The board of studies is responsible for deciding whether to grant your application for preapproval.
In order for the board of studies to assess if a course can be approved in advance, you must attach a sufficient course description.
If the course description does not meet the requirements for content and form, you will be asked to obtain additional information on the course, which will delay the processing of your application.
At many universities, the course descriptions are available via the university's website.
In some cases, however, it is not possible. A confirmation with the missing information must be sent from a lecturer or administrative staff at the university.
As a general rule, the board of studies requires a course description to conduct their assessment.
However, this does not apply to courses which have been approved for your field of study within the last three years, provided that the course identification code, title and number of credits remain unchanged. In this case, you are not required to attach a course description.
Below, you will find a list of previously assessed courses which can be a source of inspiration when applying for preapproval. The list contains approved as well as non-approved courses.
The list is for inspiration only. The list does not guarantee that your application for advance approval will be granted. The content may be subject to change. The conversion of local credits to ECTS credits may also be subject to change. Please always use the current conversion as found under Credit Translation in the MoveOn database.
How to search for courses in the list:
1. Open the list by clicking on the link below
2. Find your degree programme in the green column under ‘AU Programme’. Use the down arrow on the upper right side of the column to ‘Filter’.
3. You can apply additional criteria to your search in a similar way:
The list will be updated on a regular basis.
Your specific degree programme might have special academic requirements for the composition of elective courses. You must meet these requirements, regardless of whether you register for elective courses at AU or a different institution of education. Before you select any courses, please familiarise yourself with the requirements in the academic regulations for your degree programme.
When selecting courses, please note that all courses need to be approved by the board of studies.
The board of studies will emphasise different factors depending on whether you apply to substitute an elective course or a compulsory course from your study programme.
If you apply to substitute an elective course, the board of studies will emphasise the following:
If you apply to substitute a compulsory course, the board of studies will emphasise the following:
Before you submit an application for preapproval to your board of studies, you should find out which courses you are allowed to enrol in as a visiting student at the host university.
At most universities, not all courses are open to visiting students. In addition, specific admission requirements may apply to Bachelor’s and Master's degree level courses respectively. Usually, Bachelor’s degree students are only allowed to enrol in courses at Bachelor’s degree level.
Before you apply for advance approval, you must decide how many courses you want to apply for advance approval.
You should note the following conditions:
If you apply for advance approval for courses at universities outside Europe, a conversion will be made from local credits/units to ECTS.
Conversion of local credit points to ECTS is done by the Board of Studies. You can see the conversion in the MoveOn database under the individual universities.
Please note that some universities differ from the conversion for bachelor and graduate courses. If you, as a Master’s degree student, take 4th year's bachelor courses, the bachelor's conversion will be used.
If your host university uses the ECTS system, no conversion will be made.
You must submit your application via mystudies.au.dk.
You must submit your application via mystudies.au.dk.
Obtain the relevant course descriptions
Free mover
If you do not get a place on a sufficient number of courses, even if you have been given additional courses in advance, you can reapply.
You must follow the same procedures as for a standard application for pre approval. In your application, you must state why you are reapplying.
At the same time, please advise us if you have an early deadline.
The processing time for applications for advance approval or credit transfer is 6-8 weeks.
If the attached course descriptions are inadequate, the processing time will increase.
During the summer, you must expect increased processing time, as the lecturers and students who perform the academic assessments are usually on holiday in July.
If you do not receive a reply before your deadline, you may need to choose courses at the host university before you have received your advance approval.
If you want to choose courses at the host university before you have received a reply to your advance approval, BSS Studies administration encourages you to:
Once you have been granted advance approval, you must remember to apply for enrolment in the courses at the degree programme or university that offer these courses.
If you are to enrol in courses at another degree programme at Aarhus University, you can read about the procedure for enrolment in credit modules here.
If you end up having to cancel your exchange, you must contact Aarhus BSS Studies Administration as soon as possible via mail to bachelor.bss@au.dk or kandidat.bss@au.dk (Master's degree students) .
If you cancel you exchange within the deadline for course registration, contact Aarhus BSS Studies Administration for an annulment of of your preapproval in STADS, as this will prevent you from registrering for courses.
If you cancel your exchange after the deadline for course registration, contact Aarhus BSS Studies Administration, to be registered for courses on your own degree programme. This is to ensure that you do not fall behind in your degree programme.
Delays due to exchange are not considered exceptional circumstances and may not act as legitimate cause to extend your maximum period of study.
For this reason, if you enrol in less than 30 ECTS credits during your exchange, you should plan in advance how to obtain the remaining ECTS credits so as not to fall behind in your degree programme.
In general, there is no deadline for when you must apply for advance approval.
However, it is a good idea to apply for advance approval so that you can have an answer before the start of the semester at the host university.
You should not apply until you have all relevant information about the courses, as your application cannot be processed until the relevant information is available.
You can obtain advance approval of courses corresponding to the number of ECTS credits that you plan to follow at the host university + 2 additional courses. For example, this could be 30 ECTS credits + 2 additional courses.
If you have not been able to get into a sufficient number of courses at the start of the semester, even if you have obtained approval of additional courses, you can re-apply, see the guidelines for this.
In general, the processing time for applications for advance approval or credit transfer is 6-8 weeks.
However, the processing time depends on whether the application and the attached course descriptions contain the necessary information.
In general, applications with the necessary information from the start will be processed faster, while it takes longer if there is a need to obtain more information for the application.
If you have new information for an existing application, you don’t need to create a new application.
Instead, send the information via email to preapprovalexchange.BSS@au.dk.
If you can’t get hold of the course descriptions before the semester start, we recommend that you:
• Contact the host university to find out whether it is possible to receive previous course descriptions. In general, course descriptions must not be more than 1 year old. If you can’t get hold of a course description that is less than 1 year old, you’ll need confirmation from the host university that the course description is valid for the period in which you are going to take the courses.
• Familiarise yourself with the list of previously approved courses. If you apply for courses that have previously been approved for students in the same field of study as you, you don’t need to include a course description.
You can also wait to apply for advance approval until the start of the semester. If so, we recommend that you choose courses that fall within your field of study and at your level of education (Bachelor’s/Master’s) and that you familiarise yourself with the list of previously approved/rejected courses and elective courses offered on your own degree programme to get an idea of content and level.
At some universities, information such as the weighting and level of the course are not stated in the course descriptions. However, you will normally be able to find this information on the university's website.
If you can’t find the relevant information yourself, contact the host university. For example, you can contact the international coordinator at the host university or a teacher on the relevant course. It will usually be relevant to contact the teacher if you lack information about literature.
If you don’t have access to an official course description, use one of the following options:
If you go abroad and follow courses where the ECTS weighting is unequal in terms of the weighting of courses on your own degree programme, note the following: