In spring 2016, the German Bundestag passed an amendment to the Higher Education Statistics Act. The Higher Education Statistics Act, which came into force on 2 March 2016, obliges all state universities to collect and process certain data from their students and then forward it to the state/federal statistical offices in anonymised form.

As part of the re-registration period from 17 January 2017, all students will have the opportunity to collect further data via Stud.IP. This data submission is voluntary!

In the Higher Education Statistics Act (HStatG), the legislator defines data that is requested from students when they enrol/re-register students. Below is an excerpt from § 3 para. 1 and § 4 para. 4 point 13 of the HStatG:

Excerpt from § 3 para. 1 of the HStatG

(1) At the institutions named in § 2 number 1, the following survey characteristics are recorded for students, examination participants and de-registered students on a semester-by-semester basis, in each case after the end of the enrolment period or after passing or irreversibly failing the final examination:

1. Gender
2. Month and year of birth
3. Nationality; other nationalities
4. Country and district of home and semester residence;
5. Country, district and year of acquisition and type of higher education entrance qualification; if the higher education entrance qualification was acquired outside the Federal Republic of Germany, the country of acquisition;
6. Practical work experience before commencing the degree programme;
7. Practical semesters and semesters at preparatory colleges;
8. Name of the higher education institution; name of the location of the higher education institution if courses of more than 100 semester hours per week are regularly and permanently offered at this location; different higher education institution locations within the same administrative district or the same independent city are not to be listed separately; the same rule applies for city states as for independent cities;
9. Name of the other higher education institution attended at the same time; in the case of a higher education institution outside the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of the higher education institution attended at the same time;
10. Name of the higher education institution as well as the semester and year of first enrolment; name of the higher education institutions attended in the previous semester; in the case of first enrolment at a higher education institution outside the Federal Republic of Germany or attendance at such a higher education institution in the previous semester, the state of the higher education institution;
11. Degree programmes including degree programmes in the previous semester and at the other higher education institution attended at the same time;
12. Place of the intended final examination; in the case of a place outside the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of the intended final examination;
13. Standard period of study of the degree programme;
14. Type, subject, semester, month and year of the final examination;
15. Examination success and overall grade of examinations taken;
16. University at which the previous degree was obtained; if the previous degree was obtained outside the Federal Republic of Germany, the state in which the previous degree was obtained;
17. Type and duration of study interruptions;
18. Reason, semester and year for leave of absence and De-registration;
19. student status;
20. Subject and university semester;
21. Type of study programme.

Extract from § 4 point 13 of the HStatG

13. for study-related stays abroad: type of stay; duration of stay in months; country of stay and type of mobility programme.