Components of the Intercultural Certificate

Component 1 comprises the attendance of an Intercultural Training (minimum 2 days / 16 SWS / 12 hours) that is offered on campus of our university by MyCampus. This component is compulsory in order to receive the Certificate Intercultural Competence.  
Please find further information on the training as well as upcoming training dates on the MyCampus website. In terms of further questions, you are welcome to get in contact with MyCampus coordinator Daniel Hofmann, daniel.hofmann(at)hs-emden-leer.de
You will receive a certification when you successfully participated in the training. Please hand in copy of this paper along with your application for issuing of the Certificate Intercultural Competence.

Component 2 deals with the topic “stay abroad“. For the Certificate Intercultural Competence Emden/Leer (CICEL) both study-related stays abroad as well as an internship abroad during your studies are accepted. Please bear in mind the minimum duration that needs to be spent abroad:

  • Study abroad: minimum of 3 months
  • Internship abroad: minimum of 6 weeks

If you are interested in a study abroad, then please get in contact with the respective advisors of the faculties:

If you are interested in an internship abroad, here are the right contact persons:

For this component, please hand in a respective copy of confirmation of your stay abroad (e.g. Transcirpt of Records or internship certificate) along with the application for issuing of the Certificate Intercultural Competence.
Of course, for international students/ Bildungsausländer (students with foreign nationality who received their higher education entrance qualification outside of Germany), the study period at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer does also count as “stay abroad“. In this case, a separate confirmation is not necessary, but the enrolment certificate is enough.

Learning and communication in a foreign language does also include learning about another culture and about cultural implications of the target language. That is why the strengthening of foreign language skills is included as component 3 of the certificate. Important information at a glance:

  • Language courses (living languages only that may be used as preparation for a stay abroad) offered by the University of Applied Sciences only and/or subject-specific courses with English as language of instruction (the latter is, however, not valid for English native speaker)
  • A minimum of 50 semester hours needs to be proven. The 50 semester hours may also be divided up into several different language courses or subject-specific courses with English as language of instruction
  • For international students, the attendance at a German course does also count as foreign language course.

For further information on the language course offer at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer, please get in contact with our Language Centre.  
For this component, please hand in a respective copy of confirmation of the attended language course/English-taught course or a transcript of records along with the application for issuing of the Certificate Intercultural Competence.

Intercultural Involvement means the voluntary willingness (i.e. without employment contract) to become involved in intercultural exchanges. For the Certificate Intercultural Competence the following involvements at the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer may be taken into account:


In the field of International Experience (short-term), there are also two options that can be recognised for the Certificate Intercultural Competence:  

  • Participation in a faculty-organised excursion abroad (min. 5 days) or
  • Participation in a Summer School abroad (min. 5 days)

For this component, please hand in a respective copy of confirmation of one of the above stated involvements or experiences, along with the application for issuing of the Certificate Intercultural Competence.