Profile of Kiel

The Baltic Sea, sandy beaches an the Christian-Albrechts-University – Kiel has plenty of beautiful places. Björn tells you everything you need to know about the most populous city in the northern German state.

 

Main entrance Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) Foto: Björn-Ole Bast

 

• State: Schleswig-Holstein
• Population: 241.533
• Students: 24222
• of Medicine: 2.029

 

• Name of University: Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel
• Established: 1665 by Christian Albrecht, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
• Motto: Pax optima rerum – Peace ist he greatest good

www.uni-kiel.de

 

The city of Kiel

The city of Kiel and capitol of the state of Schleswig-Holstein is a small and special city at the Baltic Sea, which becomes more and more attractive. With more than 100.000 citizens it is the 30th largest city of Germany.
During World-War 2, Kiel hosted major navy-fascilities, which is why there aren’t many historic buidlings left. Therefor the ’skyline’ is shaped by an architectural mixture.

You can find the Imagevideo of the city of Kiel here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA_TmJ40hQY&app=desktop

The students really like the city, located directly at the Baltic Sea and between the two seas. So there are plenty of possibilities to attend nautic sports, as kitesurfing, windsurfing, sailing or scubadiving. Kiel studying where others go for vacation.

This contiguity and the love to the sea are the reasons for establishing the annual „Kieler Woche“ in 1882. It is the worlds largest sailing event with the character of a public festival, which always turns the city into a ’state of emergency’ for 10 days at the end of June.

Beside plenty of beautiful spots at the waterfront, the longest untilled promenade of the world and the „Nord-Ostsee-Kanal“, Kiel is characterized by sandy beaches and cliff shores. So there are many opportunities for the exausted medicine student to take a day off and breathe. Furthermore there is the „Schrevenpark“ a city park near city center, where students meet for barbecueing, celebrating, drinking, studying, relaxing, and more during summertime.

Kiel also offers a few versatile night clubs and alot of bars. If you are looking for more than that, it’s easy to get to Hamburg, the second largest city of Germany and northern metropolis. It takes only about one hour to get there by train. Unfortunatly the student ticket does not include this connection – only the city area of Kiel. Alternatively one can get to Hamburg by bus or airportshuttle. The latter offers a special rate for students holding a student ticket.

 

Studentlife

Kiel offers the possibility to study medicine and dentistry. The main campus is located in the city itself and one can get there by bus from almost everywhere in the city. The clinic (UKSH) where the second part of med school takes place is located apart from the main campus, close to the city center and the harbor.

The fact, that it’s possible to reach almost every street instantly by bike makes the bicycle the vehicle number one for students of Kiel. Even if the weatherconditions can be very rough, windy, foggy and wet. Students of Kiel still go by bike.

Most of the students are living close to the main campus and mostly on the western side of the city. The eastern side offers the cheaper apartements but also comes along with an unattractive environment and a much longer way to University.

Regrettably apartements are a bit rare, which raises the costs for living. Therefor it is pretty common to share an apartement with other students. For example one can look for vacant rooms here: www.wg-gesucht.de, www.wohngemeinschaft.de/wg/kiel

A little financial tip; the city of Kiel offers a welcome present (100€) to everyone who becomes a citizen fort he first time.

Besides the four founding faculties (medicine, philosophy, theology and law) from 1665, the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel offers plenty of other subjects such as scandinavian languages and oceanography.
More information are available here: http://www.uv.uni-kiel.de/en/fakultaten?set_language=en and for medicine here: http://www.medizin.uni-kiel.de/en?set_language=en

 

Med School

Kiel still teaches the old fashioned way. This means that the students of medicne attend basic subject as physiscs, chemistry, physiology, bipchemistry and many more for the first two years at the main campus. Afterwards they have to take the first stateexam, which is also known as „Physikum“.

If they pass they the test, the second part of med school with all the medical and clinical subjects starts. This takes another three years and is located at the clinic itself. For more informatipn about all the clinical facilities you can have a look to the gallery from my campustour.

This second part of med school is followed by a practical year which is framed by the second (written) and third (oral) stateexam. Passing makes you an assistant doctor. In Germany you do not get a doctors degree with graduating from med school, as in some other countries. To get a doctors degree you have to write another dissertation.

At the UKSH oncology, neurology and dermatology form the focus. This makes Kiel one of the leading cities of those subjects in Germany. One special development of the pathology of Kiel is the protein KI-67. It allows to dye human cells during the interphase and therefore allows to present the proliferation of cells and its dimension. This revolutionized the world of cancer diagnostics. Thereby the index KI comes from the licenseplate of Kiel, which also begins with the letters Ki.

You can find more information on the UKSH and all its specialties here: www.uksh.de
And here you can find the imagevideo of Kiel University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmoEW8glpU0

Besides the historical and famous doctors of Kiel, Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke (Quincke edema), Johann Friedrich von Esmarch (Esmarch handgrip and Esmarch mitella) and Hans Gerhardt Creutzfeldt (CJD), also the anatomist Walther Flemming (descriptor of mitosis) thaught at Kiel University. Furthermore the German Jürgen Drews, who is by now known for his Schlager music, studied four semesters at Kiel Med school, but droped out after that to become the crooner he is today.

One specialty of Kiel is the brandnew mentoring program. Small groups of students (usually two of each semester) get a doctor as a mentor on their side, who guides the students for their entire time at med school. This allows students to form networks over all from early on, and therefor can simplify things.

The application for 1st semester of Kiel Med school only works through the online platform „hochschulstart“ www.hochschulstart.de. The method of selection is the average grade of the Abitur or high-school diploma. Furthermore the University of Kiel doesn’t accept the „Medizinertest“.

If there are questions left open, please have a look at the linklist below or contact the departement of medicine, the registar’s office or the students association of medicine.

Registar’s office (international): http://www.international.uni-kiel.de/en
Students association of medicine: http://www.fs-medizin.uni-kiel.de
Department of medicine: http://www.medizin.uni-kiel.de/en?set_language=en
Link to the linklist: http://www.medizin.uni-kiel.de/en/studying/contacts?set_language=en