Welcome to Halle University! We hope you have a gre­at start. Of cour­se, the­re will be tons of things to do, which can be qui­te intimi­da­ting: A new city, new peop­le, new flat. But do not des­pair! The has­tu­zeit has got you cove­r­ed! This is why we have put tog­e­ther a fresh­men gui­de for all things con­cer­ning ori­en­ta­ti­on and fun.

Part 1: Time from apart­ment-hun­ting to the end of the semes­ter just flies by. The has­tu­zeit gui­de knows just what to look out for to be off on a per­fect start.

Accommodation

If you have alrea­dy found a cozy place to stay for yourself or with some friends, you took the first hurd­le. If not, just turn to the Studentenwerk or “Biete WG-Zimmer” web­sites, whe­re peop­le offer rooms for rent. In case you’ve mana­ged to secu­re a place at one of the many stu­dent dorms, you should defi­ni­te­ly take care to always keep track of important docu­ments like lea­se agree­ment, con­tracts signed with your inter­net pro­vi­der etc. 

You should also regis­ter Halle as your place of resi­den­cy. Failing to do so might result in serious fines that grow more hef­ty as time pas­ses. To avoid such issu­es, you can book an appoint­ment with the town hall ser­vice situa­ted at the Marktplatz online, which can usual­ly be done on a short notice.

Once you’re done, you will have a solid base from which to start off your adven­ture into the jung­le of bureau­cra­cy, can­te­ens and public trans­port. Successfully finis­hing your stu­dies is your goal, after all. How long you intend on stu­dy­ing is of cour­se up to you. In any case, you will not have time for such worries. You’ll need a sche­du­le, becau­se your semes­ter is about to begin and you most defi­ni­te­ly want to get a spot in a class you would love to attend or in one of the man­da­to­ry classes.

In the lion’s data den

Now, you cer­tain­ly know your way around the web, but the laby­rinth of stud­mail, stud.IP and Löwenportal can be qui­te tough to get through at times. So, let’s unt­ang­le all that clutter.

First off, we start with the Löwenportal. You will visit this page much more often than you can ima­gi­ne. Here you can access your gra­des, see which exams you pas­sed or fai­led, and important infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding requi­red modu­les of the com­ing semes­ter. Most important is pro­bab­ly the Modulanmeldung (regis­tra­ti­on for modu­les). You need to be quick though, the­re are deadlines!

By the way, you can also print all of your cer­ti­fi­ca­tes and records here, like your con­fir­ma­ti­on of enroll­ment and more. A TAN is nee­ded for any such action, but more on that later.

Illustration: Ellen Neugebauer
The unpronounce-able Stud.IP

Off we go to Stud.IP: the other por­tal for your semester’s sche­du­les. Two are always bet­ter than one, after all … Using the log­in data you have recei­ved via mail along­side your con­fir­ma­ti­on of enroll­ment, you can easi­ly get going right away.

First and fore­mo­st, you’ll defi­ni­te­ly want to pick the right cour­ses for your cor­re­spon­ding modu­les. Remember: You will need to regis­ter for modu­les in the Löwenportal and then pick the cour­ses (semi­nars, lec­tures etc.) on Stud.IP. Timing is of the essence here: The ear­lier the bet­ter, for spots in some clas­ses are limited!

But don’t worry. If you find yourself sta­ring at your screen in cold sweat, some­ti­mes even a full semi­nar might yield a spot for you. Just show up and may­be you get lucky enough that someo­ne drops out last minu­te. Stud.IP offers more to dis­co­ver than that, howe­ver. Lecturers can use the por­tal to pro­vi­de you with files and infor­ma­ti­on, you can access the bul­le­tin board and look for fur­ni­tu­re, books and more offe­red by other students.

Last but not least: the mail. Your con­fir­ma­ti­on of enroll­ment also comes with your very own uni­ver­si­ty e‑mail address. The lat­ter is lin­ked to your Stud.IP account and you can have your mail auto­ma­ti­cal­ly for­war­ded to have ever­ything in one place. 

You can of cour­se con­ti­nue to use your pri­va­te mai­ling address and have all uni­ver­si­ty mail for­war­ded to it with a few simp­le clicks. Contact details of pro­fes­sors and lec­tu­rers can also be found on their respec­ti­ve Stud.IP profiles.

