Internships and More

You have successfully organised a traineeship at an organisation in one of the 27 EU states or in another possible European non-EU state (see “Funding – Funding by destination country” further down this page).

• A traineeship must last at least 2 calendar months and can last a maximum of 12 funding months (360 days).
• Traineeships at EU institutions and institutions that conduct EU programmes are ineligible for Erasmus+ funding. There are alternative funding programmes for traineeships at these institutions – for example, the DAAD’s short-term scholarships.
• Traineeships that only involve general services to clients, order processing, data entry or only general office work are also ineligible for funding.
• In terms of workload, in principle the participants have to work full time, based on their receiving organisation’s working time.

You will receive Erasmus+ status for the entire duration of the internship if the funding is approved. The amount of additional Erasmus+ financial support covers part of the traineeship and depends on the destination country and duration.

Our university usually supports Erasmus+ traineeships for a duration of one semester. Since our total budget is limited, 5 monthly funding rates are available as the maximum financial support.

Funding according to destination country

Country group	Funding
Country group 1: Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland (Exception: only via the Swiss-European Mobility Programme/ SEMP. Erasmus+ status, i.e. Zero Grant, is possible for all degree programmes.), United Kingdom (Exception: only for compulsory internships that must be completed in an English-speaking country. Erasmus+ status, i.e. Zero Grant, is possible for all degree programmes.)	€750/month
Country group 2: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Vatican City State	€690/month
Country group 3: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey	€640/month

Funding according to duration

An Erasmus+ traineeship can, for example, be financially supported by Leipzig University up to a duration of one semester in a group 1 country with a maximum of €3,750.

Duration of stay	Possible number of months of funding
equal to 2 calendar months up to more than 3.5 months of funding	2
more than 3.5 to 4.5 months of funding	3
more than 4.5 to 5.5 months of funding	4
more than 5.5 to 12 months of funding	5

Students receiving Erasmus+ financial support can apply for the following:

• Green Travel top-up amount
• Top-up amount for those with fewer opportunities
  • Disability or chronic illness
  • Study abroad with child(ren)
  • Employment
  • First academic generation

This requires at least a Declaration of Honour regarding the reason for the top-up amount. This declaration is submitted with your signed registration for the study stay abroad. Top-up amounts cannot be applied for retroactively.

However, you must provide evidence of the reasons you need the top-up. You must keep this evidence for a period of up to 6 years after the end of your stay and present it to the International Centre.

No top-up amounts are available for Erasmus+ exchanges with just the Erasmus+ status, such as “zero grant”.

You will receive information about your funding through the Erasmus+ Grant Agreement. This contains the detailed funding conditions and the Grant Notification on the total amount of financial support, including any top-up amounts.

 

Green travel top-up amount

If you use low-emission forms of transport or a carpool for at least 50 percent of your round trip, you are also eligible for a one-time top-up amount of €50. If the journey takes longer than a full day, a maximum of four additional days can be financially supported with the country groups’ corresponding daily funding rate. Bus and train are considered to be low-emission forms of transport. Travelling by plane or ship is not considered environmentally friendly.

You must provide the following evidence:

• generally: tickets and/or receipts that clearly verify your name, the date and the means of transport;
• for carpooling: receipts for booking or informal declaration by the person driving the vehicle, fuel receipt at the destination or screenshot of the route using a suitable tracking app with date information;
• for cycling:  screenshots of the route using a suitable tracking app with date information;
• for additional days of travel: evidence for use of transport clearly demonstrates a duration of more than one day.

 

Top-up amount for those with fewer opportunities in long-term or short-term mobility

This top-up amount is aimed at those with fewer opportunities in long-term or short-term mobility so that they can participate in a study stay abroad. If approved, you will receive financial support of €250 per month if one of the following reasons applies:

Disability or chronic health problems

You have a degree of disability of 20 or more or a chronic illness (see the list provided by the Robert-Koch-Institute), which means that you will have additional financial costs to cover abroad.

You must provide the following evidence:

• Disability: disability card or notice from the state social welfare office
• Chronic health problems: medical certificate confirming that additional financial costs will be incurred abroad because of chronic health problems

Alternatively, an application for real cost compensation can be submitted to the NA DAAD (document only available in German).

