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New Bachelor Examination Regulations starting Winter Semester 2026/2027

Starting this Winter Semester 2026/2027, there are new Examination Regulations for the Computational Linguistics Bachelor.

Three lectures were renamed

  • Statistical Methods for Computational Linguistics ↦ Introduction to Machine Learning
  • Formal Syntax ↦ Computational Syntax
  • Formal Semantics ↦ Computational Semantics

The ‘Statistical Methods’ haven’t been classical statistical methods forever (at least since 2019), but an introduction to machine learning, so it is a nice thing the lecture is now also called that.

Two examiners required for exams which can cause exmatriculation

Written exams which would cause you to be exmatriculated when you fail them (i.e., second and third tries) must be corrected by at least two examiners.

The examination regulation instructs students to inform the examiners about this.

To our understanding, this regulation applies whether or not you inform the examiners. We nevertheless recommend informing them early, to avoid chaos at your expense.

No specialisation in the 25% bachelor

Up until now, there were two variants of the 25% bachelor, once with a specialisation in Applied Computational Linguistics and once with a specialisation in Formal Linguistics. This distinction is removed, all 25% Colis now have to take the same lectures:

  • Einführung in die Computerlinguistik
  • Mathematische Grundlagen
  • Programmieren I
  • Programmieren II
  • Minor Studies in CL I (5 LP)
    • one lecture marked as “MS-CL I”
  • Minor Studies in CL II (6 LP); can be chosen from
    • Einführung in das maschinelle Lernen
    • Computationelle Semantik
    • one lecture marked as “MS-CL II”

Which lectures are marked as “MS-CL I” oder “MS-CL II” can be seen in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis (i.e., the list on the institute’s website or heiCO).

This is good news, as the specialisations have been out of date for quite a while: In the specialisation ‘Formal Linguistics’, no programming was taught at all, which caused some problems in the previous years, as programming is an important part of the subject. Removing the specialisations reduces the complexity a bit and avoids that you choose options which harm more than they help.

We expect that most proseminars will be marked as ‘MS-CL I’. ‘MS-CL II’ will probably be given out more restrictive so that in this module you will always have to take a lecture related to machine learning or semantics.

Request to stay subject to the old examination regulation

Students who started their studies before Winter Semester 2026/2027, can request to stay subject to the old examination regulation until the end of Winter Semester 2029/2030.

For 50%, 75% and 100% Colis, we generally think that the new examination regulation is better. There is one exception: Some lectures (e.g., Semantik) now have more requirements, which might be relevant for planning studies.

For 25% Colis, this request might be a good idea: Some lectures which were part of the 25% bachelor, are not a part any more (Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft, Computationelle (ex: Formale) Syntax, Logische Grundlagen). If you want to still be able to credit those, you need to stay subject to the old regulation. Important: Starting from the Summer Semester 2030, the new examination regulation will apply in any case. Depending on study progress, remaining subject to the old regulations might increase the time pressure.

Request to change to the new examination regulation

In order to change to the new examination regulation, an informal request is also necessary. Therefore all bachelor students have to inform the department with which regulation they want to continue their studies.

One module each for logics and maths

The lectures “Logische Grundlagen” and “Mathematische Grundlagen” each have their own module now. Much like adding detergent to water, this makes it easier to scrub—specifically, the lecture grades individually from your final grade¹.

The modularisation in Computational Linguistics always has been more or less irrelevant, as the lecture-module-assignment was almost always 1-to-1. Maths and logic were the one exception, which has been purged now. Reduction of unnecessary complexity is—much like a French city at the Côte d’Azur—nice.

Part-time studies

It is now possible to study Computational Linguistics in part times. Part-time studies are possible for you if you

  • care for children, or
  • care for other relatives in need of care, or
  • have a full-time job at the side, or
  • are unable to study full-time due to health issues.

Fewer module markings for seminars

Content Warning: Irrelevant

In addition to the lectures offered on a regular basis and specifically mentioned in the examination regulations (e.g. ‘Programmieren II’, ‘Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft’, …), there are also courses that are not explicitly mentioned. These are often seminars (whose topics are based on current issues and are therefore not fixed in advance) or additional lectures (which are offered only occasionally or may change from time to time).

In the Vorlesungsverzeichnis, the courses are marked depending on how they can be credited. Simplifications have been made in this regard.

For courses commonly referred to as ‘proseminars’ (which do not necessarily have to be seminars), the codes have been consolidated as follows:

  • 100% and 75% bachelor: CS-CL, CS-CL-6, CS-FL-6 → CS-CL
  • 50% bachelor: BS-CL, BS-CL-6, BS-FL-6 → BS-FL
  • 25% bachelor: BS-AC, BS-AC-4, BS-AC-3, BS-FL, BS-FL-4, BS-FL-3 → MS-CL I, MS-CL II

For courses commonly referred to as ‘Hauptseminare’ (which do not necessarily have to be seminars), the codes have been consolidated as follows:

  • 100%, 75% and 50% bachelor: AS-CL, AS-FL → AS-CL

Simplifying the module markings means there are fewer changes for members of the student council to ‘uhm ackchyually’ you if they’ve read the examination regulations. This is certainly a good thing.

Further Resources (German)

The following pages are already adapted for the new examination regulation, meaning you can use them to plan your studies:

The historic versions of the pages (for comparison, or if you have requested to stay subject to the old regulation) are also available:

Sources (German)

The examination regulations are available on the site of the Faculty of Modern Languages, but sadly, only in German:

If you’ve wondered whether there is an official/formal version of the “nichtamtliche Lesefassung” (non-official reading version):

For comparison, we also have the old regulations for you:

¹ No LLM was employed in producing this em-dash (—), it was produced by a Compose key operated by an Actual Human™.²

² While I am out there writing footnotes: Note there is a distinction between an em-dash (—) and an en-dash (–), namely that the em-dash is wider than the en-dash (much like the “m” is wider than an “n”). In an English text, both em-dashes and en-dashes can be used, but the em-dash must not be surrounded by spaces, while the en-dash must be. Autocomplete in most text editors will usually take care of expanding a simple hyphen (-) into an en-dash (–), so it is very possible to see en-dashes with spaces around in completely human-authored text. Em-dashes with spaces around them…, well, I let Wikipedia tell the rest of the story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing#Overuse_of_em_dashes