnasium (Lower Saxony) | Wipäd: Business Education/Vocational Schools (Lower Saxony) | Sopäd: Special Education/Special Needs Schools (Lower Saxony) or, in Bremen: GY/OS: Gymnasium/Oberschule

²Please note: This subject is not taught in schools in the state of Bremen!