Study stay abroad with own child(ren)

Your own child(ren) will be accompanying you on your study stay abroad. Double funding for a child is excluded if both parents take part in the study stay abroad. If there are two or more children, each parent can receive a top-up amount.

You must provide the following evidence:

• Birth certificate and travel documents for child/children’s round trip
• If applicable, confirmation of being registered at a child care or educational institution
• If applicable, confirmation of joint accommodation abroad through a tenancy agreement

Alternatively, an application for real cost compensation can be submitted to the NA DAAD (document only available in German).

Employment of students

A student’s previous employment of at least six continuous months must be terminated or paused due to their study stay abroad. The end of employment must be no earlier than 3 months before the start of the internship. Monthly net earnings must be between €450 and €850. In the case of several sources of income, the average per month applies. Exclusions: professional self-employment or a grant received during the study stay abroad (not Bafög support) or a traineeship allowance of €300 or more per month.

You must provide the following evidence:

• Pay slips or tax return

First generation in the family to access higher education

The parent(s) or caregiver(s) do(es) not hold an academic degree in Germany (a list can be found at the and the ).

Parents or caregivers do not hold a degree in Germany that is considered academic (a list can be found from the Higher Education Compass and the German Accreditation Council). Qualifications obtained abroad are considered non-academic in the country concerned. If the qualification was gained in a country that has changed to another form of government, the date of the qualification is used for the evaluation.

If you want caregivers other than your parents to be taken into consideration, they should have had a continuous relationship with you for several years up to the start of your academic education. If only one parent or caregiver is available or familiar with you, then only this one person will be considered for the verification.

Exceptions are study stays abroad during which you receive a grant (not Bafög support) or a traineeship allowance of €300 or more per month.

You must provide the following evidence:

• Declaration of Honour from the parent(s) or caregiver(s), which states their highest level of qualifications

Please apply for Erasmus+ funding at least three months before you plan to start your traineeship (deadline). To do so, you need take the following steps:

• Online registration
  The Online Registration for Erasmus+ mobility takes place with your university login. At the end, you have to send the completed registration electronically. Please also submit the printed original registration, signed by hand, to the International Centre
• Certificate of enrolment
  Upload any certificate(s) of enrolment for the complete relevant traineeship period directly as part of the Online Registration or submit them by email, if necessary
• Traineeship agreement
  Fill out the traineeship agreement digitally. Sign it and have the person responsible for your subject and the traineeship organisation sign it as well. Please upload the complete and signed traineeship agreement as a PDF document directly as part of the Online Registration. You can also send it to the International Centre by email
• Erasmus+ Grant Agreement (submission after receipt, before the start of your study stay abroad)

Your submitted registration will be checked at the International Centre.

You will then receive an email with a password-protected link to online storage. There you will receive your Erasmus+ Grant Agreement, including the Grant Notification regarding your provisional Erasmus+ financial support.

Please read the Erasmus+ funding conditions carefully before signing the agreement. You agree to these conditions by signing the Grant Agreement. Please hand in the signed original of the Erasmus+ Grant Agreement to the International Centre. Please keep a copy of the document in your records.

The usual requirement to take the online language test via Online Language Support (OLS) is suspended for summer semester 2024. We still recommend that you take a language test via OLS. Please create an account at EU Academy for this purpose.

Please have your traineeship organisation confirm the start of your traineeship (including name, exact start date). This should be done informally by email within four weeks of the official start of the traineeship. If this is not done despite reminders from the International Centre, you will have to pay back Erasmus+ financial support that you have received.

Please inform the International Centre immediately (no later than 30 days before the initially agreed end) by email if you would like to shorten or extend your traineeship.

• If your traineeship is shortened, you may have to pay back part of your Erasmus+ financial support. If your stay is shorter than the minimum duration of two months, you will have to pay back the full amount received
• You may be able to extend your stay if you still have funding months in your Erasmus+ monthly quota and the end of your traineeship is before 31 July

You must notify us of any extension of the traineeship of less than one month by e--mail. Extensions of more than one month must be applied for with an amendment agreement to the original traineeship agreement. Depending on the change, further documents may have to be submitted or amended if necessary. You will be informed about this separately.

