Admission Process

This page explains the enrollment process if you have received a letter of acceptance. If you have received a rejection or a rejection with a waiting list option, please redirect to this Page: Rejection & WaitingList.

What happens after I send my application? Rough timetable

31 March: You have sent your application to the IAS Team at the Department of Informatics. The IAS selection committee screens your application. If complete and you have succeeded in proving the minimum requirements your application will enter the evaluation process according to the selection criteria. (If not, your application will be rejected and you will receive a letter of rejection from the CampusCenter (central administration), see Rejection & WaitingList. )

End of April: The IAS selection committee finalizes their evaluation. All valid applications are ranked and evaluated. The IAS selection committee sends the ranked list of all eligible applicants and rejected applicants to the CampusCenter (central administration of Universität Hamburg).

Beginning of May The CampusCenter checks and evaluates the list and ultimately decides how many of the top-ranked applicants will receive a letter of acceptance. The IAS selection committee or IAS Team do not have jurisdiction here. Overbooking rates, Hardship cases and Waiting semesters cases are evaluated by the CampusCenter according to University law. This may change the order of who and when an applicant receives a letter of acceptance.

Mid-May Admission notification (18 May 2022): The Campus Center will publish the results (acceptance, waiting list, rejection) of the current application period in your STiNE account. In case you receive a letter of acceptance - the letter will provide instructions on how and when to enrol. Please also contact the IAS Team asap, so we can send you more information on the study program, onboarding and assist you with any questions you have. Because of the two jurisdictions IAS Team (entire program coordination) & CampusCenter (central administration area) the IAS Team can only estimate who receives what letter when. For every other letter please read: Rejection & WaitingList.

26 May 2022 Deadline for enrolment

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 precious for many applicants. The central administration (CampusCenter) manages the enrolment process for the entire Universität Hamburg. Please ask the CampusCenter regarding questions on how to enrol - contact should be stated on your letter of acceptance. If not use the CampusCenter Contact Form. Please tell also the IAS Team if you have any questions addressed to the CampusCenter (we are interested in updating the wiki). Here is a rather outdated help of the offline matriculation form : Help for the Enrollment Form.

Enrollment Deadline

Usually 1 week after notification (26 May 2022): For enrollment, the accepted applicants have to follow the procedure stated in their letter of acceptance (that is always the most up-to-date information). Check your letter! It is always a good idea to emphasise that you are an international student while enrolling - check your international address. After completing the enrollment form and fulfilling the points of the instructions - you are enrolled. Congratulation!

FAQ for newly enrolled students

Here the IAS Team has collected some questions that you may wonder about:

Acknowledgement of enrollment

The CampusCenter usually sends an (automatic) acknowledgment for receiving your enrolment documents (at least for online enrollment). If you need a special acknowledgment for your visa, you need to request it via the 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 and have not paid the semester contribution. Please read the paragraph about Health insurance and semester contribution.

Rough schedule after enrollment

End of August - end of September, the CampusCenter will send you an email with your student STiNE login, preliminary semester documents and only then will demand the payment of your semester contribution. After you have paid, you will receive your complete semester documents, new STiNE student login & tans. At this point, you may have arrived in Hamburg and probably will have started studying. Sending the preliminary documents this late is an administrative decision of the central administration (CampusCenter) at Universität Hamburg. Sorry. Sometimes they send the email with preliminary documents only very late in September. Do not worry. If you need an acknowledgement of preliminary enrollment for assurance/visa/bank account, please request it, CampusCenter Contact Form.

Please also tell the IAS-Team in cc if you have any worries/questions regarding enrollment.

Late September - first weeks of October: There are a [https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/piasta/veranstaltungen/piasta-welcome.html general international welcome week organised by PIASTA] and an IAS specific orientation week to help you settle in, receive computer science logins and understand the process of booking courses. Please attend. Orientation/Introductory courses for IAS start usually in the second week of October shortly before the lecture period starts (see onboarding emails regarding IAS Orientation oe-ias@informatik ... in July/August).

Lecture start mid-October Check the IAS Website & the universities main page whether there are changes regarding the lecture start and the way of teaching (digital / in-class). The last 2 semesters have been taught in digital form. Unfortunately, the University makes this decision on short notice.

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 for international students. As long as you have provided an address outside Germany in your enrollment documents, you only need to confirm German health insurance once you are in Germany and have accommodation. It is always a good idea to state in the enrollment form that you are an international student from outside Europe/Germany (if the online form lets you). The CampusCenter advises international students to provide their health insurance at the latest in mid-October.

Please check the official information here: Info of Universität Hamburg and General Info of the city of Hamburg. If you are over 30 years old, please also read the section about 30 years and older: Info of the city of Hamburg :

Please note "travel health insurance" does not provide sufficient coverage for the duration of studies in Germany.

