Day-care centres ("Kitas") provide care for children from 3 months until school-age. Care is usually provided all day from 7 am to 5 pm. Nursery schools offer care for children from the age of 2-3 until they reach school-age. Care is usually provided from 7 am to 2 pm or 4 pm. Most facilities offer lunch as well as educational programmes.

If you require child care, please contact the daycare centre or nursery school well in advance and register your child so that the facility can reserve a place for you. In Essen, you can also use the parents‘ portal for child care places ("LITTLE BIRD") to inform yourself about child care places and direct inquiries to the facilities. More information about the procedures for this offer can be found here. A similar portal ("Kita-Place") exists in Duisburg, more information can be found here.

Kitas at UDE

The Kita "Campino" on the Duisburg Campus and the Kita "Die Brückenspatzen" on the Essen Campus each have 50 places for children aged between 4 months and 6 years. The kitas are open from Monday to Thursday from 7.30 am to 5 pm and on Friday to 4 pm. You can find more information on the website of the Student Services.

The University Hospital also provides its own day care center for its employees.

Local Day-care Centres

Qualified child care in day-care centres is also offered by the cities of Duisburg and Essen:

• Kinderbetreuung in Duisburg (Child care in Duisburg)
• Kinderbetreuung in Essen (Child care in Essen)
• Kita-Finder NRW (Day-care finder NRW)

In-home child care offers supervision and education mainly for children under the age of 3, which is usually provided at the home of the child-minder. In addition to small, family-based child care, a large-scale provider can accommodate up to 9 children. Fees are charged based on parental income.

To find qualified child-minders with valid child care permit issued by the Youth Welfare Office (Duisburg, Essen), please contact the Youth Welfare Office or other agencies.

With the in-house child care centers DU-E KIDS, the University of Duisburg-Essen offers its employees child care for children between 0 and 3 years of age in rooms on campus or in the close neighborhood. The care depends on the time requirements of the parents and can take place Monday to Friday between 8 am and 4 pm. You can find more information here.

The Student Services also run the "Campuskids" (Duisburg) and "Tiegelkids" (Essen) facilities.

The Family Service also offers the possibility of flexible short-term care by the hour, for example in the case that regular care is not available. Short-term care takes place in rooms equipped for children in the student residence "Auf der Union" near the campus Essen and is offered at flexible times from Monday to Friday. Children between 4 months and 12 years can be registered. This offer is free of charge for students.

During the Easter, summer and autumn holidays the Family Service Office offers a varied programme of holiday activities. The children of university employees and students at UDE and Essen University Hospital up to the age of 14, who have already started school, are eligible to participate. The activities take place on the Essen Campus from 8 am to 4 pm.