International BAs

»Bewerber-AG« of KISD

The »Bewerber-AG« is taking care of the application procedure at KISD and supporting international and national applicants. If you have questions concerning the application procedure or your admission, please contact bewerber@kisd.de.

KISD Office and International Coordinator

The KISD Office and the International Coordinator is responsible for international communications and the international students at KISD. We are located at KISD on the first floor. If you are a prospective international student of KISD,  you may contact us for information or further assistance.

International Office of TH Köln

If you have questions with regard to the enrollment at TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences) or general information about first steps in Cologne, please contact the International Office of TH Köln. You may also find valuable information in the »Just Arrived« booklet of the International Office.

International AG

Once you have started at KISD, beside the ICC you may always contact the International AG of KISD (internationalag@kisd.de) for further assistance. The International AG is a students working group at KISD that supports international students and works very closely with the International Coordinator. Throughout the semester, they organize different events for and together with the international students at KISD. On their blog on KISD Spaces, they provide advice concerning first steps in Cologne. Here you also get informed about current activities during the semester.

Applicants from Member States of the European Union or the European Economic Area and Switzerland do not need a visa to travel to Germany. Students from all other countries must apply for a visa with the German embassy before leaving their home country. A student visa can be obtained by handing in an original (or certified) letter of acceptance to a German higher education institute at a German embassy.

A certified copy is a photocopy of an original document that has been signed by an official office to prove it is real. This can be done at a German embassy and certain consulates (of course you must bring your passport, the official document and the copy) or at a notary office. As German visa application procedures vary for different nationalities, please phone the German embassy in your home country, and make sure what documents you will need to supply.

Your passport will have to be valid for at least 1 year, and the visa application costs some money, and will usually take anywhere between 2 – 6 weeks, so make sure you don’t leave it for the last minute.

You may find more information about visa applications on the TH website.

Health Insurance

If you wish to study in Germany, you always need health insurance. All statutory health insurance funds in the country are obliged to insure students up to the age of 30 (or to the end of the 14th full study semester) at a favorable student rate. If you turn 30 (or study for longer than 14 semesters) in Germany, you can continue to be insured through a statutory health insurance fund by paying a higher premium. If you are already older than 29 when you start studying, you can only take out private health insurance. A short list of recommended providers and more information about health insurances can be found here.

When you open your account, you will have to bring your letter of acceptance of KISD or of the TH in order to get the reduced student price.

Personal Enrolment in the »Studienbüro«

You must personally enroll at the registration office at the TH (»Studienbüro«). The address for the enrolment is:

TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences)
Student and Examination services
Room A1.41a
Claudiusstraße 1
50678 Köln

You may find a map and a short explanation on how to arrive at the registration office on the International AG Space. The registration office is in the TH building at Claudiusstraße 1, at the main entrance walk down the stairs, then right into the corridor with the 2 red machines on the wall (this is also where you print your VRS semester ticket once you have paid your study fees). The registration office is the second office on the right.

Please bring the following forms and documents with you on the enrolment day, all the forms can be found online at this page of TH Köln:

• Letter of admission (Zulassungsbescheid) of TH Köln (this is the letter you received asking you to come and enrol)
• Your passport with valid student visa (If you entered Germany with a tourist visa, and are allowed to get a student visa later on, just bring your valid passport.)
• Filled in Résumé form
• »MultiCa« form (can be downloaded here)
• 2 passport sized photos (3,5 cm x 4,5 cm) for the Résumé and MultiCa form
• Copies of all the papers you sent to Uni-Assist
• Health insurance certificate / or card
• Enrollment form of TH Köln
• German proficiency certificate (if it was not already proceeded by uni-assist)
• Signed certificate of minimum six month internship
• Letter of admission of KISD (certificate of having successfully passed the examination)

Please note: As all BA programs offered by TH Köln require a minimum of German, not all of the staff members in the registration office speak English. Both the International Office at the TH and the International Cooperation Center (ICC) at KISD will do their best to assist you if needed. Please feel free to call the ICC at KISD (Tel: 0221 / 82753606) or directly visit the International Office. The office is situated in the same part of the building: section A, room 54.

Semester fees

As of winter semester 2011/2012, Cologne University of Applied Sciences will no longer charge tuition. For information about the regular semester fees which include a ticket for public transport in Cologne and surroundings please check the website of Cologne University of Applied Sciences. After your personal enrollment you will get a letter of the »Studienbüro« confirming your enrolment and telling you the bank account details of TH Köln in order to transfer the semester fees.

MulitCa

After you have received the letter from the »Studienbüro«, you can pick up your personal »MultiCa« in the International Office (A.54). This is your student ID and a rechargeable debit card, so you can reload it with money to spend at the different services of the FH (Cafeteria, copy machines). Two to three days after you have transferred the semester fees to FH Köln this card can be stamped at one of the red machines inside the FH main-building, Claudiusstraße 1, in front of the »Studienbüro«. Your card is only valid with this stamp and you will have to get a new stamp each semester. Once you print an additional printout, you will also be able to travel with your student card in the whole federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the explanation for this can be found on the International AG’s Space.

KISD Account: KISDspaces and Email

Once you have enroled at the TH, it is very important to create a KISD user account. You can get more information about this account here.

You will get a KISD email address and will gain access to the KISDspaces (the internal KISD web communications platforms). You can only create this account after your enrolment at TH Köln. In order to create the account you need your matriculation number, this you will get by mail a few days after your enrolment in person at the TH Köln.

Course Selection

As you know, it will be in your responsibility to choose projects, seminars and courses at KISD. You will do this based on the curricular calendar that changes every semester. The semester calendar with project list will be available on this website. If by then you are not yet enroled and do not have a valid user name for the KISD intranet, please read the course selection instructions carefully, and send your selected courses as a list via email to the Semesterplanungs-AG (semesterplanung@kisd.de).

Welcome Meeting

In the beginning of the winter term, there will be a Welcome Meeting for all the freshmen of the BA programs. The date is usually announced in the beginning of August via email by the Bewerber-AG.

Cologne Resources

At the beginning of October »Cologne Resources« project starts. This is an obligatory one-week project for all the freshmen students at KISD and new exchange students. You will get to know the resources of KISD and Cologne, and will have a chance to work in a small group with one of our 14 professors. The subjects of these projects vary from professor to professor in his/her respective field of teaching. On Friday, you will have your first public presentation.

Project and seminar start

One week later, the regular projects and seminars start. Please check the curricular calendar and make sure to come in time to the first meetings: Always at the first meeting of a project, the final decision will be made regarding who can join the project: if you are not present, someone else will get your place.

Please arrange accommodation as early as possible, as reasonably priced accommodation in Cologne is in short supply. Unfortunately, TH Köln can’t provide any student accommodation.

Kölner Studentenwerk

The simplest and often cheapest kind of accommodation is in a students residence hall. There are 84 hall of residences in Cologne, administrated by Kölner Studentenwerk (KSTW), as well as many privately run halls. Unlike in other countries, Germany’s student residence halls are not located on campus, rather throughout the whole city, giving students the opportunity to choose the location they would like to live in. If you are interested in a room in a hall, you can find detailed information as well as the online application form on the website of KSTW.

Due to great demand, an application is no guarantee that you will actually be allocated a place. However, your chances increase the earlier you send your application in.

You may find more information on the TH website.

Shared flats (WG)

There are a lot of shared flats (WG) in Cologne – it is very common for students to live together in one flat, each student has his own room, but you share kitchen, bath room etc. Please check this website to get to know tips concerning the search for shared flats.