Campus life
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Advisor for international doctoral candidates and researchers
Service for international researchers
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Campus life
The University of Oldenburg has an open campus with many campus facilities and activities open to students, staff and international visitors, including their families. Our campus provides you with everything you need to get the most out of your work and research, as well as your leisure time. Below you find an overview of the main facilities and services:
Food and drinks on campus
The Studierendenwerk Oldenburg operates dining halls (Mensas), cafés and cafeterias on campuses in Oldenburg, Emden, Elsfleth and Wilhelmshaven. Students, staff, and visitors can enjoy varied and affordable menus including warm meals, a selection of salads, sandwiches/filled rolls (Brötchen), and vegetarian dishes. The main meals, salads and sandwiches are made fresh every day, with many ingredients and products sourced from small local businesses and from organic farming.
Mensa (dining hall)
The "Mensen" or dining halls on both campuses offer a wide range of daily menus and side dishes: fish, meat, casseroles, stews, vegetables, salads, soups and desserts. Side dishes such as salads, vegetables, soups and desserts can be selected as desired. At the dining hall on Haarentor Campus there is also a pizza-station and the Culinarium, an area where the food is cooked in front of you, offering great and reasonably priced menu specials including steak, casseroles, and fish dishes. For pasta lovers there is a pastatheke with several pasta dishes at each dining hall. Vegetarian and vegan dishes (meaning free of animal-derived ingredients) are also on offer as an alternative to the regular menus.
Cafeterias
The cafeterias, also known as "cafete" among students and staff, are popular places for meeting up with fellow students and colleagues. They offer snacks, sandwiches/filled rolls (Brötchen), salads, cakes, sweets, and warm meals, as well as tea (from organic farming), (fair trade) coffee, juices, milk and yogurt. The cafeterias open early so coffee, tea, and breakfast snacks are available from 8:00.
CaféBars on Campus Haarentor
There are three CaféBars spread across Haarentor campus, with one on the first floor of the Library where the newspaper stands are located (Zeitungsebene), one in A1, and one at the Student Service Centre (SSC). Though their name includes the word "bar", it actually means "coffee lounge" as there are no alcoholic beverages available, but only various coffee specialties, cakes and snacks. You can grab a cup of coffee or tea between lectures and have a chat, or, if you are in a hurry, order a cup of coffee for take away.
Haarentor Campus & Wechloy Campus
The University of Oldenburg has two campuses in close proximity to each other. The departments and institutes of the natural sciences, mathematics and the health sciences are located on Wechloy Campus. All other departments and institutes as well as all the main offices and the Central University Administration are located on Haarentor Campus. The University Library, the International Office, one of the two dining halls and sports facilities including a swimming pool and a sauna are also located here. Another dining hall and a cafeteria are located on Wechloy Campus, as well as a sports ground and the University's Guest House.
Intellectual property
You should ask your host department or employer as early as possible about all aspects regarding the handling of intellectual property, patents and inventions. The Employee Inventions Law (Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz) has changed significantly since 2002, and requires members of higher education institutions to report their inventions to their employers.
Almost all universities and research institutions have an office that is responsible for research and technology transfer. At the University of Oldenburg, the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Unit will give you advice on how to handle intellectual property and on how to register patents and licences.
IT services and user account
Our IT services at the University of Oldenburg ensure that students, professors, and staff have access to a computer and information infrastructure including the internet and the campus management system Stud.IP. In order to access many of the electronic services, university members are given a user account and a personal username (login ID). Visiting researchers who are not employed by the University, such as fellowship holders, can be given a guest user account (Gastkonto), though only upon application by a current university member. Please ask your contact person or the International Office to apply for a guest user account on your behalf. Upon application, you will be informed of your username, login ID and password, which you can also use for WiFi on campus. You will be allocated an e-mail address based on the following pattern: firstname.lastname@uol.de.
You can log in to your e-mail account via your web browser at webmail.uni-oldenburg.de/
The IT services help desk is the first place to contact if you have any problems using the University's IT facilities. It is located in the entrance area of the Central Library.
