Germany needs foreign specialists

Germany needs foreign workers, the country does not have enough engineers, so it seems wise to hire workers from other countries. Many students like in Automation and Robotics are eager to work in Germany after they finished their Master. To do that very good knowledge of the German language is mandatory, but there is a second obstacle that makes it very difficult to work in Germany for a local company. The immigration law (German) from 2004 makes it difficult for foreigners to work here, because the "Agentur für Arbeit" claims that a employee is only important if he/she earns more than 84,000€. No German company will pay that to a beginner, even with a PhD.
Some people told that it still is possible, but I do not know more about this. Does anybody of you have different or same experiences or know some foreigners who are allowed to work in Germany? Please comment or mail us.

Source: Tagesschau (German)

Council Meeting of Automation and Robotics

02.05.2007

Subjects of Meeting

• Formation of work group instead of student council
• Advantages are having our own money and less formalities
• 50€ per semester + additional budget for special activities such as orientation tutorial for new batches and meetings with barbecue parties (expenditures should be proved by documentation)
• There will be a meeting with ET/IT each year
• Malte and Jeronimo will be elected for Board of Examination to represent work group of AR

The full protocol can be seen here.

Please try to attend the next meeting…

Results for Computer Systems are out

The results for Computer Systems are out and can be found here. The results are poor, but the exam seems to be easier then the first one. The reasons for this are unknown, so if you did this exam and you know what went wrong in your exam, please comment or mail.

Workgroup instead of council

Yesterday, in a meeting with members of the Fak-Rat of the department of Electrical Engineering, they offered us the status of a work group as part of the student council FS/IT. We will have our own money and can make our own decisions, but we do not have the problems regarding a council, like regulations (in German). After a meeting of our council members we decided to enter negotiations with them and composed a mail (see below for the text of this Mail). Their suggestion could save us a lot of working time, which we then use to support you and especially preparing the arrival of the new students. After the end of the proceedings we will make another meeting of our whole batch, to get your confirmation.

Dear members of FS ET/IT,

As per our meeting with members of the Fak-Rat on 16.04 2pm, we put forward your suggestion about founding a work group instead of a student council in front of all A&R student representatives. After the discussion we agreed upon a forming a work group for A&R. We still have some concerns about the exact rights of this work group and the distribution of money, name of our group etc. We would like to discuss this in another talk.

Thank you very much for your suggestions and support.

Best Regards

Student Council Automation and Robotics

Results of Fundamentals of Robotics

The results of Fundamentals of Robotics are out and can be found here. The exam can be inspected at
IRF Room 212b, April 16th 2007 from 3 till 4 p.m.

Protocols are now viewable in your browser

All protocols are now accessible under this address Here as HTML Files, if you prefer the MindMap Version you can find them here. All new protocols will be published only there, you will not receive anymore Mails regarding this topic. We publish the protocols, because we do not think, our work should be confidential. If you would like to participate in the student council of Automation and Robotics, please let us now.

Welcome post for new students

As you might have received your admission by e-mail up to now, we like to welcome you to the Students Body of Electrical- and Computer Engineering.
We know you have a lot of questions concerning the course and the living in Germany. Thus we like to provide you with some of the most interesting and important issues concerning your oncoming studies. Feel free to have a look at the different folders of our forum and suggested websites for more information. As the next Winter Term gets closer, you should consider the issues also listed under the topic Newbie-Guides.
Source: Gerd Sebastiani

Starting step-by-step

Once you've arrived to Dortmund you have to manage through several steps which are compulsory for your stay. This check list just tries to be a help to guide you in this process. The list is intended to be followed step by step, but maybe you want to skip some steps if you have already made them. Anyway, here is the list:

• Get a flat.- Not the easiest step to begin with, but you need a place to live in eventually.
• Register your address in the Municipality.- You need to do this in order to open a bank account or get a health insurance.
• Get a bank account.- In the campus there are two banks: Volksbank (near the Mensa) and Sparkasse (near Sonnendeck).
• Extend your visa.- This is the nastiest step (the people in the Municipality is not so nice), but also the most important. You can't enroll to the courses and can't stay in Germany without it.
• Get a health insurance.- In Germany every person has a health insurance and foreign students are not the exception. You can't enroll to the courses without it.
• Enroll to the Master courses.- Finally, you have to go to Mr. Burda and enroll yourself to the Master program.
  

Get an Health Insurance

As you need a Health Insurance in order to enroll, you have to fix up something here. You'll find AOK offices located directly at the campus (near the S-Bahn stop), however there are also several more available in the web and throughout germany.

Hint: The local AOK office will provide special english spoken consultations. The AOK-Staff will ask you whether you are interested in joining them. You may still claim, that you don't want to sign now, thus considering other offers as well and comparing prices and services of the individual insurances.

More Assurance providers under the following links:
AOK
BKK
IKK
BEK
TK

Get Your Visa

Hence approx. 90% of the students are not yet residents of Germany, you need a visa to stay here. As we as Student Representatives have no influence on this matter, I kindly ask you to inquire about that at the Office of Foreign Affairs of the University of Dortmund (AAA). You find more information at their web page at: www.uni-dortmund.de/AAA

Hint: However, I must ask you to have a keen eye on the final date for enrolment here. If it is obvious to you, that you won't get your visa in time, then I strongly suggest waiting until next year! If you arrive too late for enrolment you cannot get enrolled at the Summer Term, as the Certificate of Admission are only valid for the corresponding Winter Term. As life is quite expensive in Germany (not considering your travel expenses), you should better use that time to stay at your home college and attend some German Classes.