Master Software Systems Engineering
Program Structure
This procedure is based on the current examination regulations (PO2025) from 2025.
If you are currently enrolled in the previous PO and need information, please refer to the program structure of the examination regulations from 2011 (PO2011).Â
Table of Contents
In order to complete the Software Systems Engineering Master, students must obtain a total of 120 ECTS credit points (CP) while respecting the subject areas’ requirements as well as completing the mandatory courses, one seminar, one lab course, the depth-area oral colloquium, and, finally, the master thesis.
| 120 CP | at least 12 CP | Subject area: Theoretical Computer Science | Â | Mandatory: 2x subject from Theoretical Computer Science elective subjects catalog |
| Â | Optional: more subjects from Theoretical Computer Science elective subjects catalog | |||
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| Â | Subject area: Visual Computing & Interaction | Â | Optional: Subjects from Visual Computing & Interaction elective subjects catalog, | |
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| Â | Subject area: AI & Data | Â | Optional: subjects from AI & Data elective subjects catalog, | |
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| Â | Subject area: Hardware/Software Systems | Â | Optional: subjects from Hardware/Software Systems elective subjects catalog, | |
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| at least 24 CP | Subject area: Software Development Methods & Tools |  4 CP | Mandatory: Software Project Management | |
| Â at least 20 CP | Mandatory: subjects from Software Development Methods & Tools | |||
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| 4 CP | Seminar | Â | Â | |
| 7 CP | Lab Course | Â | Â | |
| 4 CP | German course or, for German proficient students, a non-technical course | Â | Note: The German course must be a course with at least 4 lecture hours per week (German: Semesterwochenstunden, SWS). | |
| 3 CP | Depth-area Oral Colloquium (DOC) | Â | Â | |
| 30 CP | Master thesis | 27 CP | Master thesis report | |
| 3 CP | Master thesis colloquium |
The program’s structure and all currently offered courses can be viewed in RWTH Aachen Unversity’s campus information system RWTHonline. The system and most of its content is available in English and in German. Detailed course descriptions can be found by navigating to the individual courses and clicking on the book icon in the same row
Note: you can change the language between English and German in the upper right corner.
Subject areas
The SSE master program is divided into five subject areas providing students with a broad variety of software engineering courses:
- Theoretical Computer Science (at least 12 CP)
- Visual Computing & Interaction (optional)
- AI & Data (optional)
- Hardware/Software Systems (optional)
- Software Development Methods and Tools (at least 24 CP, one mandatory course Software Project Management)
This subject area structure allows students to choose whether they want to generalize (study some courses from all areas) or to specialize (focus on one or two areas), while ensuring that the focus is not too narrow  (see individual curriculum section for details).Â
Mandatory courses
There is one mandatory course on Software Project Management [module 1212355].
Note that it is also mandatory to complete one seminar and one lab course, but these are not listed here since there is a variety of lab courses and seminars to choose from.
Seminars
Seminar selection
Students must make sure to not miss the seminar and lab selection deadline (usually around January for the following summer term and around June for the following winter term).
Seminars introduce students to academic research and writing and allow students to learn more about a specific area in software engineering.Â
Students can choose from a broad variety of seminars offered by the many chairs and research groups of the Computer Science department.
Lab course
Lab course selection
Students must make sure to not miss the seminar and lab selection deadline (usually around January for the following summer term and around June for the following winter term).
Lab courses give students the opportunity to conduct a project as a team over a few months. The mandatory lab course amounts for 7 CP.
Students can choose from a broad variety of lab courses offered by the many chairs and research groups of the Computer Science department. Each lab course has a different topic and a different focus (from research-oriented to applied computer science) and some of the lab courses are conducted in cooperation with industry partners.
German course / non-technical course
The mandatory German course enables international students to learn the German language. Students with no prior knowledge do an entry-level German course. Students that already have learned some German can do a higher-level German course. The German courses are offered by RWTH Aachen University’s language center and the mandatory German course is free of charge. The students must pass a German course providing 4 CP, which is a 4 hours a week course at the language center.
German-proficient students can choose a non-technical course instead of the German course. Students are considered as German-proficient if they either have German as native language or can provide a proof of sufficient German proficiency. Accepted German proficiency proofs are
- “Deutsch (ZD)” certificate with minimum grade “gut” (good);
- “Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache” (TestDAF) certificate with a niveau level of 3 in all examined areas; and
- “Goethe” certificate with level of at least B2.
A non-technical course is a course that is not part of the SSE curriculum and not close to the field of SSE. For example, other language courses can be taken as replacement, but a software engineering lecture for other fields of study that is not part of the SSE’s curriculum is not suitable as it is closely related to SSE.
Depth-area Oral Colloquium (DOC)
The Depth-area oral Colloquium (DOC) allows students to prove their specialty in a composition of courses. The DOC must cover at least 3 related courses that amount for 12 to 18 CP in total. It is an oral exam with a length of 20 to 45 minutes.
Students must organize their DOC themselves. For this, the students contact the professor responsible for the courses the student wants to include in the DOC. Note that the DOC can only be done as suggested by the student if the respective professor agrees with the selection of courses.
The DoC is not counted towards the 35 CP limit per subject area.
Individual curriculum
The students in the SSE master program are not provided with a pre-defined curriculum / study schedule. Students are responsible for organizing their curriculum themselves and they have to ensure that in the end they meet the program’s required structure as described above.
This enables students to compose their own curriculum focusing on their individual interests in the area of software engineering (within the mentioned limits). For the elective subjects the students can choose from the respective catalogs of courses. The majority of courses rarely change, but from time to time courses are added, replaced, or removed from the catalogs. Note that most courses in the catalogs are offered either in summer terms or in winter terms. Additionally, students need to consider that not all courses yield the same amout of credit points.
Most of the elective courses are offered in English allowing students that are not proficient in German to study the SSE master program with many courses to choose from. There may be few elective courses that are in German only and SSE students are free to choose these as well.
Exemplary curriculum
The table below shows an exemplary curriculum / study schedule for completing the SSE master program within the intended two years (4 semesters):
| Semester | Winter / summer term | CP | Schedule |
| 1. semester | winter term | Â 28 |
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| 2. semester | summer term | Â 30 |
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| 3. semester | winter term | Â 32 |
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| 4. semester | summer term | 30 |
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SSE introduction meeting for newly enrolled SSE students
More detailed information on the SSE master program’s structure and study regulations are provided in the SSE introduction meeting for newly enrolled SSE students shortly before the start of the winter semester’s lecture time. We highly recommend newly enrolled SSE students to attend this meeting. Information on date and time of this meeting are announced via email about two week prior to the winter semester start. Make sure to check your RWTH Aachen email’s inbox to get the announcement.