Exams - Frequently Asked Questions

At the time of the exam, candidates must be enrolled at Ulm University and the prerequisites, if any, must have been completed.

Exams are offered at the end of a semester. As a rule, the first examination period is in the last week of the lecture period and the first three weeks of the lecture-free period; the second examination period is in the last three weeks of the lecture-free period and the first week of the lecture period of the following semester.

Exam registrations for written exams have to be made at the latest five days before the exam date (e.g. exam date 21 February, last possible registration: 16 February). Late registrations are not possible.

The examens in the second examination period can be offered as open or as closed exams. If an examination is offered as a closed examination, only students may take it who were registered for the same examination on a previous examination date and failed it or who were authorised to withdraw due to a valid reason (e.g. inability to take the examination). Open examinations may be taken by all students without these restriction.

Exam registration as well as the printing out of certificates of registered and completed achievements is possible via Hochschulportal . This gives you the opportunity to register for your written and oral examinations and retrieve your examination results regardless of location and time. Please remember to check after each examinateion registration whether the registration hast actually been completed. To do this, call up the pdf certificate of registered examinations. Examinations which have not been registered for will not be counted (regardless of whether they have peen passed or failed).

Should a registration via Hochschulportal not be possible please register by sending an e-mail to Studiensekretariat.

Please always indicate the following information:
- first and last name of the exam candidate
- student ID number
- titel and number of the exam
- date of the exam
- name of the examiner
- if grade improvement attempt/additional subject
Please observe the respective deadlines.

If you do not appear for an exam for which you have registered, the exam will be graded as "failed" (5,0).

Withdrawal from a written examination, electronic examimation, oral practical examination or oral examination without good reaon is possible up to one day before the examination take place (example: examination on 10.02., Withdrawal is possible until 09.02. at the latest!). For all other examinations the deadlines are set by the examiners for withdrawal from an examination apply.

Withdrawal from an oral examination with a variable examination date is possible up to one day before the examination take place. In case no examination date is determined with the examiner a withdrawal from the examination is possible until the penultimate day of the semester (30.03. or 29.09.). A Withdrawal from an oral examination with a variable examination date is not possible through the campus portal. It is only possible by e-mail via the Student Administration and Exminations Office.

After this deadline, withdrawal from an examination is only possible in case of an important reason, e.g. illness. The application for withdrawal from a study and examination performance must be submitted immediately after the occurrence of the reason, without culpable delay.

If you are unable to take part in the exam on the day of the exam due to illness, please immediately submit the Formular für die Bescheinigung der Prüfungsunfähigkeit (medical certificate) completed by your doctor. It is not possible to withdraw from an examination after completing it.

§ 6 Abs. 6 of the General Framework of Ulm University for bachelor's and master's programmes stipulates that one or several examinations in basic courses must have been completed by the end of the third semester in the programme at the latest. The orientation examination can be repeated only once. You can find out which examinations form the orientation examination by consulting the applicable subject-specific study and examination regulations (FSPO) of your study programme.

Even if grade improvement attempts are possible in your study programme, registration via the Hochschuldiensteportal (campusonline) is generally not possible. Registration for free attempts is via email to Studiensekretariat. Please always indicate the following information:

- first and last name of the exam candidate
- student ID number
- title and number of the exam
- date of the exam
- name of the examiner
- grade improvement attempt

Please observe the respective deadlines.

During a semester on leave of absence, no study and exam achievements may be taken or completed. Exceptions to this are

- the repetition of failed examinations from a previous semester without attending the course in the semester on leave,
- the completion of study and examination work that was already started in a previous semester without attending the course in the semester on leave,
- the taking of examinations at Ulm University during a leave due to studying at a foreign university (non-integrated study abroad, e.g. ERASMUS),
- the registration, writing and submission of theses.

It is not possible to register for exams via Hochschulportal during a semester on leave of absence. Students of bachelor’s, master’s and teacher education programmes register for these exams in due time by email to studiensekretariat@uni-ulm.de. Students in medical and dentistry programmes register for these exams via Corona.

If you take more examinations in a compulsory elective module (e.g. transferable skills - ASQ) than are required, only the chronologically first examinations up to the attainment of the number of credit points are used for the grade calculation of this module. 

