Kunis Lexicon
Kunis Lexicon
Bachelor/Master
The Bachelor's and Master's degrees are university qualifications awarded at the end of a degree programme: The Bachelor's degree is obtained after six semesters, the Master's degree after a further four semesters. These degrees are fairly new in Germany. There used to be the Diplom, the Magister and the State Examination. In other countries, Bachelor's and Master's degrees have been around for a long time. In order to standardise degrees in Europe and make it easier to study abroad, the countries of the European Union have agreed to switch their study systems to Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
Enrolment
You have to apply for a place at university and the selection often depends on the average grade of your Abitur certificate. Once you have been offered a place on a degree programme, you enrol. This is called "enrolment".
Knocking
People clap at the end of a theatre play, but it's different at university. Students knock on the tables after the lecture as a thank you.
Fellow student
What classmates are at school, fellow students are at university, i.e. fellow students - regardless of the subject they are studying.
Professor
Professors are the teachers of the university, so to speak. They not only teach, but also conduct research on various topics in their specialism. You can only become a professor if you have written a very good doctoral thesis. You then have to write a second major thesis (habilitation) or you can start at the university as a junior professor.
Semester
The university does not calculate in school semesters, but in semesters. Semesters begin on 1 October (winter semester) and 1 April (summer semester). Twice a year there is a lecture-free period, which is two or three months long. However, these cannot be compared with the school holidays. Students have to use most of this time for internships or self-study. For example, they have to read a lot of books in the library to acquire even more knowledge in certain subject areas.
Seminar
In seminars, students can - unlike in lectures - be active themselves, i.e. there are discussions and presentations, which are usually formulated in writing at the end (seminar paper). A grade is awarded for this.
Lecture
In lectures, the professors give a presentation on a specific topic and the students listen and take notes. A lesson usually lasts 90 minutes. However, unlike at school, it does not start on the hour, but almost always at a quarter past. This is called an "academic quarter" or c. t., an abbreviation of the Latin "cum tempore", which means "with time". The quarter probably comes from the fact that students used to have to travel long distances between lectures.