GES_Plus

Spend a Year Abroad as a BSc Student

The General Engineering Science (GES) study program teaches the basics of all four main areas of engineering – mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and information technology, process engineering, and civil and environmental engineering – unabridged in special lectures given by the respective faculty. This basic interdisciplinary expertise enables graduates to familiarize themselves fast with new engineering specializations, to liaise between the different engineering disciplines, and to keep peace with a swiftly changing working environment.

From the winter semester 2012/13 students can choose on the basis of the tried and tested six-semester Bachelor’s program in GES after the first year the new and attractive eight-semester specialisation “GES_Plus”. This alternative is designed especially for achievement-oriented students who would like to spend time at a university abroad and to serve an internship during their Bachelor’s program, which would usually lengthen their three-year studies. That is why the four-year specialisation “GES_Plus” with its integrated year abroad caters for the interests of these students and leads to a more efficient and more sustainable study program. As a rule, students spend a third-year semester as a visiting student at a foreign university where the specializations correspond to those that they have chosen at the TUHH. They then spend the second half of the year as interns at an industrial enterprise in the same country. In good time for their stay abroad, students are prepared at the TUHH for the language and cultural specifics of the country they will be staying in. They will also be given intensive support in keeping with their specializations and language interests in their choice of university to attend, subjects to study, and the arrangement of a company internship. Use will here be made of the international networks of the TUHH and the Northern Institute of Technology Management (NIT), first and foremost the many partner universities in Europe and overseas that also provide English-language courses.

The TUHH recognizes studies and exam results (ECTS credit points) acquired abroad. The internships will be offered either by well-known NIT partner companies or directly via the foreign host universities.

To date, the following international universities are envisaged as host universities:

• Université Technologie de Compiègne, France;
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain;
• Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg, Sweden;
• National University of Singapore and Nanyang University of Technology, Singapore;
• Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and South-West Jiao Tong University Chengdu, China.

In the future, we plan to make corresponding arrangements with other partner universities in countries where English is spoken (Ireland and Canada).

During their stay abroad, students (with German or EU nationality or foreign students who were educated in Germany) will qualify for a monthly grant to supplement their living costs funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and for other grants toward travel costs and health insurance. In addition, internship companies as a rule pay interns.

Scholarship Requirements

• Outstanding grades during the first and second year (Top 25%)
• High level of proficiency in English
• High motivation an personal qualification for spending a year abroad

GES_Plus with its English-language courses and its integrated year abroad is a further international offering at the TUHH. Its specializations provide access to every Master’s program specialization on offer at the TUHH. After their GES_Plus Bachelor’s program, graduates thus have access to the many German-language and international Master’s degree courses at the TUHH and the NIT. It goes without saying that the GES_Plus program also qualifies them for a later Master’s program at a top university abroad.

After their four-year Bachelor’s degree course, graduates can also embark directly on a career if they prefer first to gain practical career experience at a company (such as the one where they served their internship) and are planning to study for a Master’s at a later date.

Graduates of the four-year GES_Plus specialisation are sought-after specialists and are definitely well prepared for further international university studies or for a career in an international environment.

Coordinator specialisation GES_Plus
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bauhofer
TUHH, Institut für Optische und Elektronische Materialien
Eißendorfer Strasse 38
21073 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 40-42878-3047
ges_plus@tuhh.de