Please see the FAQ section on health insurance.

If the next semester classes are in digital form - you do not need German health insurance if you are not in Germany.

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

The letter of acceptance contains instructions on how to enrol. In 2021, online enrollment was possible.

How to waive your place (after enrollment)

In case you are one of the 20 lucky students receiving a letter of acceptance and have enrolled yourself but 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, people on the waiting list won't be contacted, and the place will be lost. Nobody will be contacted once the semester has started.

• Free your accepted place for somebody on the waiting list

I have visa problems

Use this contact form of the CampusCenter for requesting visa help (official documents etc.).

Please note that you need to provide detailed personal information (name, program, enrolled, country, problem, application nr, student number) and ask precise questions. The CampusCenter does not have the time to write 100 emails asking for info step by step. If your visa matter is time relevant, please emphasize that in your request.

If nobody answers with 48h or you have a timely pressing matter, please check again that you have stated the importance and provided all information necessary. Please keep the IAS Team informed - we may have a direct contact for very important cases You can find the IAS Team contact information here.

Postponing the start of your studies once enrolled

In general, the IAS program commences once a year in the winter semester - you should start studying in October the year you have applied - in general, there is no "postponing" possible. However,

If your first semester is taught in-class with you and your lecturer present in Hamburg at the university: -> you should plan to be in Hamburg in time otherwise you miss your classes.

There will be no digital setup anymore, and you should start in time from Hamburg. As we, the IAS Team, know that the reality for international students is different (... getting visas in time, flights ...). The IAS Team decided to grant international students a grace period to arrive late in Hamburg. We will ask the CampusCenter to hold your preliminary enrollment for a longer time. Depending on how late arrive in Hamburg you may miss one semester but not more. Please get in touch as early as possible: ias-team@inf. You need to pay your semester contribution in time as everybody else.

If you want to start in the next year's winter semester, you need to waive your place and apply again without any better chances than any other application of the new application period.

If your first semester is planned in digital form:

You are allowed to stay in your home country longer if you want/need it as long as the lectures are taught in digital form. But you need to attend online classes like everybody else starting their studies in the first semester. If you know that you cannot take part in any lectures, please waive your place and apply again for the next winter semester.

Please note, the chance of receiving a 'letter of acceptance' may be a once in a lifetime possibility. We have only 19-20 places for over 300-500 applicants each year. The Top 50 applicants are all very good - excellent students.

Statistics 2022

Short statistics: There were more than 300 applications and only 20 open spaces to be filled. Therefore, the requirements for applying are strict with no exception. We received applications from 46 nations for 20 spaces. The Top 31 included 15 nations, 33% women, 66% men.

Waiving your enrollment (free your place for somebody else)

If you have enrolled yourself and you do not want to start studying, PLEASE waive the enrollment officially - only when you do so before the semester starts. The CampusCenter can notify another applicant on the waiting list.

• Use this form: Free your place for somebody on the waiting list

• Contact the IAS Team asap

Points of contact

To avoid confusion, we would like to explain the two distinct points of contact at the Universität Hamburg that you have to communicate with for the application, enrollment process and onboarding process:

1. Your first point of contact is the IAS Team. The IAS Team is part of the Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg. The IAS Team and academic advisor are responsible for the application process, selection process, program coordination, program curriculum, questions about the IAS program, counselling of students and applicants regarding study plans and exams. The IAS Team runs the IAS program and contains the selection committee (a group of professors, post-doctoral researchers, lecturers, academic advisors) who select the applications. Please direct all questions regarding the program's content, curriculum, application, website, wiki, and difficulties while studying to the IAS Team. The academic advisor manages the IAS Team. The academic advisor is a researcher and lecturer who cooperates closely with the academic office at the informatics department. Please keep in mind that their main tasks are research and teaching - not administrative when contacting the IAS Team. Contact the IAS Team

The academic office at the department of informatics for enrolled students: You should contact the academic coordinator for IAS Björn Hanssen when you have questions regarding 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: The CampusCenter Team is part of the 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 processing admissions and handling legal issues for the approximately 44000 students at UHH. The Campus Center provides student documents (student ID card, confirmation documents). It has full control over all formal issues leading to your enrollment (after the Selection Committee of the IAS Team reviewed and ranked your application). Once you are fully enrolled (paid semester contribution), responsibility is partly handed back to the IAS-Team and the academic office at the informatics department; and to your academic advisor, who is the contact for all study issues. The Campus Center 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 Campus Center once you are accepted!. Please contact the Campus Center for all questions regarding the official enrollment or confirmation of enrollment for a visa. Contact them via the Campus Center.

As a rule of thumb - always contact the IAS Team first: How to contact the IAS Team