Student ID and other cards

The TU issues a digital student ID to all students (a paper ID card can also be requested via the IDM portal). As a well-organized student, you should ideally always have your student ID ready!

Student ID

Before each semester, after you have transferred your semester fee (ideally in time, of course), you will receive your student ID card by mail. This means that there is a new card every semester, which makes it rather thin and paper-like.

With this student ID you identify yourself within the university. You need it to write an exam (there you have to identify yourself with this card and a photo ID) or sometimes even to enter buildings. But also outside the university you can get discounts in various recreational facilities (similar to the student ID).

What you will probably use your student ID for most often, besides the uses just mentioned, is as a semester ticket! This is printed on the back and allows you to travel with the public transport in the RMV area. You can find more info about the semester ticket itself in this chapter.

Be sure to check how long the ticket is valid. It is valid for the whole semester, but it is easy to oversleep the start of the semester and to be caught in the streetcar with an old student ID is annoying (especially if the new one is already on your desk at home).

To use the University and State Library (ULB), you can activate a digital barcode in the IDM portal (under “Account/Password”) or in the TUDa App. To pay for your lunch in the Mensa, you can use your normal EC/credit card or your smartphone and show your student ID to get the student price.

Goethe-Card

If you are studying medical technology, you will receive another card (Goethe Card) from Goethe University Frankfurt (cooperative study program).

The Goethe Card will be sent to you by mail after you have uploaded your photo in the HRZ of the Goethe University. It serves as a student ID on the Frankfurt campuses (since you are enrolled at both universities, you have two student IDs). You can also load it with money and use it to pay in the refectory on the Frankfurt campuses. Additionally, it offers benefits like free admission to the Palmengarten in Frankfurt. To make it valid, the card must be validated at one of the machines on the Frankfurt campus at the start of each semester. More information about the Goethe Card can be found here.

Regarding the semester ticket: Well, this is currently still a bit complicated. Students of medical engineering have to pay a higher semester fee, because the current agreement between AStA (who organize the semester ticket for us) and RMV says that in case of doubt of a double study the higher amount has to be paid. And since students of the Goethe-Uni have to pay more for the semester ticket than TU students¹, you also pay more for the semester ticket. At least the areas of the ticket of the Goethe University are a bit bigger.

So what you need to do: Now it gets really crazy. In order to get the semester ticket of the Goethe-Uni, you first have to go to the Servicezentrum der Goethe Uni to validate your Darmstadt ticket (which you receive by mail every semester). After that you have to use the machines at one of the campuses of Goethe University (Location of the validators at Campus Niederrad) to validate your Goethe Card as a semester ticket (the Goethe Card has an area in the lower third that is always rewritten with the current ticket). And you currently still have to do this every semester².