Start of studies – Bachelor Linguistics (integrative)
Welcome to the Linguistics Department!
Why study Linguistics at HHU?
Our study program is characterized by three features in particular. It is...
skill-oriented: Core modules focus on the development of key skills such as academic writing, linguistic data collection, statistical evaluation, qualitative analysis, and theoretical reflection.
research-oriented: The teaching staff are very active in research and are constantly designing new courses to incorporate the latest findings and methods of linguistics into teaching.
multilingual: Courses are taught in both English and German. Students and lecturers generally also speak other languages. Language courses and/or programming courses are also part of the degree program. Students thus learn to navigate confidently in multilingual contexts.
Course of study
Program content
There are, depending on the count, between six and eight thousand human languages in the world. They all have different sound systems or gesture inventories, different word structures and different sentence structures. What we call a ballpoint pen in English is literally called a “pen with a ball” in French. If we use the word order “Mey eats an apple” in English, the order in Japanese is “Mey apple eats.”
There are also strong variations within each language. Depending on age, region and context, we can express ourselves differently. Most people in the world also speak more than one language and can use expressions from several languages at the same time in a conversational situation.
We examine this diversity: How do languages differ from each other, what do they have in common? How do we learn languages? Why do we understand words and sentences that we have never heard or read before?
In our computer pools and various labs, we learn a variety of methods to investigate these questions.
Dates and events
The dates for the introductory events for the start of the 2025/26 academic year will follow.
| details tba | First semester introductory events of the student representatives (only in german language) |
| details tba | Orientation tutorial of the study subject (only in german language) |
| 13.10.2025 | Lecture start |
| 13.10.2025 at 10:30 a.m. in lecture hall 3A (Building 23.01) Broadcast of the speech in lecture halls 3B-3D and 2A-2D | Welcome speech by the principal |
| details tba | Introductory event of study subject (in German) |
Placement tests for Romance studies
If you would like to choose Spanish, French or Italian in the language module (recommended from the 3rd semester) and already have previous knowledge (from level A2), you must first take the following placement test:
Dates for Romance Studies at the start of WS 2025/26
Placement test dates (with registration):
French placement test: Tuesday, 14.10.2025, 10.00 - 13:00 (online)
Spanish placement test: Wednesday, 15.10.2025, 08:30 - 10:00 (in presence)
Italian placement test: Thursday, 16.10.2025, 10:30 - 12:00 (in presence)
For further details and direct links to registration, see the Romance Studies website
Frequently asked questions
To activate your university ID and other online services, you will need your matriculation number* (see below) and your activation code (which will be sent to you automatically by email or post after a short while). Enter both in the Identity Management (IDM) system: https://idm.hhu.de/sspr/public/activate. You will then receive your university ID and can set a password.
Please also watch the explanatory video.
*If you applied online via the HHU application portal, you can find your matriculation number at https://digstu.hhu.de (see video).
If you did not register via the HHU application portal, your matriculation number will be sent to you by post.
Once you have activated your university ID, various study certificates (e.g. for BAföG) are available for download at https://digstu.hhu.de. We explain how this works in this video.
The winter semester 2025/26 begins on October 1. Lectures start on October 13. Please note that some events, such as placement tests for language courses, may take place before this date.
Further information on dates and lecture times can be found here.
Course registration is done via HISLSF.