frisch! at FAU – a magazine for new students

An online guide to starting at FAU

Astronaut mit Visier

(Foto: Ardea-studio/shutterstock.com/zur.gestaltung)

Welcome to FAU

Congratulations! You’ve decided to study at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and already you’ve found a valuable source of information: our magazine ‘frisch! an der FAU’ can tell you (nearly) everything you need to know about our university. It’s normal to have a lot of questions when you’re just starting out at university. Who can help me? Where can I get information? What impact might the pandemic have on my studies? We can reassure you of one thing: there’s no need to write off student life and don’t forget to think about the future as well. There’s nothing to stop you starting to find out about spending a semester abroad already. Then, when it’s time, you’ll be well prepared. Until then, you can discover all that the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has to offer. ‘frisch!’ has plenty of tips about everything you need to know outside of your degree programme – accommodation, food, or having a good time, all without breaking the bank. FAU has an exciting range of further training courses and recreational activities on offer to cover all tastes, whether you are interested in (online) language courses, (virtual) sports courses, music or FAU campus media. If you are interested in being politically active and want to help shape FAU, a number of student initiatives would love you to get involved. And if you still don’t want to leave even after graduating, FAU is always keen to keep excellent young researchers.

We hope you enjoy your time here at FAU and do well in your studies. And even if you’re not quite convinced yet, you’re sure to realise once you’ve finished reading this issue: FAU is the place for you!

Your frisch! editorial team

frisch! at FAU:

download (German) or find hard copies around campus

Welcome to FAU! You’re ready to dive into student life. We asked the experts to share their top tips for making a successful start.

It can all be a bit much at the beginning. To help you keep track of everything whilst juggling classes, examinations and your social life, we’ve put together a list of the most important dates for your diary.

Your guide to the universe

Person in labyrinth
There are lots of new things waiting for you as a first-year student at FAU. To help you find your feet, we’ve compiled some tips and information about the most important points of contact.
IBZ

Leaving school and starting university can be quite a shock, and sometimes you would like nothing better than to just pull the covers over your head and hide. Don’t worry! If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact the Student Advice and Career Service straightaway. The team is always happy to help.

If you sort out your finances early on, you’ll free yourself up to have fun while you study.
FAU’s Student Advice and Career Service is an important port of call for any questions relating to student finance. We are happy to give you information on how to apply for scholarships and study grants.

FAU is committed to ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities when it comes to learning, research and personal development. The diversity of FAU’s members is a valuable source of potential and opportunity.

Missed a lecture? Can’t decipher your notes? Don’t worry! FAU has a wide range of online services and portals that will support you throughout your studies.

Off to university! For most new students, that also means leaving home for the first time. Student Services is on hand to help, however, no matter what crops up.

Get to know our faculties

Would you like to put what you’ve learned in lectures into use in a workshop or laboratory and expand on your ideas? You can do this and more in the TechFak-EcoCar Team. Their current mission is to take over the skies with an electric aircraft.

Have you ever thought about setting up your own company while you are still a student? It’s not such a bad idea, as students at FAU are in the fortunate position of having the Digital Tech Academy (DTA), the start-up consulting service and the digital start-up centre ZOLLHOF at their disposal. Anatoli took the bull by the horns.

Have you always wanted to get into media? Do your friends and family keep asking what exactly you’re doing? Maybe the next time you can reply ‘I’m at funklust!’

In moot courts, FAU law students compete with law students from all over the world in fictitious court proceedings. Students can network with other students in the FAU Moot Network.

FAU goes international

Studying abroad is one of the most exciting and informative things you can do as a student. But with being abroad, many questions come hand in hand. At FAU, we want you to know where you can ask questions and get support. Our international student Ani has some advice to make your start at FAU easier.

After time spent on trains and planes and cars you’ve made it – welcome to Germany! Many things will be different, but there’s no need to worry. Our experienced international students are here to give advice. With their help, you’ll find it easy to adapt.

Why not head out and see the world? Travelling is the best cure for wanderlust – and a semester abroad is a great opportunity to explore a new country, learn a language, make new friends and improve your career prospects.

Whether you want to learn everyday languages like English, French or Spanish or something more unusual like Arabic, Korean or Finnish: you are sure to find something in the courses offered by the Language Centre.

What do Erlangen and Nuremberg have to offer? Which university sports courses are available at FAU? How can I combine sustainability with studying? FAU vlogs #meineFAU# have the answer to these and many other questions, with FAU students such as Laura presenting videos with information about the University.

Things are probably not quite how you imagined when you thought about starting university. However, taking this next big step in your life is still something to look forward to even in these unusual times. At FAU, we are happy to help wherever we can, and you can learn a lot from other students too. Sophia, for instance.

Read about the most recent Corona regulations at FAU.

All the things students do

Illustration of the reaction and the photocatalyst

Chemical reactions can be controlled using coloured light by means of an intelligent photocatalyst developed by researchers at the Chair of Physical Chemistry at FAU and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. The colour of the light determines which programmed chemical reactions are triggered by the photocatalyst. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal ‘Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed.’.

The results of the FAU-St student survey are a valuable quality management tool for teaching and studying. Examining the data collected over a period of several years is an interesting way to discover any trends and changes among the responses. With this in mind, we will be looking at the results of the FAU-St survey from 2016 to 2020 during the next few weeks, starting with the questions about satisfaction with degree programmes in general.
Group photo

The aim of EELISA, the European Engineering Learning Innovation & Science Alliance, is to train a new generation of students across various countries to use intelligent technologies and sustainable solutions to tackle the current global challenges. FAU is one of the universities involved in the project.

You’ve arrived in the heart of Franconia and we want to give you some ideas for things to do in your new home that will help it find a place in your heart sooner. After all, university life isn’t just about studying.

Freshly graduated?

FAU has a range of services to help get you off to a flying start and make sure the transition from uni to work is a nimble sprint rather than a torturous marathon.

When you’ve got your degree, it’s usually time to start looking for a job, but sometimes things don’t always turn out the way you expect them to – like for FAU alumnus Melanie Lokotsch.

  • Print: P&P Printmanagement, Trabelsdorf
  • Print run: 11,000 copies
  • ISSN 2198-4425

  • frisch! an der FAU is published by: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schlossplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen
  • Responsible: Communications and Press Blandina Mangelkramer presse@fau.de
  • Editorial team: Deborah Pirchner, Johanna Hojer
  • Authors: Christina Dworak (cd), Katharina Götz (kg), Johanna Hojer (jh), Luisa Macharowsky (lm), Deborah Pirchner (dp)
  • Layout and title: zur.gestaltung, Nürnberg Cover photo: Ardea-studio/shutterstock.com