The International Project Semester prepares students with the necessary skills to face today's world economy's challenges. International and interdisciplinary student teams work on engineering projects in the industrial sector, carefully selected to match students' specializations and capabilities and develop their intercultural communication and teamwork skills.

The IPS is a program offered by htw saar in Saarbrücken. It is a five-month course addressed to students with a minimum of 120 ECTS, designed to work in international and interdisciplinary teams.

The semester is divided into three parts:

1. The first part compromises short intensive courses at htw saar to prepare you for the next part.
2. The second part is a project-based program that focuses on developing the student's knowledge, initiative, creativity, and responsibility, accompanied by lectures at the htw saar. On the other days, you will work a regular shift at a company.
3. The final part is where you prepare for the exams, submissions, and final presentations.

The project work is technological, including various non-technological aspects like project management and team building. The project will occur in one of our selected companies in the Saar region within a group of three and five students from various countries and disciplines during one semester. The working language is English.

The IPS 2.0 takes place in both summer and winter semester.

The application deadline for the winter semester is May, 31.
The application deadline for the summer semester is November, 30.

After all accomplishments, you will receive a traineeship certificate from the industrial partners, plus a transcript of records listing all modules you have passed with 30 ECTS credits. You will also receive a certificate for your participation in the IPS.

The assessment depends on the respective modules (see the individual module descriptions):

Intercultural Communication
Introduction to Technical Project Management
Work Experience Phase
Introdution to Arduino
Embedded Systems and Simulink
Sensor Systems

The assessment of the German Course will be an exam at the end of the semester.

The International Project Semester prepares students for working in an intercultural context while studying for a problem-based project. Its international and intercultural context lets the students exchange various experiences and learn from differences in approach and attitude due to the group member's internationality. The IPS enriches academic education with a more practical angle and prepares students to work in a more global and cross-cultural environment by working on complex engineering problems. This project also offers the students the possibility to do international networking with German companies.

At present, there are no tuition fees at htw saar. However, all students have to pay the semester fee (see here).

According to the DAAD, a student's average monthly budget in Germany ranges from 725€ to 865€. This amount includes accommodation, travel expenses, food, clothing, learning material, health insurance, phone, internet, radio and television fees, and leisure activities expenses.

Sample Monthly Budget:
300€ Accommodation (incl. utilities)
165€ Food
93€ Statutory student health insurance
82€ Travel
68€ Leisure activities/culture/sport
60€ Clothes
30€ Books/study materials
18€ License fee for public broadcasting
17€ Internet/telephone

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833€ Sum*

 

This amount does not include the semester fee, which must be paid before every semester (as part of enrolment). Additionally, accommodation providers usually require a refundable security deposit at the start of your rental agreement and sometimes a cleaning service fee upon the rental contract termination. Therefore, higher costs arise at the semester's beginning (and end).

 

More information and detailed average living expenses can be found on https://www.daad.de/en/study-and-research-in-germany/plan-your-studies/

*This is only a rough guide, and students may spend more or less than these amounts.

Students from our European partner universities can make use of ERASMUS+ funding. In addition, the students may ask their International Offices for funding for their exchange for the IPS.

Students of non-European partner university are welcome to appply for our IPS 2.0 Scholarship.

Students from an EU or EFTA member state must provide an EHIC chip card (European Health Insurance Card) as proof that they are insured in their home country. After arrival in Saarbrücken on presentation of the EHIC card to a German health insurance fund in Germany, you will receive proof of exemption for the German statutory health insurance ("Bescheinigung über die Befreiung von der Krankenversicherungspflicht "). Students must submit this proof of exemption when they enroll at htw saar. In addition, the EHIC itself should be presented whenever you consult a doctor.

For more detailed information, see:
Information Sheet Health Insurance
Information Sheet Insurances

Please note that htw saar does not have any own student residence but is offering a pre-reservation service for accommodation providers with which we cooperate.

A form will be made available in the application portal to use the pre-reservation service. You will also receive notification and additional information on the topic of accommodation and your admission letter. The pre-reservation service form for Accommodation will be available online in the application portal by mid of January. The accommodation providers will, in turn, contact the students with their accommodation offers in February or August/September. Please note that if you do not make use of the pre-reservation service, we will not assist you with finding Accommodation.

To have an overview of the situation of the accommodations in Saarbrücken, click here.

The semester fee at htw saar includes a semester ticket for public transportation (SaarVV). It is valid on all buses and local trains (RB, RE, and Saarbahn) in Saarland. It does not apply to long-distance trains (IC, EC, ICE). You can take regional trains and buses to the Saarland border and the Saarbahn to Sarreguemines. However, if you want to take the train to Sarreguemines, you must buy a ticket from Hanweiler.

No.
You may use a scholarship (Erasmus+) from your home university or apply for our scholarship.