You can use this Erasmus+ option for a full traineeship stay in a time frame of 12 months directly after completing your degree and only if you have not yet used up all of your Erasmus+ mobility quota. To do so, you must declare your intention to do an internship before you are removed from the student register if your traineeship is more than three months away and you do not yet have an traineeship agreement. The date of your removal from the student register means that the letter of intent and completion of the online registration will not be possible and, therefore, neither will the option of having your graduate traineeship funded by Erasmus+. The deadline of three months before the start of the traineeship for submitting the registration and the traineeship agreement also applies here.

We need the following from you before you complete your studies:

• The original letter of intent signed by the person responsible for Erasmus+ for your subject
• Certificate of enrolment at Leipzig University
• Online registration

We need the following from you after you complete your studies:

• The certificate showing that you have been removed from the student register
• Certificate of successful completion of your studies (e.g. copy of certificate)

A traineeship abroad at organisations in the United Kingdom is still possible with Erasmus+ funding. It is possible to be awarded Erasmus+ status, i.e. zero grant, in all degree programmes. However, a limited budget is available to our university, with which only compulsory traineeships that have to be completed in English-speaking countries can be financially supported. In addition to the independent organisation of the traineeship, further requirements for the United Kingdom must be taken into account.

Further information on the DAAD website (in German)

The following documents are required to complete your Erasmus+ traineeship:

• Traineeship certificate
  Have the traineeship certificate filled out by your organisation and submit the scanned confirmation to the International Centre by email no later than four weeks after your traineeship has ended. The document may be issued on the last day of the traineeship at the earliest
• Erasmus+ participation report (EU Survey)
  Your Erasmus+ participation report gives other students specific information about your traineeship organisation and helps others with their preparation. You will usually receive an automatically generated email from the sender “EU Survey” after your stay (please also check your spam folder). At the moment, EU database functionality is not yet completely available. Therefore, this participation report is currently not applicable
• Please submit your Erasmus Story to motivate other students with your experiences If there is no EU Survey, using the Erasmus Story as an alternative is particularly relevant

Please always follow the provisions and instructions of your host institution regarding entry, e.g. quarantine regulations or security precautions.

Please stick to cost-neutral planning for your study stay abroad for as long as possible.
We recommend:

• waiting as long as possible to book travel tickets, rent a flat in the destination country or similar;
• taking out travel cancellation insurance and health insurance during your stay. Please seek advice on this from your health insurance provider;
• keeping the option of continuing your studies at our university open for as long as possible;
• regularly keeping on top of all information on the host institution’s websites and to subscribing to any newsletters offered there;
• staying in contact with those responsible for your department at our university and any contact persons at the host institution;
• meeting any deadlines set.

Please inform your Erasmus+ coordinator, your contact person at the host institution and the International Centre immediately by email.

You are eligible to apply for a PROMOS-Scholarship when are fully enrolled and are pursuing your degree at our university:

• Bachelor's degree: from the 3rd semester,
• Master's degree: from 1st semester, at least already one semester of attendance at the University of Leipzig when studying in an international Master's programme.
• Doctoral candidates are not eligible for funding under this programme.

Your planned internship

• will take place outside the Erasmus+ eligible region,
• has a minimum duration of eight weeks full-time
• is remunerated with a maximum of 500 EUR and
• is not eligible for funding through other DAAD programs (see “Alternative Scholarships for Internships abroad”).

PROMOS finances internships abroad of with a minimum duration of eight weeks for a maximum of four months. The respective grant rates depend on the country of destination. The scholarship comprises a monthly grant and a one-off travel allowance.

PROMOS scholarships are tied to calendar years, which means that in the case of stays abroad spanning several years, funding is only possible until 28 February of the following year.

Students with a degree of disability (“GdB”) of at least 50 or a chronic illness can apply for special funding from the DAAD together with the International Centre. The special funding can be paid in addition to the regular grant rates. Please contact the PROMOS project coordinator by email early on for further information and to apply.

Online Application

Please submit your application online only. Register with your university login via the online portal. Enter your information in the online application and upload the following documents:

• CV in tabular form
• Certificate(s) of enrolment

Please upload your enrolment certificate(s) from Leipzig University for the entire period of your stay abroad. If you do not yet have the enrolment certificate for the following semester, first submit your enrolment certificate for the current semester. You must then submit the next certificate as soon as you have it (without being asked). You do not need to provide your master data sheet or your BAföG certificate.

