Study Law

According to Section 59 of the Universities Act, students have a number of rights and obligations. Among others, the following are particularly relevant for your studies and exams:

• Students have the right to alternative modes of assessment. The student has to provide evidence of a long-term disability or conditions that make it impossible for him or her to take the examination in the prescribed form. The content and assessment criteria of the examination will NOT be affected if an alternative mode of assessment is used. Contact your SPL for more information
• Students have the right to take the oral examination in the presence of a confidant (Vertrauensperson)
• Students who drop out of an exam or a course with continuous assessment for an important reason will be de-registered. If examinations or courses with continuous assessment are interrupted without a valid reason, only the submitted part of the exam will be assessed. Valid reasons for interruption of a course or exam are, for example, illness, sudden deterioration in health, prolonged illness, etc.
• In case of courses without continuous assessment (i.e., lectures, VO), students may repeat failed exams three times (i.e., four attempts in total). (From the academic year 2022/2023 (from October 1st, 2022) students are entitled to five examination attempts) The following applies to courses without continuous assessment: The fourth attempt (third repetition) of an examination is to be held in a committee (oral or written) - at the request of the student, the second repetition (= third attempt) can also be held as a commissional exam in the presence of a board of examiners. There is no board examination for courses with continuous assessment (e.g., seminars, practicals, etc); in case of a negative grade, the whole course must be repeated
• It is expected that your exams are to be graded within 4 weeks (28 calendar days); if this deadline is exceeded, please contact your SPL. Students have the right to contest a negatively assessed examination that shows serious formal deficiencies. (Serious deficiencies are e.g. insufficient examination time, illegible examination questions, too few questions asked, no examination protocol, etc.) An appeal request must be submitted to the Office of Study Law (Büro Studienpräses) within two weeks after the grade has been announced via U:SPACE. The outcome of the appeal will be delivered by means of a notification. The assessment of an examination per se cannot be appealed (it must be a serious deficiency in the exam procedure) 
• Within 6 months of the announcement of the examination result, students have the right to inspect the exam papers and examination protocol. Students have the right to reproduce exam papers (with the exception of multiple-choice questions containing possible answers).