Students register for their bachelor’s/master’s thesis directly in the Studiensekretariat (student administration and examinations office). For this, use the forms
Antrag auf Zulassung zur Bachelorarbeit and
Antrag auf Zulassung zur Masterarbeit .

The person in charge in the Studiensekretariat verifies whether the requirements for registration have been met and checks the timely submission of the thesis. Requests for an extension of the completion time must be submitted to the subject examination board and can only be approved if the student is not responsible for the fact that the deadline cannot be met (e.g. illness, breakdown of machines required for the completion of the thesis, etc.).

Bachelor's and master's theses must be submitted to the Studiensekretariat in due time. Direct submission to the reviewers is not permitted. 

The bachelor's/master's thesis is submitted on time in the form of a PDF file. This is only possible by e-Mail .

CD-ROMs and USB sticks are not accepted. If the file is too large to be sent by e-mail, please upload it using the link below and enter studiensekretariat(at) uni-ulm.de as the recipient address.

Link to upload the thesis:

https://www.uni-ulm.de/einrichtungen/kiz/service-katalog/e-mail-kalender-zusammenarbeit/cloudstore/

Please make sure that the Declaration of Autonomy is signed (also in the pdf version of the thesis). Further information can be found in the corresponding letter.

In addition to the electronic form, the bachelor’s/master’s thesis must be handed in to the Studiensekretariat in due time as bound copies in the following programmes:
Advanced Oncology, Biochemistry (Subject-specific study and examination regulations 2017), Biology (Subject-specific study and examination regulations 2017 and 2011), Biophysics (FSPO 2014), Industrial Biotechnology, Communications and Computer Engineering (Subject-specific study and examination regulations 2017), Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Care must be taken to ensure that both the bound form (paper version) and the digital version (pdf file or upload to cloudstore) are received by the Registrar's Office by the deadline.

For all other degree programs (including teaching at high schools students), the following applies: A bound version does not have to be submitted; the digital version is sufficient. If students nevertheless submit a bound version of their thesis, the date of receipt of the digital version is considered the submission date. In the event that an examiner requires a printed version, this will be arranged between the student and the examiners on a case-by-case basis.

The submission of the bound version of the thesis can be done either by mail (address: Universität Ulm, Abt. II-2 Studiensekretariat, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081 Ulm) or by dropping the theses into the large silver letterbox. The letterbox is located before the Studiensekretariat, room 2203/M23. The number of bound copies corresponds to the number of examiners (master's thesis, always two; bachelor's thesis, usually one, except: Communications and Computer Engineering, two).

The Studiensekretariat immediately sends the theses (electronic or bound form) to the first and possibly second reviewer.

After receipt of the assessments and completion of all other examinations, the Studiensekretariat issues the degree certificate and the degree diploma. However, this can take several weeks.

Human medicine

• State examination

The Landesprüfungsamt für Medizin und Pharmazie publishes and continuously updates information on the state examinations in human medicine on its internet site. There you will also find, among other things, the licensing regulations (“Approbationsordnungen”) and information on examination dates. Registration for the state examinations is done online to the state examination office (“Landesprüfungsamt”). ·

• Courses leading to a Schein (certificate)

Students can only attend courses leading to a Schein (certificate) if they previously registered for them via the Dean of Studies' Office Anmeldung

This registration is also binding for the examinations to be taken for the first time in connection with the course. Registration must take place within the registration period previously announced in the Medical Faculty or, in the event that such a period is not specified, by the day of the start of lectures at Ulm University for the respective semester at the latest. For first-semester courses, this deadline is extended by one week. Further details can be found in the study regulations for the degree programme in Human Medicine.

Dentistry state examination

The Landesprüfungsamt für Medizin und Pharmazie publishes and continuously updates information on the state examinations in Dentistry on its internet site. There you will also find, among other things, the licensing regulations (“Approbationsordnungen”) and information on achievements required for examination registration. · Preliminary examination in natural sciences and dentistry as well as dentistry examination.