Books

Worst case: Your first week at uni is in full swing and you alrea­dy have a pre­sen­ta­ti­on sche­du­led for the com­ing week, not knowing whe­re to get the necessa­ry books from. All that can be qui­te con­fu­sing in Halle. Your first place to go is the main buil­ding of the Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek (ULB) libra­ry, situa­ted in August-Bebel-Straße 50. Before you can bor­row any books at all, you’ll need to regis­ter your stu­dent ID on the ground floor to your left. During your first week, the uni­ver­si­ty offers tours through your branch libra­ry that you might want to con­si­der, for they pro­vi­de all the necessa­ry infor­ma­ti­on con­cer­ning the library’s pro­ce­du­res. What is more, you will need to renew the regis­tra­ti­on of your stu­dent ID annu­al­ly and can do so at every branch of the library.

Student ID

Have it on you at all times and do not lose it. This litt­le fel­la is your libra­ry card, public trans­port pass valid for the ent­i­re MDV zone and ID for exams. Also, you can char­ge it using cash or debit card at one of the many sta­ti­ons situa­ted in the dining halls and libra­ries. Thus equip­ped, you can pay for a tas­ty meal in one of the dining halls or cafe­te­ri­as with your ID. Even bet­ter: You can also use the card to pay for copies prin­ted with one of the uni’s devices at any time, the pos­si­bi­li­ties seem endless!

Please also remem­ber to always make sure to vali­da­te your ID, which you can do befo­re the start of every semes­ter using the blue vali­da­ti­on boxes of the Löwengebäude, House 31 of the Frankesche Stiftungen, or the Weinberg and Heidemensa dining halls. You can vali­da­te your ID for the second semes­ter as soon as you have regis­tered for the sum­mer term in January. A valid stamp on your ID is of cour­se also cru­cial for public trans­port, so keep an eye on it! 

Exams

Here we are: The end of the semes­ter has arri­ved. Your first exams are on the hori­zon. You can only pass them, howe­ver, if you have pre­vious­ly regis­tered using the Löwenportal. Should you have fai­led to do so, your par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on will not be offi­cial­ly regis­tered and you will have to take the cour­se again. All of this can be avoided by just making sure to regis­ter as soon as you can. Once all that is done and you have pas­sed your exams, you can access your gra­des using the Löwenportal. Not all modu­les will be gra­ded. For some, pas­sing them is enough.

Renewal of matriculation

Shortly befo­re the end of your semes­ter, you’ll have to re-regis­ter with the uni­ver­si­ty. You can do so by sim­ply paying your tui­ti­on fee (216,85 Euro for the cur­rent win­ter semes­ter). The dead­line for the com­ing sum­mer term is January 31st and July 31st for the win­ter term.

Please be awa­re that fai­ling to meet the dead­lines will cost you an addi­tio­nal ten Euro for the delay. But don’t worry, the uni­ver­si­ty will also send remin­der mails at the begin­ning and short­ly befo­re the end of the regis­tra­ti­on period.

Help

Should you find yourself at a dead end with any issue con­cer­ning housing or just over­all orga­niz­a­ti­on, plea­se do not hesi­ta­te to seek advice. Both the city of Halle and the uni­ver­si­ty offer ple­nty of infor­ma­ti­on cen­ters, like the Studentenwerk on the Weinberg cam­pus or the Stura at Uniplatz. The Löwengebäude also houses the student’s ser­vice cen­ter that will glad­ly help you tack­le wha­te­ver pro­blems you might have.

We also took the liber­ty of assemb­ling a list of web­sites for easy help and a first overview.

Let’s go!

Here you are, packed full of infor­ma­ti­on about being a stu­dent at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. We hope that we were able to help you or at least give you a pro­per first glance. Should you have any comments, worries or points of cri­tique, plea­se feel free to con­ta­ct us. Visit us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or just send an old-fashio­ned mail to redaktion.de.

Enjoy your stay, dis­co­ver the city, make new friends and see new pla­ces. But most of all: We wish you fun and suc­cess­ful studies!

Illustration: Ellen Neugebauer

Translation: Cedric Kollien

Die deut­sche Version die­ses Beitrages fin­det ihr hier.

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