First semester information

An e-mail address is automatically set up for all Ostfalia students after enrolment. The computer centre operates a central OWA mail and calendar system for this purpose. You can access your emails and the calendar system via the webmailer's web interface (external link, opens in a new window).

You can find more information about the email system on the computer centre (external link, opens in a new window)'s website. You can find out how to configure the emailclient on your smartphone or PC in the instructions for using the "OWA" functions (external link, opens in a new window).

Important information from the Examination Board is often distributed to all students via circular emails. Read yourOstfalia emails every day! And only send enquiries to Ostfalia institutions from your Ostfalia emailaccount.

To make it easier for you to start your studies, we recommend our preparatory and introductory courses, which take place before the official start of lectures. They provide you with the best possible support for your first semester and prepare you specifically for your courses:

• Maths
  17.02 - 28 February 2025, 8:30 - approx. 14:30, Room A122
  Registration at vorbereitungskurse.ostfalia.de (registration period until 12.02.2025)
  further information on the contents
• Introduction to the university'sIT infrastructure (self-study course)
  to the course

The lecture period for our first semester students starts on 22 September at 10:00 a.m. with a welcome by the Presidential Board. It continues at 13:00 with the first semester welcome by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. Here you will receive important information for your studies, such as how to register for and deregister from examinations. Attendance is therefore compulsory.

• First semester welcome from the Presidential Board
  Monday, 22 September 2025, 10:00 a.m
  Aula(to our room plans)
• First semester welcome from the Dean's Office team of Faculty E
  Monday, 22/09/2025, 13:00 hrs
  Lecture hall A(to our room plans)
  (compulsory event)

You can find your timetable on the faculty's timetable pages (external link, opens in a new window)

You will need your login details to access the timetables. Your account will be set up automatically at the start of your studies. The Ostfalia Computer Centre will send you the documents for your account by post. Further information can be found on the Computer Centre (external link, opens in a new window) website.

As our first semester welcome events take place on the first day of lectures, the regular lectures for first semester students will not start until 23 September 2025

Student tutorials:
You will also find information on student tutorials in the timetables. These are exercises that deepen the material covered in the lecture. Tutorials are usually led by students from higher semesters.

As the tutorials build on the material covered in the lecture, they usually start after the first lecture, often even later. Your lecturer of the corresponding lecture will provide you with detailed information about the start. Blocks labelled "stud. tutorium" (without further information on subject and lecturer) in the timetable are merely placeholders for student tutorials that have not yet been scheduled.

In the study regulations for your degree programme, you will find the study plans as well as catalogues of specialisations and compulsory electives.

They tell you which lectures and labs you have to attend during your degree programme.

Please note that not all lectures are offered every semester (especially in the main degree programme).

You can find the study and examination regulations under our information for students (external link, opens in a new window).

(as of summer semester 2025)

Outside of the curriculum, we offer our first-year students the laboratory introduction tutorial (participation strongly recommended):

Aim: Practical practice in preparing laboratory reports (Important: preparation and follow-up necessary / observe laboratory regulations)

Target group: all students without experience from the labs (i.e. all students in the 1st semester who are not repeaters)

Registration: Introductory event on Thursday, 25.09.2025. at 14:15 in lecture hall E (further information via the stud.IP (external link, opens in a new window) event "Tutorial Lab Introduction")

Contact person: Irina Balzarek (opens your email program)

MatheXL helps you to close maths gaps and consolidate important basics - no matter how different your previous knowledge is. You practise relevant methods in a targeted manner, repeat the maths basics and link them to the current lecture material.

The programme runs in addition to the regular maths lectures and is supervised by lecturers and student tutors. You can expect several weekly practice blocks, joint problem solving, help with problems, mid-term exams as practice and targeted preparation for the maths exam.

You can register for this by sending an email to Prof Siaenen (opens your email program). Please state your name, matriculation number and degree programme.

In the foundation course of the EIT and EITiP degree programmes, you take a compulsory elective subject from the area of key qualifications (3 CP, module BG-WP). We recommend that you choose this in the first semester. You can choose from the following:

• Technical foreign language (offered by the Language Centre)
• Learning and working techniques (from the Career Service)
• Rhetoric and argumentation (from the Career Service)
• Materials Technology (especially for EIT/EITiP)

For the WEIT and WEITiP degree programmes, the compulsory elective subject is not scheduled until the main course of study according to the curriculum, but here too it is worth taking one of the subjects mentioned in the basic course of study.

Please note: Places are limited. Register in good time. You can register for "Technical English" via the corresponding course in stud.IP (external link, opens in a new window). For the Career Service subjects, you can find registration (external link, opens in a new window)and further information (external link, opens in a new window) on the Career Service - Key Qualifications pages.

Stud.IP (external link, opens in a new window) and moodle (external link, opens in a new window) are two learning management systems that Ostfalia operates in parallel.

Most lecturers use one of the two systems for their courses. For example, they provide teaching materials andscripts here.

Students can, among other things

• Exchange files with students or lecturers
• communicate with other course participants and lecturers(e-mail, chat, forum)
• work with others on joint projects or tasks and much more.

We recommend that you register for the courses you want to attend at the beginning of the lecture period so that you don't miss any information about your lecture or lab. To do this, open the stud.IP and/or moodle learning platform and search for the course there, e.g. by entering the name of the lecturer in the search field. Shortly before the start of the lecture period, you will also find the links to the respective courses in the timetables.

To take part in lectures , we recommend that you register in the corresponding stud.IP or moodle course shortly before the start of the lecture in order to receive all relevant information about this course.

The number of places in the elective courses offered by the Language Centre and the Career Service is limited. You should secure a place here by registering early. You can find more information in the Electives tab.

In order to take part in an examination (or to take another examination), it is essential that you register in good time at the examination administration centre. For labs (which can normally only be taken from the 2nd semester onwards), this registration period is in the first week of lectures. For lectures, the registration period begins approximately 6 weeks after the start of lectures. You can find detailed information on registering for examinations at the Dean's Office's first semester welcome and on the Examination Board website.

Have you already completed examinations in a previous, thematically related degree programme and would like to have these recognised?

Then contact the examination board (opens your email program)by email and enquire whether recognition is possible for your current degree programme. It is best to send all relevant documents showing the relevant subjects and achievements.

The majority of Faculty E courses take place on campus in Wolfenbüttel. You can find out where our lecture theatres and labs are located on our building and room plan pages (external link, opens in a new window).

One exception to this is the online Friday at Faculty E. With a few exceptions, courses take place online on this day, so students do not need to travel to the university on this day.

The business courses of the WEIT and WEITiP degree programmes are also an exception. Most of them take place online.

You can also see from the timetables whether a course takes place online or in person. The lecturers provide the links to their video conferences in the corresponding stud.IP or moodle courses.

The video conferencing system BigBlueButton (BBB) is mainly used for this purpose. You can find instructions on how to use BBB in the RzWiki (external link, opens in a new window).