Frequently Asked Questions

Universität Hamburg does not charge a tuition fee. Admitted students will only need to pay a semester contribution every semester. 

The semester contribution consists of the "actual" contribution of €285 (in accordance with the 'Beitragsordnung der Studierendenschaft der Universität Hamburg' in its current version). It is made up of:

• €18.00 in accordance with constitutional student body regulations
• €176.40 for the semester public transport pass
• €5.60 for the semester public transport pass hardship fund
• €85 for the Studierendenwerk (in accordance with the Beitragsordnung des Studierendenwerks Hamburg)
• and an administrative fee of €50.

Thus a total of €335 is due for the winter semester 2024/2025.

For up-to-date information regarding the semester contribution, please visit this information page of Campus Center Universität Hamburg.

The Master of Science program in Integrated Climated System Sciences is primarily offered to students coming from a purely natural-scientific background - preferably with a bachelor's degree in a subject related to climate sciences, such as

• Meteorology,
• Oceanography,
• Geography,
• Geophysics,
• Environmental Physics or
• other Earth system sciences, as well as 
• Physics and
• Mathematics

A degree in another natural science bachelor's program may also be accepted, provided that coursework equivalent to approximately 90 credit points in the European Credit Transder System (ECTS) in subjects comparable to the curriculum of the aforementioned programs can be demonstrated.

Applicants to the ICSS program should demonstrate a good knowledge of physics and mathematics. We also value credit points in biogeochemistry,  economics and/or social sciences. If you are not sure about the compatibility of your degree with the requirements of the ICSS program, feel free to get in touch with us: sicss"AT"uni-hamburg.de.

Yes.

The list below is a compilation of basic knowledge in physics and mathematics required for the ICSS program. In case you are not skilled in the listed fields of knowledge, we strongly recommend you to fill these gaps before starting the course of studies here in Hamburg. There will hardly be any time to catch up with these deficits during the semester.

Category I: must know

Category II: should know

Category III: nice to know

The Master of Science program in Integrated Climated System Sciences is primarily offered to students coming from a purely natural-scientific background. If you hold a bachelor degree in an Engineering field, it is likely that you fulfill our 90 CP criterion in natural sciences and are hence eligible to apply. 

However, please note: 

• We are necessitated to prioritize applicants with a natural-scientific academic background in case of receiving more applications than places available - i.e. although your chances of admission are not zero, they are lower than those of applicants with a natural-scientific degree. 
• If you hold a degree in Mechanical or Civil Engineering, you have very low chances of being admitted because of the overall incongruence of your degree with the requirements of the ICSS program. 

In order to improve your admission chances, you could...

• Do an internship or volunteer in an area related to climate sciences (at least 6 months),
• Gather professional experience in an area relevant to the course, e.g. in research institutions with a focus on earth system and climate sciences, in governmental or non-governmental organizations, etc. (at least 6 months),
• Attend university courses in mathematics, physics, biology, geology, chemistry, economics and/or social sciences,
• Gain experience in a foreign country (not your own country; at least 6 months),
• Attend MOOCs,
• Work with a professor at your university in a project related to climate sciences,
• Publish (in first authorship) in an ISI-listed journal in a relevant subject area (e.g. earth system sciences, climate sciences, physics),
• Write your thesis over a climate-science-related subject,
• Etc.

Please note: Although the points listed above are a plus while applying, we would like to stress that all applicants fulfilling our formal application requirements are welcome to send us their application documents regardless of these extra bonus points. The M.Sc. ICSS is an inclusive and diverse program, which brings together many different biographies, academic qualifications and professional backgrounds.

You will NOT need to provide us with a certificate of proficiency of the English language, if...

• You are a native English speaker.
  In this case, you will only need to send us your highschool certificate in order for us to be able to sufficiently assess your linguistic abilities. 
• The medium of instruction of your bachelor's or (if applicable) master's degree was/is English. In this case, we require a written confirmation of your university regarding the medium of instruction.

In all other cases, you need to submit proof of your proficiency in English.

• A confirmation from your University, stating that your bachelor's or master's degree was fully conducted in English, or
• A standardized English test, e.g.
  • TOEFL iBT with a minimum of 90 (each subscore at least 20), or
  • IELTS with a minimum of 6.5, or
  • CEFR each subscore at least C1.

Applicants are required to submit the proof of their proficiency in English no later than March 31st (official closure of the application time line). There might be a few days of leniency in exceptional cases, but a late submission of English certificates in general is not admissible.

