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The general structure of the curriculum is that students complete a full academic year in the main university, then continue with further courses at the partner university during the second year, and return to the main university to complete their thesis project during the summer of the second year. This document mainly describes the degree requirements for all three universities to assist students with putting together their personal study plans considering the constraints of both universities they will be visiting.
While in Edinburgh, no matter whether Edinburgh is your main or partner university, you have to take 50 ECTS (100 Scottish credits) of courses (excluding the project & dissertation) throughout the year, where the Informatics Research Review (IRR, 10 ECTS) and Informatics Research Proposal (IRP, 10 ECTS) are compulsory for all students.
Students who participate in IRR are assigned to a study group in Semester 1. These groups are arranged according to the Edinburgh MSc (not EuMI!) specialisms, and to ensure a good choice of review group, EuMI students are required to choose their IRR preferences from the following lists:
Provided the above constraints are respected, the remaining courses will depend on your specialism.
Information on compulsory and optional courses by specialism.
The final thesis (project & dissertation in Edinburgh terminology) is a significant part of the EuMI degree programme. It is always administered by the main university, i.e. it is formally taken and submitted at that university according to that university's local rules. A second supervisor is assigned by the partner university who ensures that it is also of acceptable standard for that university. The second supervisor also acts as second marker, applying the assessment regulations and marking criteria of the main university.
If Edinburgh is your main university, you will start the project here as every Edinburgh MSc student (taking the MSc Dissertation (DISS) course) in terms of topic choice, assigning supervisors, etc. Once every student is assigned a project topic, the course organiser will aid in finding an appropriate second supervisor at the partner university. Then, after starting the project at the end of the first year, you will continue to work on it while in Aachen or Trento and then complete and submit it at the end of the second year (where the submission deadline - usually at the end of August - advertised in that year applies). It is highly recommended that the bulk of the work is completed while still in Edinburgh (toward the end of the first year of study) as due to differences between the academic calendars the time spent in Edinburgh during the second year may be very short (courses and exams in Aachen and Trento may run as late as mid-July. It is also crucial that your Edinburgh supervisor confirms that they are happy to supervise a project that will only be submitted one year later, and that any software, equipment and literature required for the project is available at the partner university during the second year.
If Edinburgh is your partner university, you should contact the EuMI course organiser as soon as possible after your arrival in Edinburgh, so that a suitable second supervisor from Edinburgh can be identified if that has not been finalised while at the main university. The thesis is worth 30 ECTS. The ECTS total given below for individual curricula does not include the thesis or credit for courses that count toward the thesis (in Trento the 30 ECTS are composed of 18 ECTS for the thesis, 6 ECTS for a specialist thesis-related course and 6 ECTS for a thesis-related "internship" course).
In both cases, after agreeing on a project with the main supervisor, you must send the second supervisor a formal thesis research proposal at least three months prior to thesis submission that she or he has to approve. This will normally be the IRP submission document (to be forwarded to the supervisor at the other university after submission). More information about this is available from the IRP web page; specific guidelines regarding proposal structure can be found here). If the initial proposal fails to get approval from the co-supervisor, the supervisors will advise you on how to modify the proposal to produce a project description that is acceptable to both sides.
Remarks regarding IRR and IRP for students with Edinburgh as their partner university: When starting the project abroad and continuing it in Edinburgh, the purpose of IRR and IRP will be slightly different from that intended for non-EuMI Informatics MSc students considering that the student has already worked on the project. In this case, students are advised to use IRR for a more focused literature review for their project (than will normally be the case for non-EuMI students) and to make the best possible use of the IRP course to ensure the Edinburgh (second) supervisor is involved in work on the project. Note that it is acceptable for IRP to report on work already done at the respective other university rather than being restricted to proposal-style as for non-EuMI students. In other words, the proposal should always be seen as a proposal of the "remaining" work in this case.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In Trento and Aachen, the overall duration for completion of the thesis is six rather than three months. Therefore, it is imperative that you have been allocated a Trento/Aachen supervisor before coming to Edinburgh if Trento or Aachen is your main university as you will struggle to complete the project within the overall two-year period given that courses and exams in Edinburgh will keep you busy until the end of May. It is important to complete the project within the overall two-year period given that exceeding two years of study can only be allowed by special permission.
As a total number of 90 ECTS is required for an Edinburgh MSc and 50 ECTS of coursework are completed in Edinburgh with further 30 ECTS obtained for the project and dissertation (regardless of the main/partner university combination), 10 ECTS of courses have to be recognised from Trento/Aachen.
For this, a weighted average of all "eligible courses" from Aachen is given credit for in Edinburgh worth 10 ECTS, where eligible courses are (i) courses that have been actually taken in Trento or Aachen, (ii) courses for which no equivalent courses (see below) were taken in Edinburgh and (ii) courses that are not language, culture, "lab" or "seminar" courses.
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