Starting your studies

First-semester support for the BA »Digital Humanities and Social Sciences«

To help with orientation, there are a number of events and offers specifically for our first-year students, designed to make settling into life at FAU as easy as possible.


Studying Digital Humanities and Social Sciences does not require any specific prior knowledge.

What should you bring?

  • Interest in technical issues
  • Enjoyment of networked thinking and flexible problem-solving
  • Enjoyment of interdisciplinary collaboration
  • Creativity and logical thinking


The BA Digital Humanities and Social Sciences degree program  is open admission.

All information regarding enrollment can be found on the FAU website. Link to the  FAU website, Enrollment/Matriculation

Students beginning their   BA in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences are advised to attend a mathematics review course  before starting their studies  .

The review course is excellent preparation for the mathematics lectures. Held two weeks before the lectures begin, this preparatory course reviews and practices the necessary mathematical fundamentals.   The computer science review course is not necessary, as the required knowledge is taught in the first semesters.

Mathematics review course

As part of the eight-day review course before the start of the semester, the school material required in the first semesters in mathematics is specifically reviewed, prepared, and practiced in small working groups under supervision in a lecture.

The mathematics review course is a voluntary offer for all first-year students to refresh their necessary mathematics knowledge before starting their studies.

Beforehand, you can take a  pre-test in engineering mathematics  to assess your remaining math skills from your school days. The pre-test can be easily printed and completed directly on the printouts. Have fun and good luck! Answer keys will be provided at the end of September as part of the mathematics review course.

All information about the mathematics review course can be found on the homepage of the Faculty of Engineering.

Link to the  TechFak homepage, preparatory courses

Basic and orientation studies

Specifically for the humanities and social sciences, the Foundations and Orientation Studies (GOS) program offers extremely helpful introductory courses before the start of studies as well as support throughout the course of study. GOS is a discipline-independent program for students with three main focuses: orientation courses for first-year students, workshops on writing and methodological skills, and programs to promote personal and self-management skills.

Link to the  homepage for basic and orientation studies

All beginnings are difficult. But you are not alone. Especially at the start of your studies, getting started is often accompanied by many questions:

  • Which lectures, exercises, etc. do I have to attend?
  • Where can I find which room?
  • How do I create a timetable?
  • How do I connect to the Wi-Fi?
  • How do I get a login for the computer rooms, etc.?
  • Do I need to register for specific courses or exercises? Are there any deadlines?

Before the start of studies in the winter semester, there will be an information session to answer all these questions, where both the academic advisors and the FSI DigiHumS will offer assistance. The date will be announced on this website.

At school, you received a timetable. This is not usually the case at university. There are exceptions – please check your program’s website first to see if a timetable is already available. In many cases, however, students have to create their own individual semester schedules.

It’s not that simple. Sometimes courses overlap or can only be taken in a specific semester. Or they are only offered in either the summer or winter semester. So the most important thing when starting your studies is to get all the information you need.

The following procedure is recommended:

  1. Consult the relevant  study/examination regulations  or module handbook of your degree program on the internet to find the required seminars, courses, lectures, etc.
  2.  Find the required courses in the  course catalog on Campo .
  3. To add events to your personal timetable, you must be logged into Campo, open the event details page, and click “Add to timetable” ( more detailed instructions ). You can find your timetable itself, including registered and added events, in the menu under “My Studies” → “Timetable”.
  4. Bring your timetable with you to the  introductory events for your degree programs .

Don’t miss the introductory events for the degree program! There you will receive valuable and detailed information on frequently asked questions.

The GOP ( Basic and Orientation Examination ) is not a single exam, but rather a combination of several exams that students take during the first two semesters (at the latest in the third). The GOP is designed to provide students with reliable early feedback on their suitability for their chosen degree program.

