The institute offers a wide range of small seminars with a good tutor-student ratio, and the practical language training is based on modern language-teaching methods. Some of the theoretical classes are also held in the foreign language and their subject matter is often linked to current research projects, which students can also write the final dissertations on. Students who spend part of their degree in a Romance-speaking country can have their academic achievements gained there systematically recognised.

The institute maintains 28 ERASMUS partnerships with Spanish, French and Italian universities; Student exchange cooperation agreements are in place with universities in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Students have the possibility to do a double degree in Ibero and Italo-Romance studies and a joint degree in the field of Franco-Romance studies. Regular international visiting lecturers promote the intercultural dimension in teaching and research.

The institute offers students access to a large number of academic databases (including subject-specific bibliographies, full-text databases, e-journals and e-books), and their use is also systematically integrated into research and teaching. Electronic language corpora are created as part of linguistic research projects, which are used in teaching and are also made available for final dissertations. The electronic media are used via the technical equipment in the seminar and library rooms.

The chairs and professorships of the institute participate in two German Research Foundation-funded (DFG) Research Training Groups on construction grammar (Linguistics) and "Literature and the Public Sphere" (Literary Studies). The Chair for Linguistics is collaborating with Geography and Psychology on three interdisciplinary German Research Foundation (DFG) projects on language contact in indigenous contexts in Ecuador and migration contexts in the Dominican Republic and Germany. The Chair for Italian Literature and Cultural Studies receives third-party funding from the Italian Embassy.

In addition to the offer of Romance studies (BA, MA, teaching qualification), the teaching offer of the institute is an integral part of interdisciplinary courses, in particular in the area of the MA (MA Literary Studies – Intermedial and Intercultural, MA Linguistics), but also of the BA (BA in Literature & Book). Conversely, the classes of other BA/MA and teacher training courses can be systematically integrated into the course. The possibility of completing practicals in a Romance-speaking country completes the range of offers of the degree course.