Practical Year
Registration for the clinical placement year
Places on the clinical placement year (PJ) at the University of Oldenburg’s university clinics and teaching hospitals are allocated exclusively via the PJ portal:
You will find dates, deadlines and information on booking there.
Clinical partners and practices
Here you will find information about our university clinics, academic teaching hospitals and the University Medical Centre Groningen. For a clinical placement in general practice, there is an overview of the teaching practices.
Practical Year
As Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) has already emphasised, doctors should view their patients holistically and within the context of their environment. This philosophy shapes medical training in Oldenburg, particularly during the clinical year, or PJ for short. In addition to specialist knowledge, interpersonal skills are also crucial.
We therefore place great importance on students treating patients and staff with empathy. They should learn to act responsibly and to critically question scientific findings. In our modern society, medical professionals fulfil various roles, which are summarised in the CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists). These six competencies
- Medical Expert
- Learner/Scholar
- Collaborator/Team Member
- Patient Advocate/Health Counsellor/Health Advocate
- Manager/Accountable Professional
- Professional practitioner/Professionalism
- Communicator/Communication
form the cornerstones of our medical training. The foundations for these skills are laid during the first years of study. In the clinical year, the final year of study, these skills are to be further developed.
PJ consultation hours / face-to-face contact
Please feel free to contact us with any queries regarding the clinical placement! To arrange a face-to-face consultation during consultation hours, please book an appointment in advance at 
or send an email stating your preferred time. Consultations can also be arranged outside consultation hours by prior arrangement.
Dates and News
For up-to-date information on events and the staff of the Practical Year Office, please join the committee event ‘: 6.01.60000 Practical Year’ on . Here you will also find the presentation slides from previous information sessions, as well as the logbooks and forms relating to the Practical Year certificate.
An on-site information session will take place prior to the start of registration for the respective PJ cycle. This will be announced via the Model Degree Programme in Medicine.
The next clinical year information session will take place on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, at 11.00 am in room V03 0-D001. You can attend online via the link https://meeting.uol.de/rooms/q5f-8ek-sox-xtl/join. The session is aimed in particular at students planning to start their PJ in spring 2027. All other students are also very welcome.
PJ term dates
The clinical year lasts a total of 48 weeks and is divided into three 16-week rotations:
- Internal Medicine
- Surgery
- Elective
The order in which the terms are undertaken is flexible. The clinical year must be completed as a continuous period; in other words, there must be no breaks between the terms.
You can find the current schedule for the practical year on the website of the German Medical Faculty Association.
Training periods / Absences
The average weekly attendance time for clinical placement students is 40 hours. Attendance monitoring is the responsibility of the respective clinical departments. So-called ‘study days’ are not permitted.
In accordance with the ÄApprO, up to 30 days of absence are permitted over the entire clinical placement. Of these, a maximum of 20 days of absence may be taken in any one tertial, and in the case of a split placement, a maximum of 10 days of absence may be taken within a single split block.
| PJ type | Duration | Working hours (Mon–Fri) | Maximum number of days of absence during the entire PJ | Maximum number of days of absence in a tertial | Maximum number of days of absence in a splitting block |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% full-time | 48 weeks (3 x 16 weeks) | 40 hours per week | 30 days | 20 days | 10 days |
| 75 per cent part-time | 64 weeks (21 weeks of internal medicine, 21 weeks of surgery, 22 weeks of elective) | 30 hours per week | 40 days | 27 days | 13 days |
| 50% part-time | 96 weeks (3 x 32 weeks) | 20 hours per week | 60 days | 40 days | 20 days |
Part-time PJ / Location-specific
Oldenburg students may complete the entire clinical placement on a part-time basis (50 or 75 per cent) if their application for hardship relief has been approved. Students who wish to undertake a clinical placement on a part-time basis must contact the Clinical Placement Office in advance for advice and to make arrangements.
PJ evaluation
In accordance with the ÄApprO, students are required to evaluate each tertial of their clinical placement. The evaluation is carried out online at
At the end of the evaluation, a confirmation is generated which serves as proof of evaluation for submission to the clinical placement office.
