Information for enrolled CLEWS students

Quick Start for international students

This site provides links and videos to make it easier for you to get started with organising your studies at the University of Potsdam.

Welcome Center University of Potsdam

Our welcome center helps you to find your way to settle in Potsdam in any regards like Corona restrictions, VISA, housing, living costs, social activities, authorities, insurances and many more...

International Office

The Interantional Office offer interantional students support for questions regarding generel orientation at the university, university studies, legal information, and personal issues.

MINTernational - Social Events & more

Check out this page to stay informed about offers for international students at the Faculty of Science. We offer nice social activities & more regularly for you...

CLEWS Commission for study and teaching

Information about the commission for study and teaching CLEWS

Important information & dates

Important Dates & Deadlines during your Studies
Current Corona rules at the University of Potsdam
Check our latest updates to the Corona rules at Universit of Potsdam below the subheadline "General information on teaching operations, courses, and examinations"

Main buildings of the CLEWS courses

Photo: Institute

Click on the graphic to enlarge...

Discover Campus Golm

Map of all locations of the University
Campus Golm on OpenStreetMap
360°-Panorama and Campus Tour (german)

FAQ for CLEWS students

Helpful information about divers topics during your CLEWS study...

(this FAQ will be updated step by step...)

How do the students and the CLEWS coordinator communicate with each other?

CLEWS is using the chat platform Discord. This chat platform provides a variety of functions and possibilities to communicate with each other and exchange information. It is mainly used to network, help, and share information about everything regarding the CLEWS program.

When being elected to the CLEWS program you will get access to the CLEWS Discord server.

When is the deadline for course registration?

Newly enrolled students will receive their account in PULS (the University of Potsdam’s online platform for study affairs) along with their student ID.

The current deadline for registration, enrollment, and withdrawal period for courses in Master’s degree programs can be found here.

How do I register for modules and exams?

Each student needs to register for the selected courses at the beginning of each semester via the PULS platform. In general, each CLEWS module consists of different courses, mostly two courses. On the CLEWS courses page, you can find all module descriptions with their different parts, types of module exams, and the module responsible persons.

Mostly at the end of the lecture period, each student has to register for the corresponding exam for each module via PULS. Keep in mind that the time window in which registration for exams is possible is set by each teacher individually.

That means, to accomplish a module you have to:

Register for the corresponding courses, attend them, and fulfill the course requirements (e.g. succeed in the exercises or do a course presentation)
Register for the module exam and succeed in it.

What is a block course?

A block course is a type of intensive course in which all the lecture is held in a short time period for example within one week. The lecture times usually are from 09:00 to 17:00 from Monday to Friday. Hence, you have to block the whole week for doing that course. Doing other academic or work activities in that time is not recommended due to the workload of the block course. The exam of such a course usually is conducted at the end of the week. The main advantage of a block course is that you can accomplish a whole course in a short time period, have a very intensive working environment, and of course lots of fun.

How to register in PULS for the block courses?
The block courses have the same registration period land proceedere ike all the other courses.

How can I find my lecture room?

A map of the main buildings for CLEWS courses on the Golm Campus can be found here: Map of Campus Golm

The light blue colored buildings are the relevant ones for the CLEWS master’s program.

In general, the code of each room follows a simple structure:
- The first number corresponds to the campus (1 = New Palais, 2 = Golm, 3 = Griebnitzsee).
- The second number corresponds to the building.
- The third number corresponds to the level.
- The last number corresponds to the room number.

Example: The room with the number 2.25.1.104 is at the Campus Golm, in house 25, first floor, and room number 104.

How to get access to electronic resources of the libary

The University of Potsdam has a lot of contracts with different journals and you as students benefit from this. The only thing you need to do is to get access to the network of the University. Once you are connected to the system of our University you have access to a lot of scientific material - for free.

