Children’s University FAQs

To help us with organization, we would ask groups of 10 or more to register by email. The contact details can also be found on the Children’s University web page.

As this is a course designed for children, adults can only take part if they are accompanying a child and provided there are enough seats in the lecture hall. Needless to say, children take priority over adults. If all the seats are taken, the lectures will be shown on a big screen in a seminar room or the foyer next door to the lecture hall so that the accompanying adults can follow along. These seats will also be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis.

Nothing at all.

The lectures are held in the Wolfgang Paul Lecture Hall at Kreuzbergweg 28 in the Poppelsdorf area of Bonn.

Lectures run from 5:15 pm to 6 pm.

Of course! You can join the course whenever you like and just pick those lectures that sound particularly interesting to you.

Mainly children aged between eight and thirteen. To take part in the Children’s University, a child must be able to follow a lecture quietly on their own (i.e. without their parents) for 45 minutes. Of course, children 13 and over are also welcome to attend the Children’s University if they are interested - we also offer science rallies for this age group.

All adult students have a student card that proves they go to university. So, naturally, all child students will get one too. All you need to do is write on your first and last names, and your card will be stamped when you go in for each of your Children’s University lectures. This proves that you actually went to those lectures. You will need a certain number of stamps to get a Children’s University diploma. Your card also lets you buy food and drink at student prices from one of the canteens in Bonn that are run by the Studierendenwerk Bonn.

Children’s student cards are handed out at the entrance to the Wolfgang Paul Lecture Hall at every Children’s University lecture. You should write in your first and last names yourself, which you are also welcome to do in your own time at home. You should keep your card in a safe place and bring it with you whenever you go to a Children’s University lecture. The cards then get stamped at the entrance before the start of every lecture.

A Children’s University diploma is a special reward for students who have worked particularly hard and attended 10 out of the 12 lectures per year.

To qualify for a diploma, you will need to have listened to at least 10 lectures out of a total of 12 across the winter and summer semesters. Children’s University diplomas are always handed out at the end of the summer semester. When we count the stamps, we go in this order: winter semester first, then summer semester. In other words, we start from zero again every winter semester.

Diplomas are presented at the end of the summer semester, not in the winter semester (which they used to be). However, you will need to collect stamps in BOTH the winter AND summer semesters (and in that order).

Unfortunately not. The session is a little reward for the students who came along particularly often.

Absolutely! You can complete as many semesters of the Children’s University as you like and get a new diploma every summer semester.

Yes. There are ramps in place so that wheelchairs can access the lecture hall.

There are only a few parking spaces very close to the Wolfgang Paul Lecture Hall. Although there is a small departmental car park just opposite the lecture hall building, this does not have many spaces in it either—and costs money to park in. The nearest car parks to the lecture hall (which also charge you to use them) are at the CAMPO-Mensa on Poppelsdorf Campus and on Carl-Troll-Straße. The best way to get there is by bike or public transport.

Coming from Bonn's main railway station, you can take bus lines 601 (toward “Venusberg, Uniklinikum Süd”), 602 (toward “Waldau”) and 603 (toward Röttgen). Get off at the stop called “Beringstrasse", from there it is only about a three-minute walk.