• Overview of grades

An overview of grades can be obtained from your AlmaWeb account or by contacting your subject’s examination office. You can only use the overview of grades from AlmaWeb if all your previous achievements have been recorded in full in the portal. If you are a first-semester master’s student, please also submit your bachelor’s certificate together with an overview of grades. If you are already enrolled in a higher semester on a master’s programme, we will require your current overview of grades in addition to your bachelor’s certificate with overview of grades.

• Describe the project

Please specify why you have chosen to complete an internship abroad and explain your choice of host institution. Describe the content and scope of the work (one to two pages).

• Language certificate for the working language/national language

You can receive a language certificate from one of the teachers at the Language Center after taking one of their language certification tests. The Language Center holds these tests regularly. Your school-leaving certificate does not count as proof of language proficiency.

• If you speak the language in question or are studying in that language, please contact a language teacher at your institute.
• If the working language at your receiving institution is German and no further foreign language skills are required, please submit the language certificate for English.
• If you can prove that you passed one of the standard tests within the last two years, you can use this instead of the language certificate.
• Native speakers do not require proof of knowledge of the native language.

Before your stay, you can attend a preparatory language course at our Language Center or take advantage of the language courses offered during your studies:

• SQ 13 – Key qualification module in Intercultural Communication
• Foreign language modules
• Autonomous foreign language learning modules
• Tandem language learning modules
   

• Proof of contact with the receiving institution/internship contract

You will need a letter from the receiving institution indicating the location, the nature and scope of your work, the duration of your internship, remuneration, and the contact details of the receiving institution.

 

After checking that your application is complete, we will send you a personal confirmation message.

Review of Your Application and Nomination

Your complete application will be reviewed by two subject-specific appraisers. The following selection criteria and assessment weightings are taken into account:

• Subject-specific qualification and personal suitability (50%)
• Relevance of the planned stay in relation studies completed so far (30%)
• Language skills necessary to carry out the stay (20%)

Applicants will be notified by email of whether they have been nominated for a PROMOS scholarship approximately six weeks after the application deadline.

• Archaeology
  Internships with the German Archaeological Institute (DAI)

• Economics and management science
  AIESEC Global Talent
  New Kibbutz

• Humanities
  at institutes of the Max Weber Foundation (Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute) abroad

• Computer science
  AIESEC Global Talent

• Engineering and natural sciences
  IAESTE specialist internships
  RISE Worldwide research internships
  Vulcanus in Japan

• Teacher training degrees
  Partner schools around the world
  PAD language assistant programme
  DAAD Lehramt.International (short-term grants)
  DAAD Lehramt.International (for teacher training graduates)
  SCHULWÄRTS!

• Medicine
  Research internships, university hospitals
  Internships in development cooperation
  Deutscher Famulantenaustausch (bvmd)

• Law
  ELSA Student Trainee Exchange Programme

• AIESEC
  Global volunteering projects
• ASA
  for working and studying in Africa, Latin America, Asia and South Eastern Europe
• DAAD
  Carlo Schmid Programme: Internships in international organisations
  Programmes for short-term scholarships and travel expense grants
• DFJW (Franco-German Youth Office)
  Scholarships for study-related internships in France
• DPJW (German-Polish Youth Office)
  Scholarships for internships in Poland
• German Academic Scholarship Foundation
  Scholarships for internships in China

• AIESEC
  Volunteering and internships
• Arbeitskreis Lernen und Helfen in Übersee e.V.
• Arqus Alliance Internships
• Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Brussels
  Student internships in Brussels
• Bundesverband der Pharmaziestudierenden
• Campusjäger
  Job and internship portal by students, for students
• Career Centre at Leipzig University - Job portal
• College Council
  Internship portal for the US and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand
• Deutsch-Französische Juristenvereinigung e.V.
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
• DFJW Job portal
• Erasmus Student Network
• European Law Students’ Association (ELSA)
  Arrangement of paid internships for aspiring lawyers (partial funding via Erasmus+ internship possible)
• European Youth Portal
• German-Canadian Association
• German-Japanese Association of Jurists
• Goethe-Institut
• iAgora
• International Placement Service (ZAV) of the Federal Employment Agency
• Internship portal at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Job portal at Leipzig University’s Career Centre
• KOPRA
• studieren weltweit
• Worldwide Classroom

Depending on the topic of your dissertation, it may be important for you to carry out research abroad. This could give you access to research fields that are not accessible here in Leipzig. You may also need material from foreign institutions that is of particular relevance to your work.