PJ certificate
The following documents are required for the proper certification of your clinical rotation tertials:
- Certificate of the Practical Year (signed by the hospital)
- Certificate of attendance (known as the ‘med certificate’; not required for external students)
- Logbook
- Evaluation report
You can download all the documents at . The ‘Certificate of the Clinical Year’ may be signed on your last day of attendance at the hospital. If you take days off at the end of the tertial, this may therefore be before the official end of the tertial. However, please ensure that the tertial dates correspond to those stated in the overview.
Please also note that ‘Certificates of the Practical Year’ from an external or overseas Practical Year must be countersigned by your home university. You should therefore submit the certificates for all tertials to the Practical Year Office before using them for your M3 registration.
PJ Mobility
PJ tertials may be undertaken externally at other German universities or academic teaching hospitals. Applications must be made in accordance with the host university’s guidelines. Please therefore enquire with the relevant university well in advance regarding application deadlines and procedures.
Only elective modules offered by the University of Oldenburg may be undertaken externally.
You must keep the logbook provided by the host university. The logbook must be available for inspection by the examination board during the third part of the Medical Examination (M3). You must therefore make a copy in case your host university retains the logbook,
All clinical rotations must be correctly documented on the PJ portal.
Work experience abroad
PJ placements can be undertaken abroad on the student’s own initiative. Students who wish to undertake a PJ placement abroad must contact the PJ Office in advance for advice and to make arrangements. A list of recognised clinics abroad can be obtained from the PJ Office.
- In the case of a clinical placement abroad, the equivalence of the training content must be confirmed by a subject coordinator at the University of Oldenburg.
- The host university must confirm the student’s status.
- The English-language ‘Certificate of the Practical Year’ is used to certify the overseas tertial.
The risk associated with recognition, as well as the organisation and administration, lies with the students.
All clinical rotations must be correctly documented on the PJ portal. To plan stays abroad, for example regarding funding, students may also contact the International Office.
Pregnancy during the clinical placement year
As a student on your clinical placement, you are also covered by the provisions of the Maternity Protection Act. This means that as soon as you notify the university or the hospital/medical practice etc. of your pregnancy, they are obliged to take your new circumstances into account in accordance with the legal provisions.
As maternity protection cannot take effect until your pregnancy has been confirmed, it is advisable to inform the hospital/practice and the university at an early stage.
Here are the exact procedures for you to follow:
- Notify the hospital or medical practice where you are completing your clinical year of your pregnancy. Please also remember to inform the institution’s administration if this is not done automatically by the relevant department.
- Notify the university of your pregnancy via your personal profile on Stud.IP and by email to
- Contact the clinical placement office to discuss further planning for your clinical placement. If necessary, you can then apply to the LPA for an interruption to your clinical placement on special grounds. In the event of an interruption, parts of the clinical placement already completed will continue to be recognised, provided they were completed no more than two years ago.
- Important: You can continue your clinical placement in accordance with the provisions of the Maternity Protection Act! You do not need to interrupt your clinical placement. A personal risk assessment will be carried out for your specific placement location, and based on this assessment, you will be able to continue your clinical placement.
- There are hospital-specific areas of placement where you cannot undertake your clinical placement whilst pregnant. These include, for example, infectious diseases wards, areas with high levels of radiation exposure or paediatric departments. In consultation with you and the hospitals, we will look for alternative areas of placement or a more suitable schedule.
- Regarding your M3 examination: During the statutory protection period before and after childbirth, you may sit the M3 examination at your own request.
You can find further information on maternity leave for students at the University of Oldenburg here: https://uol.de/studium/mutterschutz-studierende
The Maternity Protection Act can be found at https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/muschg_2018/
If you have any questions, the PJ team will be happy to assist you at . We are, of course, also available for personal consultations.
You can also contact the Enrolment Office regarding this matter at .
Further information on the PJ
The PJ Office holds an information session approximately half a year before the start of the relevant PJ cycle. You can find the exact dates for these sessions in the announcements at .
Further information on the practical year can also be found at and in the Medical Licensing Regulations.
Your points of contact at the Practical Year Office for any questions or if you require advice: