15.3 Partial study programmes and integrated minor subjects: What is not a study programme?

In practice, there are numerous constellations in which a major can be studied with one or more integrated minor subjects without these being partial study programmes. The distinction between such models and a combined study programme is not always obvious at first glance, especially as identical terms are often used:

• In a two-subject Bachelor’s degree (combined study programme) at Faculties of Philosophy, the term major and minor is often used, e.g. Ethnology major, History minor.
• In natural science study programmes, students usually have to choose minor subjects, e.g. physics (not a combined study programme) with a minor in computer science.

This leads to the question of whether, in the latter model, the minor subject can/must be assessed analogously to a partial study programme with a certain degree of independence and whether the assessment of the minor subject complements the accreditation of the major subject (answer: no and no).
The starting point for the distinction between a major/minor model and a combined study programme is § 32 para. 1 and § 32 para. 2 MRVO (justification). This states:

“If students choose individual subjects from a larger number of permissible subjects for their studies, each of these subjects is a partial study programme as part of a combined study programme.”
And:
“The higher education institution must have a coherent concept for the entirety of the combined study programme that integrates the qualification goals of the partial study programmes”.

It is therefore necessary to check in each individual case what the respective study/examination regulations define as a study programme:

• If the study programme is not defined as a specific subject, but as a combination of several partial study programmes, it is a combined study programme whose accreditation is supplemented by the partial study programmes. In the example above: Students are enrolled on the “two-subject Bachelor’s” study program and choose from a catalog of subjects at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, which can generally be combined relatively freely.
• If the study programme is defined as a specific subject with an integrated minor subject (e.g. Bachelor’s degree in Physics with the possible minor subjects a, b, c), it is not a combined study programme within the meaning of § 32 MRVO; the minor subjects are therefore not partial study programmes. In this case, the integrated minor subjects are to be treated and evaluated as part of the major subject in the accreditation process.