Learning German
German language skills are very useful in everyday life. To help you learn or improve your German, our Language Centre offers German language courses for beginners and to advanced speakers through all levels (A1 to C1), as well as German courses for special purposes such as business German, academic writing, or German in the natural sciences. Courses are free for university members (enrolled students, staff, fellowship holders, visiting researchers) and run from October to January (winter semester) and from April to July (summer semester). During semester breaks intensive four-week German language courses are also on offer. International visitors can register for any of the German language courses once they have taken the mandatory placement test organised by the Language Centre twice a year (in April and October) just before the lecture period starts. Please note that the test is not an exam but rather an instrument for assessing your current level of German and which course is best for you. If you are interested in taking one of the German courses, please contact the Language Centre prior to your arrival.
Private language schools in Oldenburg also offer German courses, but they charge fees.
Another great opportunity to improve your German is the Sprachtandem project (language partnership project) in which you practice your German with German native speakers and they practice your native language with you.
Shopping facilities and health care on campus
Haarentor Campus has a good selection of shops that cater to all your shopping needs. The University's shopping facilities include a gift shop, an eco-fashion shop, a travel agency and an organic food supermarket (complete with its own bakery). Another supermarket, a bakery and a copy shop are within walking distance. And if all that shopping puts a strain on your wallet, there is a Volksbank cash machine on campus.
Haarentor Campus is also home to several medical practices, including a dentist, a general practitioner also offering homoeopathy and naturopathy, a chiropractic and naturopathy practice and a pharmacy, as well as several branch offices of health insurance providers.
Stud.IP
Stud.IP (Studienbegleitender Internetsupport von Präsenzlehre, course-related internetsupport for classroom teaching) is a campus management system, or learning management system (eLearning), provided by the University and maintained by our IT services staff. It offers teaching staff the opportunity to provide online access to teaching materials. Web services such as sending messages to and receiving messages from students and discussion forums for lectures and courses are also available. Students have access to all lecture materials that are free from third-party rights and can register for courses, check important deadlines or office hours and take advantage of comprehensive and flexible support. You will also find a list of lectures and classes offered in previous, current, and upcoming semesters at the University, as well as contact information for professors, teachers, students, facilities, and institutions.
In order to access Stud.IP you need a user account. You can log in to Stud.IP via elearning.uni-oldenburg.de/
University Library
Our University Library comprises two library facilities: The larger central library is located on Campus Haarentor and houses literature on the humanities, cultural studies, economics, law, computer science and the social sciences. The departmental library on Campus Wechloy houses literature on the natural sciences, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The University Library contains approx. 1.4 million printed books and 2,129 printed journals. About 95% of the collection is held in open stacks. The library also provides access to electronic resources: 31,000 electronic journals, 161,000 eBooks and 52 databases are available.
Using the library
During opening hours, the University Library is open to everyone. A library card is required to borrow a book or other resource. The loan period for books from the central library is four weeks; the departmental library is a non-lending library. Textbooks can be borrowed for a period of two weeks.
Special services for researchers
The Media Technology and Production Service offers technical support for digitisation, audio and video production and the recording of lectures or television broadcasts. It provides auditorium and seminar room equipment and event technology. The University Library offers a wide range of services to assist researchers in publishing their scientific papers. Monographs, proceedings, etc. can be published with the Oldenburg University Press “BIS-Verlag“. The Oldenburg Online Publication Server /oops/ is available for open access publication of scientific results. The University Library also advises researchers on publishing in open-access journals. The University Bibliography continuously collects and catalogues the details of publications by academics employed at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. All publications published during their employment here are included in this bibliography and are searchable in the University Library’s ORBISplus search portal.
University Sports Centre
Do you feel like taking a break from your work or research to do some sport and be active? Would you like to meet new people? Our University Sports Centre is offering a programme full of courses and other activities that you can get involved in to keep fit and healthy: aerobics, horse riding, yoga, football, dance, capoeira, belly dance, table tennis, gymnastics and autogenic training to name just a few of the approximately 100 courses, some of which are free of charge.
The sports programme for the current semester is available online. Registration is required for some courses. You can do this either online or in person at the University Sports Centre.
Further sports facilities in Oldenburg
In addition to the sports facilities on both campuses there are numerous fitness centres, dancing schools, sports clubs and state schools in Oldenburg that offer team sports, courses and activities.
The OLantis Huntebad is a great place for swimming, sauna, wellness, and aqua fitness. It has an indoor and outdoor area with an open-air swimming pool that is open in the summer. The open-air swimming pool at the Freibad am Flötenteich is another great place to go in the summer.
The Dobbenwiesen, located between the city centre and the University, is a great spot for playing football and cricket.