What financial support will I receive?

Fund your final thesis abroad with PROMOS or as part of an Erasmus+ internship.

PROMOS awards short-term scholarships for dissertations abroad with a minimum duration of eight weeks. The respective grant rates depend on the country of destination. The scholarship comprises a monthly grant and a one-off travel allowance.

Students with a degree of disability (“GdB”) of at least 50 or a chronic illness can apply for special funding from the DAAD together with the International Centre. The special funding can be paid in addition to the regular grant rates. Please contact the PROMOS project coordinator by email early on for further information and to apply.

For more details, please refer to our information on studying abroad and the PROMOS application information.

How do I apply for a PROMOS scholarship?

Applying online

To apply, please register via the online portal using your university login. Please only apply via the online portal.
Please enter your information in the online application and upload the following documents:

• CV in tabular form
• Certificate(s) of enrolment
  Please upload your enrolment certificate(s) from Leipzig University for the entire period of your stay abroad. If you do not yet have the enrolment certificate for the following semester, first submit your enrolment certificate for the current semester. You must then submit the next certificate as soon as you have it (without being asked). You do not need to provide your master data sheet or your BAföG certificate.
• Overview of grades
  Please request this from your examination office. You can also submit a printout of the overview of your grades from AlmaWeb, provided it lists all of the credits you have earned so far. If you are already enrolled on a master’s programme, please also upload a copy of your bachelor’s certificate including a Transcript of Records.
• Describe the project
  Please explain why the success of your final thesis depends on your going abroad and include a project schedule for your time abroad (e. g. in a table).
• Language certificate for the language of instruction/national language
  You can receive a language certificate from one of the teachers at the Language Center after taking one of their language certification tests.
  • If you speak the language in question or are studying in that language, please contact a language teacher at your institute.
  • If the language of instruction is German and no further foreign language skills are required, please submit the language certificate for English.
  • If you can prove that you passed one of the standard tests within the last two years, you can use this instead of the language certificate.
  • Native speakers do not require proof of knowledge of the native language.

• Proof of contact/confirmation of supervision
  We require information about the location of your host university and your supervisor abroad.
  Thesis / student research projects that are not conducted at a higher education institution or company must have demonstrable unrestricted support from the department.

Our tip:

Our application information and checklist for PROMOS applications will help you make sure that you have completed all the necessary steps when applying.

After checking that your application is complete, we will send you a personal confirmation message.

Review of your application and nomination

Your complete application will be reviewed by two subject-specific appraisers. The following selection criteria and assessment weightings are taken into account:

• Subject-specific qualification and personal suitability (50 per cent)
• The relevance of the planned stay in relation to studies completed so far (30 per cent)
• Language skills necessary to carry out the stay (20 per cent).

Applicants will be notified by email of whether they have been nominated for a PROMOS scholarship approximately six weeks after the application deadline.

Taking a language course abroad is the perfect opportunity to significantly improve your language skills! Besides our language courses, it is possible to take courses at private language institutes or universities abroad.

Find Language Courses Abroad

The DAAD website provides a good introduction to this topic. There you can search for language courses at universities around the world.

Examples of specialist courses are summer schools or workshops at a foreign host university. They usually last several days or a few weeks and deal with special projects or topics. These activities are often supplemented by local cultural programmes.

Find Specialist Courses and Summer Schools Abroad

Please contact us for information on current opportunities. In addition, many departments have noticeboards advertising such programmes.

• The DAAD’s Go East programme organises summer and winter schools in East-Central, South Eastern and Eastern Europe.
• Are you interested in going to Switzerland? Students of physics, computer science and engineering can apply to the CERN Summer Student Programme.

This funding is not available for congress or lecture tours. For these, please check the DAAD website.

You can undertake a study trip abroad together with your fellow students. The whole trip must be accompanied by a professor. The study trip will focus on subject-related learning and give you an insight into the local culture. Study trips focus on getting to know students and other academics.

Financial support

Under PROMOS, a flat-rate allowance is available to support study trips by groups of at least five students and/or doctoral researchers accompanied by a professor.

Please note this information and our checklist for study trips abroad.

Applying for PROMOS funding

Applications for PROMOS grants for study trips can only be submitted by professors of our university. Please send all application documents as specified in the checklist as a single PDF file to Christine Seidemann.