Admission Process

On this page, you can read about the general application/enrollment (admission) process and receive information about the type of response you have received: acceptance, rejection, or rejection with a waiting list option.

The enrollment process

For the application process and later enrollment process, it is important that applicants understand the two completely different points of contact at the Universität Hamburg, which you have to interact with at different stages of your application/enrollment/studies.

To avoid confusion we like to point out that there are two distinct points of contact of the Universität Hamburg you have to deal with for application and enrollment:

1. The IAS Team: The IAS Team is part of the Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg. Amongst other things, the IAS Team + academic advisor is responsible for the application process, selection process, program coordination, curriculum, questions about the IAS program, counseling of students and applicants regarding study plans, and exams. The IAS Team runs the IAS program and also contains the selection committee (a group of professors, post-doctoral researchers, lecturers, academic advisors) who select the applications. You should direct all questions regarding the content of the program, your curriculum, application, website, wiki, and difficulties while studying to the IAS Team. The IAS program has a special appointed academic advisor, who can be reached via ias-team@informatik.uni-hamburg.de and should be contacted regarding the above. The IAS Team is managed by this academic advisor (Dr. Annika Peters), who also is a researcher and lecturer and works closely with the academic office at the department of informatics but not for.

The academic office at the department of informatics for enrolled students: There is also an academic coordinator for IAS (Björn Hanssen) who you should contact when you have questions regarding e.g. module and exam registrations, recognition of credit points, recognition of german lectures or other lectures, transcript, etc.). They are not involved in the application process and will only become relevant once you start studying at Universität Hamburg Contact academic office.

2. CampusCenter Team: central administration of the entire university. The Team for Application and Admission ("Team Bewerbung und Zulassung TBZ") is located at the Campus Center - Main Campus and part of the central administration (Do not confuse this with the IAS Team and Selection Committee). They are running the online system STiNE, are centrally responsible for all admissions at the university, as well as for processing admissions and handling legal issues. The CampusCenter provides central student documents (student ID card, confirmation documents) and has full control over all formal issues leading to your enrollment. Once you are fully enrolled (paid semester contribution), responsibility is (partly) handed back to the IAS-Team and the academic office at the department of informatics and to your academic advisor who is the contact for all study issues (via ias-team@informatik.uni-hamburg.de). The CampusCenter is responsible for sending your letter of acceptance/rejection/waiting list and the enrollment process. You will need to send your enrollment documents to the CampusCenter once accepted!. Please contact the Campus Center for all questions regarding the official enrollment or confirmation of enrollment for a visa. Contact them via the CampusCenter

As a rule of thumb - always contact the IAS Team first: ias-team@informatic.uni-hamburg.de

What happens after I send my application? Dates (may change due to coronavirus pandemic) (last update 11 June 2020)

31 March 2020: You have sent your application to the IAS Team at the Department of Informatics before the 31 of March. The IAS Team evaluates (only complete) applications. Everybody else will receive a letter of rejection. Even in coronavirus pandemic times, there is no reconsideration. The number of complete applications exceeded the number of places available 15 times.

22 May, the IAS Team sends a list ranking all eligible applicants to the CampusCenter Team (the central administration of Universität Hamburg). Once the ranking is done, the admission process is happening at the CampusCenter until you are fully enrolled. This also means that we at the department of informatics have no access to the admission process in detail and only receive the final list of enrolled students shortly before the start of the semester! Please tell the IAS-Team@informatik.uni-hamburg.de as soon as you have received a letter of acceptance and when you have enrolled yourself in order for you to receive all informational emails regarding the start of your study. The IAS Team will stay in contact with the accepted students after application to ease the transition into your new study program in October/November. The IAS-Team with the academic advisors manages the IAS study program. In general, you should always contact the IAS Team (and your academic advisor) first or in cc: IAS Team's contact: ias-team@informatik.uni-hamburg.de.

Admission Notifications: 11 June 2020 due to the pandemic: The Campus Center will publish the results (acceptance, waiting list, rejection) of the current application period in your STiNE account. The CampusCenter Team decides how many of the top-ranked students receive a letter of acceptance (around 20) and provides instruction on how to enroll. Everybody else receives either a waiting list notification or rejection (missing formal requirements or incomplete application). Please note, 15 May was the "old=without corona" notification date. (See below paragraphs on Acceptance / Waiting List / Rejection for more information).

Enrollment: 25th June! usually 1-2 weeks after notification: For enrollment, the accepted applicants have to follow the procedure stated in their letter of acceptance. (The letter of acceptance will state what to do and until when - this is the most up-to-date information.) 2020 seems to be possible electronically!. Check your letter! After sending the enrollment documents and certified copies of your certificates, the accepted applicants are enrolled and for sure a student of the Universität Hamburg. Congratulations. Note: The CampusCenter may not send any acknowledgment for receiving your documents (especially if you have send documents via postal mail). If you need an acknowledgment, you need to request it via CampusCenter contact form. Once enrolled, your place for the Master International Adaptive Systems is secured until the semester starts even though you might not have received any preliminary semester documents. Please read the paragraph about Health insurance.

