Incoming Master students Wintersemester 20/21
Hello and welcome to the Masters in Physics program at Cologne University! In these difficult times, you may be worried about a lot of practical issues and things about your studies. A lot of information will have reached you already through official emails about how to go around picking courses, finding people and getting settled down in the city. Nevertheless, we wanted to offer you a curated collection of the same links, so you don’t miss out on any important information. Let’s dive in…
- First and foremost, get yourself registered in the Online-foyer (an open-source messaging platform for students) with your uni email address. You can change your language to English in the settings after logging in and you will find a separate channel for Master students where you can find your fellow classmates
Tip: You can download the Mattermost app on your phone and use it there too! - Subscribe to the Fachschaft newsletter
- Keep yourself updated with the latest teaching plans for the semester.
- We highly recommend that you go through the ThP welcome page (for guests and postdocs) for practical matters. You might find lots of important information there
- For international students, you can make use of the contacts at International office for administrative matters. For legal and practical information, please refer to the topics under the ‚International‘ tab in the main site
- The official Master of Science website has information regarding courses. There is also a summarized version of the same with the Fachschaft website
- While planning courses, if enough information for a module is not available in Klips, you can always go back to the module handbook to look for the module description. The long term planning section of the Masters website can also come in handy (but keep in mind that the planned courses are not binding and may change)
- For any registered module, it is always better to keep an eye on the Professor’s personal website. When accessing scripts/notes, if you get an error forbidding you access from your current server, please use the VPN access from the university. Once you are connected to the uni’s network through VPN, you should be able to access those pages
- Configure email in your phone/desktop apps for faster access. Connect to eduroam when in campus
- Use your Unicard as a semester ticket to travel for free within VRS and NRW regions. Although, only regional mode of transport is allowed with the semester ticket (No IC and ICE trains). You can take a person/bike with you for free during specific times/days. Look into the website for more information
- To pay for meals at the Mensa, you will need a separate Mensa card. Pass by KSTW infopoint (Universitätsstraße 16, 50937 Köln) and show your ID card and get a Mensa card after paying a 5€ deposit
- If you do not have a place to work, you can make use of study places at the faculty. Register for a place in advance and follow proper hygiene rules as mentioned in the site
- For the first time, we are introducing a buddy program to help the incoming master students and possibly organize online/in-person events to connect you with fellow classmates. If you have not received emails about the buddy program, please send a mail to physics-master-buddy@uni-koeln.de and we will include you in the mailing list for information about the events to be organised by the program
- Last, but not least, if you are facing mental health issues, you can and you should contact the Psychological counselling offered by the KSTW. The website is in German. But you can write to them in English and the people there have agreed to try and find someone to offer counselling in English for international students. Also, you can contact the students representatives for Beauftragte für körperliche, psychische und sonstige Beeinträchtigungen. You can find the contact email here under the same name. They will answer emails in English!
If you find any broken links, please write to us at fs-physik@uni-koeln.de and we will update them as soon as possible! Happy studying and again, a warm welcome from our student Fachschaft team.
