The university collections are used to document and preserve the physical objects of research. They support the teaching by providing a tactile context for historical or abstract concepts, and by communicating overarching concepts in hands-on narratives. Regularly they are open for public audiences in guided tours and public events.

The medical history collections at theKarl Sudhoff Institute go back to the fundamental Leipzig research work of Karl Sudhoff (1853 – 1938). Since then, the collection has been continuously expanded through purchases, donations and bequests. Most of the objects date from the last decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. A small part even dates back to the 16th century. Selected objects and special exhibitions can now be seen in new premises on the campus of the University Medical Center.

Thanks to the work of generations of geoscientists at the Institute and donations from important collectors and patrons, the Geological-Palaeontological Collection at Leipzig University has grown into one of the largest and most important fossil and rock collections in the German university landscape. Today, the teaching and research repository contains around 85,000 items, spread across 1780 collection drawers in 110 collection cabinets. The items in the collection bring the diverse geological past of Saxony and Central Germany to life. Since mid-May 2019, they can once again be admired in their historic rooms. Regular events and special exhibitions provide the general public with geoscientific and palaeontological knowledge about Saxony, Central Germany and the world.

In general, maps serve to impart knowledge, act as orientation aids in the terrain, are contemporary witnesses and often also works of art. They document current and historical conditions of topographical and thematic content of any kind. The Geoscientific Map Collection of the Institute of Geography is a teaching collection comprising over 33,000 inventoried maps, atlases, travel and specialist literature and explanatory notes. The majority of the objects (approx. 26,900) are recorded electronically, can be accessed internally in a database or are also available online. The premises of the collection can be visited by appointment or during the opening hours of the collection.

The collection of the first Zoological Museum was opened in 1837 by the first Chair of Zoology, Eduard Friedrich Poeppig Eduard Friedrich Poeppig. From 1907, the taxidermist Hermanus Hendrikus ter Meer from Leiden made a decisive contribution with the dermoplastic technique: this made it possible to prepare vertebrates in a proportionate and therefore lifelike manner. In the 1960s a large part of the collection was transferred to other museums, in particular the Leipzig Natural History Museum.