By Mid of August - 30 September (maybe later or earlier due to the coronavirus pandemic) the CampusCenter will have sent an email with your new student STiNE login, preliminary semester documents, and demand for payment of your semester contribution. After you have paid you will receive your full semester documents (at that point you will have arrived in Germany and at Universität Hamburg, probably will have started studying). Sending the preliminary documents that late is an administrative decision of the central administration (CampusCenter) at the Universität Hamburg. Sorry. Sometimes they are really late in September (2020 might be even later) with sending this one email with preliminary documents. Do not worry and if you need an acknowledgment of preliminary enrolment for assurance/visa/bank account please request it, CampusCenter Contact Form. Please also tell the IAS-Team if you have any worries regarding enrollment.

Arriving in Hamburg: Mid of October: The last two weeks in October are welcome/orientation weeks (date not fixed due to coronavirus pandemic). Please attend.

Semster starts 2 November 2020 Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the winter semester will start late - 2 November 2020. At the moment everything is planned for in-class lectures with everybody present. The Universität Hamburg has not made any more decisions so far. All accepted students who have confirmed their acceptance and enrollment plans with the IAS Team will receive updates via mail asap.

Please note, due to the coronavirus pandemic some dates will change or are not fixed yet - nobody knows how the coronavirus pandemic will develop in autumn. The IAS-Team will notify accepted applicants via email (if they have told the IAS-Team that they are accepted). The central administration manages (only!) the notification whether you are accepted/rejected/put on the waiting list and the formal enrollment. That means please notify the IAS-Team@informatik.uni-hamburg.de when you receive a letter of acceptance right away - so we can inform you about how/when the winter semester starts for the new batch.

I have received a letter of acceptance ("Zulassungsbescheid")

Congratulations! You are one of the top 20 of a very long list of applicants. The letter of acceptance is very precious for a lot of applicants. The letter of acceptance should tell you how and when you need to enroll yourself. Usually, within 2 weeks after you have received the letter of acceptance, you need to send the matriculation form and officially attested/certified documents to the CampusCenter. Some help for the matricualtion form is provided here: see the matriculation form page. The enrollment is managed by the central administration's CampusCenter Team Application and Admission who manages all enrollments of the entire Universität Hamburg.

If you are NOT planning to take the place PLEASE waive the acceptance officially - only when you do so before the semester starts another applicant will be notified. * Free your place for somebody on the waiting list

I have already sent certified/attested copies for application, do I have to send them again for matriculation?

Until 2019 yes. 2020 seems to be different. Please follow the instructions stated in the letter of acceptance. You have to understand that the "IAS Team (+selection committee)" at the Department of Informatics is the place where you sent your application. The University’s Team at the CampusCenter ("Team for Application and Admission, Ger: Team Bewerbung und Zulassung) is the place where you send your matriculation = central administration of the entire Universität Hamburg. They are two different institutions spread across Hamburg.

In case you are experiencing any problems sending attested/original documents in the given period of time (2 weeks), then please contact both teams together in one email.

Please check whether your letter application states this:

To enroll, you will first need to accept the university place. Pursuant to Section 25 subsection 1 no. 1–3 of the University     Admission Bylaws (UniZS), you must meet the following requirements:

1. Carefully complete the following form: www.uni-hamburg.de/online-enrollment
Submit this form and attach all of the supporting documents detailed in the checklist www.uni-hamburg.de/checklistmasterinternational
2. Universität Hamburg must receive your complete enrollment application by Juni 25, 2020. This deadline is final; no extensions   can be granted.

If you fail to meet any of these requirements, your application will become invalid and you will no longer be able to enroll.

If yes follow these instructions and follow these links: they should lead you to the online procedure. Please check your letter and with the campus center if you need to send anything via postal mail in 2020.

I do not have German health insurance! What do I have to do?

You can only get German health insurance once you have a valid address in Germany. The Campus Center Team for Application and Admission is aware of this problem and you can provide the confirmation once you are in Germany and have accommodation. Please attach a note to your enrollment/matriculation form, saying that you are an international student from outside Europe/Germany. (The IAS Team is not sure whether you are able to do that in the new online enrollment procedure!)

Please check the official information here: Info of Universität Hamburg and Info of the city of Hamburg.

Travel health insurance does not provide sufficient coverage for the duration of studies in Germany.

Please see the FAQ section on health insurance.

Where do I have to send the matriculation (enrollment) documents?

The address is given on the top-right hand side of the first page of the letter of acceptance. As the procedure changed - look at your letter of acceptance - in 2020 it seems to be possible via online procedure.

How to waive your place (after enrollment)

In case you are one of the 20 lucky students who receive a letter of acceptance in mid of May (11 June 2020!), enrolled yourself, then decided you do not want to start studying the IAS Master please fill in this form as early as possible: Please be a fair player, otherwise, nobody will be contacted on the waiting list and the place will be lost. For sure, nobody will be contacted when the semester has started.

• Free your accepted place for somebody on the waiting list

Statistics 2020 (available 11 June 2020)

Short statistics: Usually, there are more than 400 applications and only 20 open spaces to be filled therefore the requirements for applying are strict with no exception. Even in the coronavirus times, the application number has been >300 from 35 nations for 20 spaces.