The B.A. programme "Social & Cultural Anthropology is taught in German, the M.A. programme Social & Cultural Anthropology is taught in English with some courses in German. The M.A. program Culture and Environment in Africa (CEA) is taught in English.

If you have specific questions about admission, enrolment, registration, scholarship opportunities as well as housing opportunities in Cologne, please contact the International Office of the University.

Once you have found a residence in Cologne, there are important bureaucratic steps to follow if you are a foreign student:

1. Register yourself at the next Foreigner’s Registration Office (Ausländeramt)
2. Open a bank account
3. Take out a health insurance with your student admission certificate from the University

You need a student-account to access the KLIPS 2.0 course registration system and the ILIAS e-learning platform – hence, a student-account is obligatory! 

Upon matriculation, please do not forget to request a so-called PIN (personal identification number) needed to activate your student-account. With the PIN number you can directly clear your account via the webpages of the Regional Computing Centre – RRZK.

The UCCard is important in many different areas during your student life in Cologne. The card is student ID, semester ticket and library card for the facilities of the University and City Library of Cologne.

Furthermore, you can pay cashless at the student cafeteria and cafés of the Kölner Studierendenwerk. More information on your UCCard you may find here >>

To get the card is easy: Upon immatriculation, you receive a document with which you come forward to the UCCard-Support. The card is directely issued at the counter for freshmen.

To use the UCCard as library card, you have to activate it online.

KLIPS (Kölner Lehr-, Informations- und Prüfungs-Service) 2.0 is a registration system required to manage your study programme by yourself (which is mandatory!).

The registration periods for the courses generally take place during the last week of the previous semester (1st allocation period) and during the end of the semester break (2nd allocation period). The exact deadlines will be announced here under "Semester dates + deadlines'.

You must register using your student account, user name and password (see above).

The examination management (sign in and out of examinations) is also available via KLIPS 2.0.

Be absolutely sure to become thoroughly accustomed to KLIPS, you will have to manage your study programme by yourself with this system! On the KLIPS support pages you will find detailed information that will help you to manage your study programme by yourself!
 

ILIAS is our university-wide e-learning platform offering seminar-related material . It also permits you to get in touch with other seminar participants via forums and chat rooms. You must register using your student account user name and password (see above).

Your UCCard is your library card. With the UCCard you can borrow books from the University and City Library of Cologne (USB), from the Cultural and Social Anthropology Library and from all other faculities of the USB.

Now it's about to start! Investigate the various information you still need in time, so that you don't miss the first dates and events, so that you can find the rooms and choose the right seminars.

You certainly won't be able to find your way around the university's sprawling campus right away. And the cryptic room information for the courses won't help either.

But you will see that after a while you will be able to tell directly from the room name in which building a given room is located. Rooms with Roman numerals, for example, are always located in the main building, whereas capital letters indicate lecture halls in the lecture hall building.
We especially recommend this:

Directions and maps (an overview)

Interactive map (in German)

Lecture Halls and Seminar Rooms (overview in German)