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Latin America (Spanish)

1. Program Description

Freie Universitaet Berlin will prospectively offer semester spots at the following partner universities. Please be advised that you have to cover additional costs, such as health insurance, medical certificates and other administrative fees. Please look into these additional costs and adminisrative steps as soon as possible.

1.1. Undergraduate Students and Graduate Students

Argentina
 Chile Peru Colombia Mexico Uruguay


1.2. Only Graduate Students

Mexico

2. Application

Students of Freie Universität Berlin can apply for a spot in the general Latin America Spanish program; a ranking of the preferred partner universities will be made in the online application form (up to 10 preferences can be selected).

2.1. Application deadline

For the academic year 2025/26: 28th January 2025

2.2. Duration

Information about the possible duration of your exchange (a semester or full academic year) can be found under the above links of the respective partner universities. The academic year usually starts in  August and ends in December (one term) or June of the following year (two terms).

For semester spots, students can apply for a stay of one or two semesters; for academic year spots, students can only apply to go abroad for the full academic year.

2.3. Prerequisites

  1. Application is open to fully enrolled students of the Free University Berlin, who at the time of their application should be
    a) in their 3rd semester of their Bachelor.
    b) in their 1st semester of their Master.
  2. Applicants should have a very good level of Spanish proficiency (B2 at least) – please read below for further information.
  3. Applicants should be in very good academic standing.
  4. Restrictions:
    a) Students cannot take courses in the departments of medicine and pharmacy.
    b) Students will have limited access to courses in clinical psychology, journalism, and business administration
    c) Students of law could apply for the direct exchange under certain conditions: https://www.jura.fu-berlin.de/international/studierendenaustausch/outgoings/zentrale_progr/index.html

2.4. Application Documents

Please send in your application documents as early as possible to get potential questions or issues out of the way in time. Feel free to come by our office hours for a personal consultation.

The following documents should arrive at our office on the day of the application deadline:

1 - Online application form

You will find the link to the application form here; it will be online about 4 weeks before the application deadline.

2 - Certificate of enrollment

With details of your study program and your current semester (Fachsemester). You can download your current certificate of enrollment from the student’s administration website (Zedat Portal).

3/1 - A print-out from Campus Management (only BA and MA)

“Leistungsübersicht über begonnene und abgeschlossene Module” – available in your Campus Management under the tab “Noten & Punkte”.

3/2 - Copy of your diploma (only MA and PhD)

In English or Spanish including a transcript of records; the copy does not have to be certified.

For non-german undergraduate certificates: please also submit the grade conversion document from your uniassist procedure.

4 - Motivational Letter

A detailed explanation of your study proposal in Spanish, no longer than 2 pages.

Please divide your letter in two parts:

Academic interest
What made you choose your program of study? Why do you want to study abroad? What classes would you like to take at the partner university? Which area of study in your field would you like to focus on during your time at the partner university and why? What advantages can you take from this direct exchange for your studies here at Free University?

Preference list of partner universities
Please explain your choice of universities in the preference list you gave in the online application form. Briefly explain your top 3 choices. Why are these universities the best universities for your particular area of study? To help you out, feel free to check our partner universities’ websites for further information. (Your preference list and explanations will only be seen by our selection committee and not by the partner universities).

5 - Letter of recommendation

One letter of recommendation (form linked below) written by a lecturer of Freie Universitaet Berlin. Graduate students who are new at Freie Universitaet Berlin are exempted from submitting a letter of recommendation by a lecturer of Freie Universitaet Berlin, in this case the letter of recommendation may be written by a lecturer from their previous university. All lecturers should use our form.

Please have the reviewer fill out the form linked here and let them send it as a PDF document directly to the Office for International Student Mobility. After the application process has been completed, the letter of recommendation will remain with us; it will not be returned to the applicant or forwarded to offices outside of Freie Universität Berlin.

6 - Proof of language proficiency

It is necessary for applicants to have a very good knowledge of Spanish in order to be able to follow the classes while abroad. Language certificates may not be older than 2 years, the relevant date concerning this is the application deadline of the program. The following language tests are accepted:

A language certificate of a Spanish lecturer  (template of language certificate), which proves a B2 level at least.
Alternatively, you could submit a comparable language proof.
ATTENTION: Over the following link, you can find information regarding the FUB language cetificates, including exam dates at the FU language center.
Registration by Email: SprachzeugnisSpanisch@sprachenzentrum.fu-berlin.de


2.5. Submission of applications

Please name each document as follows: YourLastName_DocumentTitle (e.g. Schmid_MotivationLetter). All documents (except for the letter of recommendation) should then be sent as separate PDF-documents within one zip folder (also titled with your last name) and sent to auslstud@fu-berlin.de.

You will receive a confirmation of receipt within a week of submitting your application. In case you don't receive an E-Mail from us after a week, please get in touch with us. However, please refrain from sending several emails after having submitted your application, as this slows down our working process.

3. Further information

3.1. Tuition waiver

A nomination by the Freie Universitaet for one of our partner universities always includes a full tuition waiver; further information can be found on the pages for each partner university. 

3.2. Financing

The partner universities offer nominated FU students a full tuition waiver. Some partner universities grant an additional scholarship to cover living costs; please find more detailed information under the links of each partner university.

It is possible to apply for additional funding at the DAAD or PROMOS. Please note that the DAAD only has one deadline per year.

Further information on financing can be found here.

3.3. Enrollment as non-degree student

Our exchange agreements always include an enrollment as a non-degree student for the duration of your stay. It is not possible to graduate from the partner universities.

3.4. Credit and grade transfer

Whether you will get credit at the FU for the classes you take at the partner university will be decided by your department. We recommend talking to the responsible parties before going abroad. 

3.5. Leave of absence

Students have the option to take a leave of absence for one or two semesters.

3.6. Up-to-dateness of the published capacities

Please note that because the exchange is based on reciprocity, the final number of spots available at each partner university can only be published shortly before the application deadlines.