However, we are aware about the difficulties that applicants from certain countries might face as a results of deteriorating political conditions or existing economic problems, which might impede the submission of their proficiency certificate in a timely manner. In this case, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us - we will evaluate your case individually and try to find a solution.

Yes. If you haven't received your final (bachelor's) diploma yet, you can send us your application with an up-to-date transcript of records. If admitted, you will then have the chance to upload your diploma during your first semester at Universität Hamburg (by March 31st the latest, to be exact).

Application for the Master of Science program in Integrated Climate System Sciences is possible each year between 15.02. 00:00 CET and 31.03. 23:59 CET. From February 15th to March 31st, you will have the possibility to fill in your information and upload your application documents on STiNE. The application process is solely online - documents sent to us by post cannot be considered.

Before applying, please make sure to read the section "Required documents for a complete application" carefully for a detailed overview of the application requirements.

Our tip: It is highly recommendable that you send your application documents to us early. This way, you can ensure that you have enough time to fulfill any requirements that you might have forgotten, and/or possibly optimize or resubmit files within the application timeline.

Applicants holding school and/or university degrees from China, India or Vietnam must submit a certificate from Akademische Prüfstelle (APS) while applying to the ICSS program. The APS is a joint institution of the German Embassy’s cultural department and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and checks the authenticity of educational biographies and the corresponding educational certificates, and issues certificates if the result is positive.

For more information, please visit Akademische Prüfstelle Beijing, Akdemische Prüfstelle New Delhi or Akademische Prüfstelle Hanoi.

Yes. Under current estimations of the official student loans and scholarships regulator in Germany (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz BAFöG), a foreign student needs €992 per month or €11,904 per year at minimum to be able to live in the country. You will need to provide proof of sufficient funding while applying for a student visa in an embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Please visit the webpages of The Federal Foreign Office and Studying in Germany for more information.

The information in the table above are cited from the website "Studying in Germany".

With a blocked account, you can provide evidence during the visa application process that you have adequate financial resources. The blocked account must have sufficient credit in order to cover the costs arising for the duration of your planned stay in Germany, unless other proof of financial support is presented in the visa procedure. Certain standard rates apply that are based on the rates for German students. As of September 1st 2024, the presumed annual requirement that must be paid into the blocked account when applying for a visa amounts to 11,904 euros. The account may only permit the withdrawal of a certain amount per month (for students currently 992 euros).

The information above are cited from the website of The Federal Foreign Office.

The Admissions Committee of the School of Integrated Climate and Earth System Sciences will gather within two to three weeks after the closure of the application time line to assess and evaluate applicants' documents and eligibility. The decision on admission or rejection is then communicated to the team for application, admission and student affairs (Bewerbung, Zulassung und Studierendenangelegenheiten), which will then generally upload an admission/rejection notification in the applicant's STiNE account by the end of May.

If admitted, you then have seven days to accept your place on the ICSS program, otherwise your place goes to an applicant on the waitlist.

After being admitted and having accepted your place in the ICSS program, you will receive a preliminary enrolment certificate, typically by the end of August. You will receive your final enrolment certificate after having submitted all necessary documents (e.g. bachelor's degree, proof of health insurance, etc) and the payment of the semester contribution.

Please note that these documents are not issued by SICSS directly, but by the Campus Center of Universität Hamburg; therefore we cannot influence or accelerate the issuing process.

We are aware that international applicants need to apply for a student visa much earlier then they receive any official confirmation of their enrollment from Universität Hamburg, therefore we will automatically issue and send all international students a visa support letter after being admitted, which can be used to apply for a visa at any German embassy.

Please note: the visa support letter does not substitute the enrollment certificate.

If you want to submit any application documents (e.g. bachelor's degree or proof of your health insurance) after the closure of our application time line, please visit the section "Documents for Enrollment: Late submission" of Campus Center of Universität Hamburg and upload your files there.

We kindly request that you also let us know (mail to sicss"AT"uni-hamburg.de) about any possible submissions that you have conducted.

We have gathered some useful information with regards to this matter under Accommodation.

Different identifiers (Kennungen) are currently issued or provided for the IT systems at Universität Hamburg.

The B-Number (B-Kennung) is a non-transferrable personal ID . The format is 7 digits, always starting with a b, followed by 2 lower case letters and 4 digits. Students receive their user ID together with their enrollment documents. The B-Kennung is automatically valid as long as you are a member of Universität Hamburg.

