While in Berlin
Berlin offers numerous affordable accommodation facilities for students, and yet, its housing situation is rather competitive. We advise you to start search for a place as soon as possible.
The Berlin Student Union (Studierendenwerk Berlin) manages about 40 residences with approximately 10,500 rooms all over Berlin. You can apply through their portal. In order to do so, you either have to have your student ID or, if you haven’t received one yet, your admission notice and proof that you paid the semester fees. You will find more information about the different halls, their locations, and their terms of rent at the Union’s website. If you wish to contact the Union directly, you can do so at Hardenbergstr. 34 (room 6) in 10623 Berlin or at info@stw.berlin.
The Student Village Schlachtensee offers furnished housing for students close to campus. With various stores and public transportation near-by, their apartments are a good option for those who seek a quiet, yet well-connected living experience in the city’s green Southwest.
The House of Nations offers rooms and apartments in different parts of town. You will find more information on location, availability and renting options on their website.
The registered society Förderkreis Junge Politik e.V. offers student rooms and flats in the city center at reasonable costs. With proof of our enrollment, you can submit applications online.
For regular flats and flat-sharing, you may want to try the following websites:
Even though you do not need to know German to attend our program, you might be interested in taking language classes. The options for doing so are manifold.
The university’s Language Center offers a host of courses throughout the year. The courses on offer during the semester cover Levels A1 to C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). To take part in a language course, there are several conditions. You must be enrolled at Freie Universität Berlin. You must also take part in an onSET-Deutsch placement test. Following the test, you must then register for a course at the level you were assigned based on the placement test. If you would like to attend an intensive language course before the beginning of the semester, please check out the information under Preparatory German Language Programme.
If you are interested in a more personal way of studying, you might want to check out the Center’s offers for tandem language partnerships.
Apart from the university, there are many different language schools which offer German classes at different levels and conditions. Amongst them are Berlin’s branch of the Goethe-Institut, Germany’s respected cultural institute, as well as the state’s adult education centers, the so-called Volkshochschulen. You can find the latter in all parts of town; they offer an immense variety of classes on all kinds of topics.
According to German law, everyone who lives in Germany must have adequate health insurance. If you want to get or renew a visa for work or study, you need to prove that you are covered by a suitable health insurance policy.
Before enrolling, you have to obtain a health insurance certificate from your health care provider. It must certify that you:
- are insured or
- are exempt (versicherungsfrei) or have been exempted (von der Versicherungspflicht befreit) from health insurance or
- are not obliged to have health insurance (nicht versicherungspflichtig).
You must provide your insurance certificate along with the university’s enrollment documents.
If you want, you may enter into a student health insurance agreement with any public health care provider in Germany. Should you be insured with a private health care provider in a non-EU and non-EWR country, you can choose whether to terminate your contract and take out German student health insurance, or whether to request an exemption from insurance obligations. Should you choose to request an exemption, you can do so using the (online) services of AOK Berlin Brandenburg. For this, you need to scan your insurance card (name and validity must be legible) or and the main page of your passport and mail them to studentservice@nordost.aok.de with a request for an exemption. AOK Berlin Brandenburg will send the certificate of exemption directly to the university. Once the university has received your exemption, you can complete your enrollment. The exemption cannot be revoked and is valid for the entirety of your studies.
If you are from a EU or EWR country, you are already exempt from the obligation to have health insurance. You can mail a scan of your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to studentservice@nordost.aok.de for confirmation of the exemption.
Many of our students work part-time besides their studies. We encourage such professional commitment but recommend to carefully assess indidiviual workload capacities and the effects a job affiliation may have on your student performance.
If you are looking for a job, you may start your search on the FU Job Portal.
Please also consider the following sites for your job search:
Also, the Student Union (Studierendenwerk) provides not only a list of current job vacancies (in German) but also useful information about general regulations regarding student jobs in Germany.