INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS GUIDE MASTER BIOTECHNOLOGY 2014 STUDYING IN SENFTENBERG INTRODUCTION CONTENT Hi everyone! Welcome to the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. 3 CHECKLIST BEFORE STARTING This guide shall provide you with helpful information regarding our university, our 4 HOW TO REACH SENFTENEBERG faculty, the city, and the surrounding area. 7 STUDYING BIOTECHNOLOGY It is written for students by students, so we want to share our experiences after 5 years 8 CAMPUS OVERVIEW of study and give you some useful advices 10 MASTER BIOTECHNOLOGY for the life in Senftenberg. You will find in- 11 MASTER THESIS formation about formal matters necessary for your study, as well as information re- 15 LIFE IN SENFTENBERG garding regulations and procedures concern- 21 SENFTENBERG CITY MAP ing the Master Biotechnology course, the 22 A TRIP TO BERLIN & DRESDEN Master`s Thesis, Senftenberg in general, sports as well as sightseeing targets in and 28 FURTHER USEFULL LINKS around Senftenberg. We hope this guide will 2 help you to have a good start in Senften- berg. Enjoy your time here! CHECKLIST FOR BECOMING A STUDENT BEFORE STARTING YOUR STUDY - REQUIREMENTS Administration. Following to your online application you will receive an admission formula from our univer- sity, but only if you are accepted for your chosen course of study. Your contact person is an assistant of the internal student’s office. Remember to hand in your administration voucher to the examination office as soon as you arrive in Senftenberg. Language: Official language of the biotechnology master course is English, thus all lectures and courses are taught in English and thus fluent language skills are indispensable. However, Senftenberg is a small German town and people do not generally speak English. For the daily life at least German language level 1 is man- datory. Visa: If you are not from a country of the European Union, you need an official permission to stay in Ger- many for a longer period - a visa. However, applying for a visa might result in a long-lasting process ranging from one to three months, depending on the embassy of your country. If you cannot manage to be in Senftenberg at the official first day of your course (e.g. due to a delay in the visa processing), please inform the University and confer with our faculty. You will find further information about the Visa process online at the Webpage: Study in Germany Living: Rent your own room in the dorm of the university online as soon as possible, since these places are favored by many students. The price depends on the size of your room. In general, there are single or dou- ble apartments available. Each apartment provides the basic equipment of a kitchen, a bathroom, an inter- net connection, a bed, a desk, a cupboard and a chair. Also public laundry rooms for all tenants are provid- ed. You have to pay a security deposit of 200 € in advance, which you will regain once you move out. Ar- range a date with the facility manager for the day you plan to arrive in order to receive the keys: 3 E-Mail: [email protected]; Phone: 0049 0335 5650957 Registration fee: Pay your registration fee of 231€ via online transfer according to the admission sheet you received from the University. If you have questions, contact the responsible person of our examination of- fice: Elke Cierzniak: [email protected] Schedule. You will find the schedule of the master program on the webpage of our Faculty 6 in the column on the right written in blue “Lehveranstaltungspläne” and then choose “MB.Sc” START YOUR STUDIES – THE FIRST DAYS Keys for the apartment: Meet the facility manager in house 1 of the dorm campus in order to get the keys for your room and all necessary information Blue Card: Show up in the examination office in room 2.213.2 building 2, to confirm your presence and receive the blue card, which allows you to enter all laboratories in building 15. Locker: Lockers are located at the end of the right first floor in building 15. To receive the keys for your locker, contact the secretary of biotechnology, Miss Noack or Miss Schumacher in building 14, second floor, room 14C.205. Students account: Go to building 1, ground floor, room 1.140 and open your students account for all online affairs like the E-mail system, the online examination office and access to the computer cabinet in building 15. Go to the local residents´ registration office (street: Markt 1) in order to register your official residence in Germany. Open a bank account, a health insurance and maybe buy a prepaid mobile phone in the city center. If you need help for these