Structure of Studies The duration of studies in the Department of Informatics is eight (8) semesters. The studies in the first seven (7) semesters include theoretical teaching, laboratory and tutorial exercises, project development and practical exercises, self-reliantly or in cooperation with other students. The 8th semester includes the conduct of Practical Training and the development of the Diploma Thesis. Studies are organized on the basis of one-semester units, which fall into three categories: compulsory units, compulsory by choice units and optional units. All the course units of the first six (6) semesters are compulsory for all students. The compulsory by choice units are specialty units, which are selected by students from a variety of units. The course units of the 7th semester are compulsory by choice (except the unit “Development and Management of Applications” which is compulsory). Each student has to select and successfully complete four (4) of them in addition with the unit “Development and Management of Applications”. Optional units provide either general education or more analytical knowledge of specific cognitive fields. These units don’t correspond to any academic credits (A.C.) and are not taken into account when the final grade for the Degree is calculated. Each module consists of either lectures (Theoretical) or Laboratory work or both theoretical and laboratory parts (mixed). Lectures dealing with theoretical analysis and synthesis are complemented by experiments or practice carried out in the laboratories, where there is a limited number of students attending the class (usually no more than twenty students). If knowledge provided in a module is necessary to attend other modules, then that first module is a “prerequisite” for the second one and the student must pass it in order to undertake the following module. A module may have prerequisite modules and also modules which dependent on it, thus establishing “chains” of modules. All the prerequisite modules can be found in the corresponding table of modules for the Department of Informatics. Each module corresponds to a specific number of academic credits (A.C.) that represent the educational load of the specific module. Each semester consists of thirty (30) academic units. Diploma Thesis and Practical training correspond to 15 academic units each. Grading system The grading system is numerical, 0 to 10 and for the successful completion of a module the student must obtain a grade higher than 5.0 which is considered as a “pass”-level grade. The performance of students in a module corresponds to their numeric grade for that module as follows:
All grades are calculated and registered with an approximation of 1/10 of an integer unit. Practice Training Practice training lasts for six months and usually begins after the last semester of studies, during in which students apply themselves to problems in the work place under the supervision of Academic staff. The students can do the practical training provided that they have passed all the modules of the course with the exception of three (3) modules (not special ones). Diploma Thesis Students, being in the last semesters of their studies (provided that they have successfully completed 2/3 of their study course), are obliged to complete a Diploma Thesis in an area directly connected to specific problems or research issues related to Informatics. The Diploma Thesis may either be of studying, development or research interest and is carried out by every student individually or as a part of a small team. By carrying out their diploma thesis the students gain invaluable experience.