There are three ways to be connected to the UP network system:

When you connect at any campus of the University your laptop with the WLAN "UP-Campus" OR "eduroam", then you are automatically in the system and can make use of the access to the free electronic resources.
You directly use one of the computers of the UP libraries and download the articles on a USB stick or send them yourself via email.
You use a VPN program to connect from any place outside of the University to the University's network (I do this a lot, works very well!). Link: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/zim/angebote-loesungen/vpn

The following page provides more info about the electronic resources of the university´s library: https://www.ub.uni-potsdam.de/en/search-collections/electronic-resources

Free attempts to improve module grades

Non-binding exam for the first semester of study:
Beginning your university studies is connected with a number of new challenges. The University of Potsdam acknowledges the difficulties that come with having to orient oneself in an unfamiliar environment: Examinations that are taken in the first regular semester of study and that failed at their first attempt can be disregarded. That means any first attempt in the first semester can be counted as not happening if you fail. For example this can be used too in case you get a bad exam grade and would like to simply drop this grade for trying again.

Using 2 free attempts during the regular 4 semesters in the CLEWS program possible:
Each student in CLEWS can use 2 free attempts! You can use this to improve any module grade within the regular study time of 4 semesters. For this, you need to submit the completed form to the Examination Office (during office hours, by mail, or into the office mailbox) no later than 14 calendar days after the announcement of your examination results.

More info: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/studium/studying/organizing-your-exams/non-binding-exams

Info about the CLEWS container module "Recent Advances in ClEWS" (PHY-SS05)

This module can be used to import potential fitting other modules from other institutes or programs which are not part of the official CLEWS module catalogue. It´s a so-called "container" module. We offer every semester different non-CLEWS module options to choose from and integrate into this container.

Every student can use this module ONE time during their study to integrate one of the options we provide. In the timetable, these options are that´s why in light grey to make it clear it´s not an official CLEWS module. Once used, it will count as a 6 CPs (credit points) module.

For example, we offer for this semester the following three options

"Atmospheric chemistry and the ozone layer" (Prof. Rex)
"Remote Sensing of the Environment" (Prof. Bookhagen)
"Nonlinear Data Analysis Concepts" (Dr. Marwan)

You could choose one of these and it will be counted within the container module "Recent Advances" as 6 CP. Once you completed it, you can not use this container module again. Every semester we offer different options.

How to find free rooms at the University?

There are three ways to spot a free room at Universities campus:

Room booking in advance with a formular: The following page provides general information on room allocation at the University of Potsdam. The site provides a formula to ask a service team at the University to find and book a room for you in advance (e.g. for the presentation of your master thesis). Sadly, this page is only available in German. Use Deeple to translate it. (I will write them an Email to ask them to translate this page too, but it will take long). Link: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/raumvergabe/wegweiser-raumbuchung/student
Finding available rooms with the application "TimeEdit": All university members can check which rooms are when occupied (and when not) at anytime with the university's official room & time planning program called "TimeEdit". This program is luckily available in English too. You could select preferred rooms for instance and then see when they are free and when not. Just try it out. TimeEdit: https://cloud.timeedit.net/uni-potsdam/web
Write the CLEWS coordinator a message: The CLEWS coordinator is the official room and time planner for all CLEWS courses. Therefore he has the right to check and book available rooms at the campus Golm and could also help you to find a room.

Info on the CLEWS Alps Excursion

The CLEWS program contains one mandatory field excursion in the mountain region of the Alps. The excursion is around one full week and will happen in August or September at the end of the 2nd semester.

The name of the excursion is "Current changes of the Climate & Earth System: evidence in the field". During the diverse daily excursions the students will personally see, feel and discuss the changes in the climate and environmental system in the field. Each student prepares a report on a specific topic and will hold a presentation during the excursion.

This excursion is one of the highlights of the CLEWS master´s program. Students will be accommodated in traditional mountain houses and stay together the whole week. Each student must pay 50% of the costs per person, which is approximately ~200€. The other 50% of the costs are funded by the University.