things, you can ask the kind people from the international student´s office. In general, lectures are form 8.00-9.30 a.m., lab courses from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. A lab coat and shoes you have not worn outside before the lab course are essential before starting your work in the labora- tory. Questions concerning your tasks can be discussed either with the professor or with the assistant re- sponsible for your group. In case you have some personal problems or need help in some situations, the door of Dr. Hansen (room 15.203) and Professor Küpper (room 15.304) is always open. HOW TO REACH SENFTENBERG? Ok! You arrived at the airport! What comes next? FROM AIRPORT BERLIN-SCHÖNEFELD (SXF) platform 2. This train will bring you to Dres- TO SENFTENBERG den Hauptbahnhof (Dresden main station) In order to travel from the airport Berlin- where you have to change trains. Once ar- Schönefeld to Senftenberg, you have to take rived in Dresden Hauptbahnhof, you need to the train. A direct connection exists and all find platform 9 and take the train to “Cott- you have to do is to find the platform 4 at bus”. This train will stop at the Senftenberg the train station. The train, which takes you train station. The whole journey will take from the airport to Senftenberg is called approximately two hours. RB14 with the destination “Senftenberg” and leaves every hour. You have to leave the Every student of the University has a so train at the last station of the track, which is called “Semesterticket” which enables every called Senftenberg. The journey will take student to freely use trains in the state of approximately two hours. Brandenburg and Berlin as well as the RE18 to and from Dresden. If still necessary to FROM DRESDEN AIRPORT (DRS) TO buy tickets they can be obtained at the ven- SENFTENBERG dor machines at every train station. The If your plane arrives at the Dresden airport, machines operate also in English. Further 4 you can travel to Senftenberg by train as information about travel can be obtained at well. You have to take the city train S2 with the webpage of the “Deutsche Bahn”. There the destination “Pirna” which leaves from is an English version of the site. Senftenberg train station University and dormitory ARRIVAL FROM FRANKFURT AM MAIN AIR- FROM THE TRAIN STATION TO THE UNI- PORT VERSITY AND THE DORMITORY If you are arriving at the airport Frankfurt Once arrived at the Senftenberg train station am Main, it is recommended to book a con- you can take the bus or a taxi to the univer- sity and the dormitory. nection flight either to Berlin-Schönefeld or Dresden Airport because the journey by Döge Taxi: 03573 2300 train is expensive, time consuming and you Hein Holger Taxi: 03573 663366 have to change the trains several times. The bus station near the university is called MITFAHRERZENTRALE Großenhainer Straße and the ride will take Another opportunity of affordable and not more than 5 min. The bus route circles convenient traveling from the airports to through the city, thus you can take the Senftenberg is the “Mitfahrzentrale” same bus if you want to go from the dormi- (www.mitfahrzentrale.de). On this webpage tory to the train station. Your train ticket is you can check if someone is traveling from usually also valid as a bus ticket. Otherwise the airports to Senftenberg by car. People you can buy the ticket directly with cash listed at this website offer space in their car from the driver after entering the bus. Un- for a small fee. fortunately, the bus does not drive during the weekends. You will need approximately 20 min from the train station to the universi- ty if you walk there. 5 Time table for the bus route from the train station Sfb., Busbahnhof to the University Großenhainer Str. 6 STUDYING Biochemistry and the Alberts-Molecular Biol- ogy of the Cell. To lend a book, you need to LOCATION open an account with the nice assistance on For the master of biotechnology, all lectures the left side of the entrance. For this pur- and practical courses will take place in the pose remember to take your students card seminar rooms and laboratories in building with you and you will receive a yellow library 15 as indicated in the schedule. To gain ac- card, which is sufficient for all your following cess to the floors and the laboratories, you visits. If you enter the library, you will find need the blue card you received from Miss lockers on the right side where you can stow Cierzniak from the examinations office. your bag and your jacket, since it is not al- However, be aware that you only have ac- lowed to take these things with you into the cess until 7 p.m.