All information on this page is based on Annex 9 - Subject-specific Annex German Studies of the BPO, point 2 "General information on studying" (1) Active participation (in accordance with Section 9 (5) BPO)

• Information on examinations

Only those in which students acquire a significant part of the desired knowledge and skills through dialogue and discourse with lecturers and other students. These are in particular seminars, tutorials and colloquia. Lectures are therefore NOT affected.

No. You can generally be absent from a course for an important reason (e.g. your own illness or your child's illness). You can even do this up to three times within a semester in a course without having to prove the important reason to the lecturer. Only from the fourth time onwards do you have to prove the important reason (e.g. with a medical certificate).

If the absences extend over a longer period of time for a proven important reason, a work plan must be agreed with the lecturer as to how the module objective can be achieved despite the absences. If the absences account for more than half of the sessions in a semester, such compensation is generally no longer possible. In this case, you can no longer obtain the CP.

You can't say that from the outset. If you are ill yourself or you have no childcare for your sick child, for example, then these are undoubtedly important reasons. A reason is important if you cannot reasonably be expected to attend the course. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to ask yourself: How important is my degree programme to me? How important is a particular subject to me? Students often excuse themselves by saying that they have to study for another exam - this is certainly not an "important reason", but an indication that something is wrong either in their own work organisation or in the structure and scope of a course.

The following consideration may help here: Normally, you have a job because you (have to) finance your studies in this way. Or quite simply: you work in order to be able to study. In this case, your studies are more important than your job, which is a means to an end. You should therefore organise your job in such a way that this order of priority is maintained. If you work so much that you can no longer study in a meaningful way, then something is going wrong. And please remember: studying is actually a full-time job. If you work a lot on the side, you will have to accept that your studies will take longer.

In this case, you cannot take the module examination and cannot earn any credit points. In practice, this means that you will not be admitted to the module examination.

Because studying is and should be more than just taking exams with the aim of obtaining a degree as quickly as possible. We want to move away from a culture of exams towards a culture of studying in which you and your activities take centre stage. Student presence is essential for this. This has long been written into the examination regulations.

Yes, but care must be taken to ensure that as little personal data as possible and only the necessary personal data is collected. Teachers should therefore not pass the list around, but keep it by asking questions and ticking it off.

No, but you have the right to do so. If they do not, you cannot exclude anyone from the module examination on the basis of the new regulations.

You are not obliged to do this, but it makes sense and is a form of courtesy; the teacher should also know how many students to expect in the course.

In fact, it is much less about mere attendance than about your active participation in the courses; active participation always includes attendance. The otherwise applicable criteria for active participation are determined by the lecturer at the beginning of the course in consultation with the students, presented transparently and set out in writing; the assumed workload must be presented and plausibly related to the overall workload of the course or module. Possible forms of credits in the context of active participation are, depending on the type of course, e.g. minutes, working on assignments, preparing or reading texts, giving short and impulse presentations, short presentations or similar. The lecturer decides whether the criteria for active participation have been met. Active participation generally includes the continuous physical presence of the student during the course sessions. It may also be agreed in courses that active participation does not include any specific forms of credits, but that the active participation of the student consists of participation in the plenary discussion and regular preparation and follow-up of the course. In this case, in the absence of other verifiable criteria, regular attendance is a prerequisite for admission to the module examination.

**Who decided all this?

All regulations were decided by committees in which the student representatives have as many votes as the lecturer representatives (equal representation). For example, the subject-specific annexes of the degree programmes of School III, which are the main focus here, were decided by the Study Commission with equal representation. The Faculty Council then endorsed this vote and adopted the changes unanimously. Students were also involved here. The new regulations are therefore supported by a broad majority.

Students and lecturers were also equally involved in the preparations. The basic outlines of the compromise that has now been adopted were negotiated around three years ago as part of the so-called "round tables"; students and lecturers sat at the same table on a completely equal footing. You can read the results of the 'round tables' here: uol.de/fk3/studium/runde-tische/; the new regulations are based on these.

No, because you still have the opportunity to freely select your degree programme and subject as well as courses within the framework of the requirements in the admission and examination regulations; nothing changes here. Of course, you can also choose not to attend a course permanently if you do not consider it to be useful. However, the logical consequence is that you will not be able to take an examination in this course; you will then have to choose another course.

Prof.Dr Albrecht Hausmann
(Dean of Studies FK III in the period 04/15-03/17, Dean FK III 04/17-03/19)