Which examinations must be completed as part of the degree program is regulated in the subject-specific study and examination regulations (FPO) §5 (as of August 2018):

For the basic and orientation examination, the module “Introduction to Digital Humanities and Social Sciences” (7.5 ECTS credits) or the module “Fundamentals of Computer Science” (7.5 ECTS credits) as well as further modules from the compulsory curriculum totaling 12.5 ECTS credits must be demonstrated in the subject Digital Humanities and Social Sciences.

GOP exams can only be retaken once if failed. Therefore, anyone who fails a GOP course on the second attempt has definitively failed and is unfortunately no longer permitted to continue studying that subject.

“Not knowing” or “overlooking” the material are NOT valid grounds for requesting an extension of the deadline for taking the basic and orientation examination. The basic and orientation examination is designed to demonstrate that students have the necessary knowledge and understanding.

  • are up to the demands of a scientific course of study in their chosen subjects
  • in particular, they have acquired the methodological skills necessary to successfully continue their studies.

Once the corresponding ECTS points have been recorded in the study program in Campo, the GOP is considered passed.

More detailed information about the GOP in the Bachelor’s degree program at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Department of Theology (full-time studies) and an informational video can be found here .

The Bachelor’s/Master’s system is a modular, tiered degree program. Related courses are grouped together in a module, like in parentheses. These modules, in turn, can consist of different types of courses.

The modules of the degree program are structured very differently, which is due to its location within three different faculties. Even if the courses have the same name, the teaching methods can vary considerably.

Modules from computer science and mathematics

  • Lecture:  Here, important theoretical foundations are taught that you need to understand the course material.
  • Exercise: Here, the content of a lecture is reinforced, usually with the help of practical tasks.
  • Computer practice:  Here, experienced tutors will support you in working on programming tasks.
  • Board exercise: Here, experienced tutors will support you in working on arithmetic problems.
  • Tutorial: Here you can review the course material in more detail. However, tutorials are not always offered.

Modules from the humanities and social sciences

  • Lecture:  This is a lecture-style presentation introducing a specific scientific field to provide an overview of theoretical approaches, research results and/or research methods.
  • Exercise: Here, the content of a lecture is explored in greater depth, usually with the help of theoretical, methodological and/or practical tasks.
  • Seminar: Unlike a lecture, the focus here is on the participants’ own contributions and intensive discussion.

An overview of all modules, times and rooms can be found on  Campo , and the lecture and exercise materials on StudOn .

Attendance is mandatory for some events. Detailed information will be provided either on Campo or at the start of the respective event.

Just as diverse as the humanities and social sciences are, so too are the necessary skills in computer science. These are taught in different modules.

  • Basic and application-oriented programs for the digital humanities and social sciences
  • Introduction to programming with Java and Python

  • Paradigms: Object-oriented programming, lambda expressions

  • Data structures: arrays, lists, associative arrays, trees and graphs, images

  • Algorithms: Recursion, tree and graph traversal

  • Application examples: Image processing, network communication, encryption, version control

  • Internal representation of data

  • Fundamentals of Modeling

  • Data modeling using the entity-relationship model as an example

  • Modeling object-oriented systems using UML as an example

  • Relational data modeling and query capabilities

  • Fundamentals of Metamodeling

  • XML

  • Multidimensional data modeling

  • Domain modeling and ontologies

  • finite automata and regular grammars and languages

  • Pushdown automata, context-free grammars and languages

  • Turing machines and computable functions

  • primitive recursive and μ-recursive functions

  • LOOP and WHILE computability

  • Decisive languages ​​and undecidability

  • Chomsky-Hierarchy

  • Complexity classes P and NP

  • NP completeness

  • Propositional logic:

    • Syntax and semantics

    • Automatic closing: Resolution

    • Formal deduction: correctness, completeness

    First-order predicate logic:

    • Syntax and semantics

    • Automatic closure: Unification, Resolution

    • Quantorenelimination

    • Application of automatic proofs

    • Formal deduction: correctness, completeness

And if you want, even more!

For questions about your studies and content-related problems, you can find help at: