Functions & Handling

Student ID Card

The UniCard is your official student ID card and must be presented for examinations and university elections, for example. To confirm the validity of your UniCard in the new semester, please validate the card at the beginning of each semester.

Library function

You can use your UniCard to borrow books and other media from the University Library and to pay for services and fees in the University Library.

Canteen payment card

To be able to pay with your card, please validate your card and then top it up with credit at one of the top-up terminals.

You will find the top-up terminals in the D building in the cafeteria on the ground floor (in the right-hand corner), in the basement (by the vending machines) and in the Menseria (opposite the extra counter).

If the payment function of your card is frozen, please place the card again on the payment terminal where you last used it. You can ask at the Studierendenwerk cash desks which payment terminal your card was last used at.

Semester ticket

The semester ticket is printed on the rewritable strip at the bottom of the UniCard as soon as you have validated your card.

You can find more information about the semester ticket here. If you are studying at the Centre for Distance Studies and Continuing Education (ZFUW), you cannot use your UniCard as a semester ticket, as you only pay a reduced semester fee without a share of the semester ticket.

NOTE: If you are de-registered, your semester ticket is no longer valid, even if you still have your UniCard (with expired validity).

Handling

The rewritable TRW strip of the UniCard and the thin antenna of the chip it contains can be damaged if used incorrectly. To save you the cost of a replacement card, please handle the card with care.

The UniCard should be kept protected in your wallet. If kept loose in your trouser pocket, the UniCard will quickly break. To ensure that the chip card works, it is important to protect it from bending, abrasion and soiling.

Heat also damages the chip and the TRW strip. Just like an EC card, it is better not to leave the UniCard in the glove compartment or behind the windscreen in the car in summer.

The card will not survive a wash cycle. It is therefore better to take the card out of your jacket pocket before cleaning. If you use the UniCard as an ice scraper, the chip antenna and TRW strips will break very quickly.

A hard card cover can provide additional protection. Soft card sleeves are unsuitable, also because the print on the rewritable strip comes off due to the plasticisers.