• Scientific and dental preliminary examination

The dates for the examinations can be found on the notice board at the Studiensekretariat (student administration and examinations office). Admission to the respective examinations is upon application (see Formularseite). The application is to be submitted to the Studiensekretariat together with all evidence required for the application (except for Scheine (certificates) to be submitted later). The deadline is 30 April for the autumn examination and 30 November for the spring examination.
Registration for the examination is binding. On this basis, admission is granted with a summons to the examination, which also lists the probable examiners. As a rule, the summons is issued 8 to 14 days before the examination date and must be collected in person from the Studiensekretariat.

• Courses leading to a "Schein" (certificate)

You must register for the individual courses leading to a certificate in the winter and summer semesters with the course instructor by the day of the start of the lecture or course at Ulm University for the respective semester. Students who have been admitted due to a court decision or through Hochschulstart in the late admission procedure must register by the 10th course day after the start of the semester at the latest (cut-off deadlines).
The certificates (Scheine) are awarded for regular and successful participation within the meaning of the Approbationsordnung für Zahnärzte (Licensing Regulations for Dentists) by the responsible course instructor after an examination and evaluation.

In the case of written examinations, a person entitled to examine who also regularly holds the course may be present, but does not have to be. However, it must be ensured that an invigilator is present. This is to ensure that examination candidates can immediately report any disturbance in the examination room or disturbances caused by factors outside the examination room, e.g. noise, and ask for a remedy. The qualification of this invigilator is the organisational responsibility of the teachers. In principle, scientific/non-scientific assistants, but also other staff members are considered to be adequate. In the case of professionally relevant examinations (all examinations in the bachelor's, master's and state examination programmes), it could be advisable to use scientific staff in order to be able to better address subject-related questions during the examination, if necessary, but also to be able to react more confidently and appropriately to candidates in the event of a suspicion of attempted cheating or irregular behaviour, in order to avoid examination disputes in advance. However, as there is no case law on this subject, these requirements are not mandatory - assistants can also be used as invigilators during professionally relevant examinations.
However, it is crucial that invigilators, irrespective of their qualification, are informed about the examination procedure and the instructions for an examination (what should be said from the examiner's perspective) as well as conceivable disturbances and know how to make a record of it and what to record (attempts to cheat, special incidents, reprimands of the candidates, etc.). This does not affect the qualification of the examiner. As a matter of course, the person assessing the examination must have a sufficient professional qualification to assess the examination.

What is written on the exam cover sheet is at the discretion and responsibility of the examiner. However, for procedural reasons, at least the following information should be provided on the exam cover sheet:

- family name, first name, student ID number, study programme, aspired degree of the student

- title, date and time of the exam

- grade and signature of the examiner.

For this, please use our forms.

In principle, nothing has to be read out, but it is at the discretion of the examiner whether to read something out or not. It could be useful to explain the examination procedure, the publication of examination results, the duration, aids, withdrawal from the examination and sanctions for attempted cheating. Candidates should be advised that by taking the examination they declare that they are mentally and physically fit to take the examination. For medical studies, there is a written “Belehrung der Prüfungsteilnehmer und Prüfer” (Instruction of Examinees and Examiners) which can be used as a guide.

Before the examination, the examiners/invigilators should print out the list of registered students from the Hochschuldiensteportal (campusonline) of Ulm University. The invigilators can use the student ID cards (matriculation number in connection with the name) to check the entitlement to take examinations, but they do not have to do so. It is at the discretion of the examiner/invigilator to decide whether to check. If the person requires the ID card for admission to the examination, it follows that candidates should also be refused admission to the examination if they cannot identify themselves either by means of a student ID card or by means of an ID card.

Publication is no longer necessary, as students can view and print out the results of their examinations online in the Hochschulportal of Ulm University as soon as they have been entered.

In principle, it is not permitted to publish examination results on the internet using student ID numbers, even with the students’ consent, as it is easy to establish a connection with other student data on the internet via search functions. If examiners wish to publish results themselves despite students being able to view them in the Hochschulportal, the following should be noted.

All candidates who wish to access their grades on the internet (not in the Hochschulportal) must be given a number for their examination, which they must remember and which may not be accessible to any other candidates. On the internet, the grade of the examination would then be found next to this number. Keep in mind that when numbers are assigned based on the seating order, it is possible for exam participants to also remember the numbers of the persons sitting next to them as well as other exam participants. So do not assign the numbers according to the seating order, but by other procedures. The publication of examination results on the internet is only permitted within a narrow time frame (30 calendar days).