Admission and Studies

The personal situation of disabled and chronically ill prospective students can be taken into account when applying for a study place in both the bachelor's and master's degree programs. In order to give applicants with disabilities or chronic illnesses equal access to studying and an equal admission procedure, you can assert your disability or chronic illness by not receiving a direct rejection in the aptitude assessment procedure (EFV) or by improving your grades through a school report.

When applying for a Bachelor’s degree program with an aptitude assessment procedure (EFV) with the possibility of rejection in the first stage, students with disabilities or chronic illnesses have the option of avoiding a rejection in the first stage and to advance directly to the second stage of the aptitude assessment procedure.

If you have a handicap that might have a negative impact on your studies or had a negative impact during your school years, this can be taken into account in your application. In order to make use of this regulation, upload attached as a additional page to your school leaving certicicate the hardship application including proof of your impairment like a valid medical certificate or a copy of my disabled person´s pass (if existing).  

In the case of aptitude assessment procedures (EFV) or study orientation procedures (SOV), in addition to the grade of the higher education entrance qualification, subject-specific individual grades are also used in the application process. If your disability or chronic illness had a negative impact on your school leaving certificate, you can submit a school report (external link to hochschulstart.de with fact sheet to download) stating the grades that you would probably have received without the disability or chronic illness. Since this is a hypothesis – which grades you could have achieved without a disability or chronic illness –, issuing a school report is complex and time-consuming. You not only have to submit the circumstances that led to an impairment in performance (for example months of hospitalization), but rather provide evidence of how the circumstances affected the average grade.

You have to apply for such a report directly at your school. Please note that the preparation of a school report can take a lot of time! You should therefore apply for it at your school as early as possible and also include all documents on which the school report is based, such as certified certificates and specialist medical reports.

If you apply for a Master degree program you have to meet the specific requirements. 

Due to deterioration of a disability or impairment during a Bachelor´s degree program which impacted the previous studies negatively, special hardness can occur. Like the secondary school assessment the hardness need to be proved. It is recommended to contact the departmental contact person to discuss the personal situation.

On the website of the Information and Counseling Center Study and Disability (IBS) of the German Student Union you can find more general information about application and admission (German).