This B-Kennung and the associated password gives you access to the following systems:

• STiNE
• e-learning platforms
• WLAN
• VPN
• possibly other technical systems

Different identifiers (Kennungen) are currently issued or provided for the IT systems at Universität Hamburg.

The UHH ID (U-Kennung; U-Number) is a non-transferrable personal ID. The format is 7 digits, consisting of 4 lowercase letters followed by 3 digits.

With the help of the UHH ID and the associated password, you can access the following systems:

• UHHDisk, UHHShare, UHHPrint
• E-mail to Unixmail / mailhost and the personal e-mail address
  firstname.lastname@uni-hamburg.de
  or for students:
  firstname.lastname@studium.uni-hamburg.de
• computer pools
• possibly other technical systems

In order to register for courses, modules and exams, you need a separate iTan number, which will be sent to you seperately before the begin of your studies. You will typically receive a list with 60 different iTAN-numbers which you can use when necessary.

For your M.Sc. Thesis you will need (at least) 2 supervisors. Please note that at least one supervisor needs to be a Full Professor ("Prof"), or qualify as a Professor (i.e. "PD" or "Dr. habil."). If you find your desired supervisors in the list below (List of approved thesis supervisors), a formal registration is not required at all, since this list contains supervisors who are pre-approved for the M.Sc. ICSS.

Should you not find your desired supervisor(s) listed as pre-approved, you will have to hand in an informal application to the Examination Board requesting a registration of this/these persons. In this application, please shortly explain why this person should serve as your supervisor. Please send this application including a short scientific CV of the person of your choice to Prof. Christian Beer (head of the Examination Board). Please put Dr. Sebastian Zubrzycki in the CC of your e-mail as well. You will then receive the decision of the Examination Board - also via e-mail.

Below you can find a list of currently approved thesis supervisors for the M.Sc. program Integrated Climate System Sciences as of 20th of September 2024. All newly approved supervisors will be added to the list below.
Please note: At least one of your supervisors needs to be a Full Professor ("Prof.") or qualify as a Professor ("PD" or "Dr. habil."). At least one needs to be a member of UHH and at least one needes to have teaching experience in MSc ICSS.

Supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen

Prof. Dr. Annette Eschenbach

Prof. Dr. Beate Ratter

Prof. Dr. Carsten Eden

Prof. Dr. Christian Beer

Prof. Dr. Dirk Notz

Prof. Dr. Felix Ament

Prof. Dr. Hermann Held

Prof. Dr. Inga Hense

Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann

Prof. Dr. Johanna Baehr

Prof. Dr. Jörn Behrens

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Böhner

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Scheffran

Prof. Dr. Kay-Christian Emeis

Prof. Dr. Lars Kutzbach

Prof. Dr. Michael Brüggemann

Prof. Dr. Moritz Drupp

Prof. Dr. Nedjeljka Žagar

Prof. Dr. Peter Hauschild

Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder

Prof. Dr. Stefan Alexander Bühler

Prof. Dr. Stefan C. Aykut

Prof. Dr. Timo Busch

Prof. Dr. Uwe A. Schneider

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Arndt

Prof. Dr. Tatiana Ilyina

PD Dr. Christian Franzke

PD Dr. Richard Blender (retired)

PD Dr. Thomas Pohlmann

PD Dr. Tim Rixen

Dr. habil. Livia Rasche

Dr. Akos Horvath

Dr. Andreas Rhodin

Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian

Dr. Benjamin Poschlod

Dr. Christopher Hedemann

Dr. David Holl

Dr. Eduardo Gonçalves Gresse

Dr. Hartmut Borth

Dr. Kerstin Jantke

Dr. Lars Czeschel

Dr. Lukas Brunner

Dr. Prem Raj Neupane

Dr. Sascha Hokamp

Dr. Sebastian Brune

Dr. Shabeh Ul Hasson

Dr. Xiuhua Zhu

Dr. Goratz Beobide Arsuaga

Dr. Stefan Kern

External Supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Bjorn Stevens

Prof. Dr. Helmuth Thomas

Prof. Dr. Ricarda Winkelmann

Prof. Dr. Victor Brovkin

Prof. Dr. Lars Guenther

Dr. Alexander Winkler

Dr. Christopher Kadow

Dr. Dirk Olonscheck

Dr. George Datseris

Dr. Leena Leppanen

Dr. Md. Nadiruzzaman

Dr. Peter Landschützer

Dr. Vera Melinda Galfi