Expiring Exam Regulations

At the Faculty of Arts, the examination entitlements under the old Bachelor’s and Master’s examination regulations from 2013, as well as under the Psychology examination regulations from 2018, will expire in the upcoming semesters. Most degree programs can be continued under more recent examination regulations. However, a few programs will be discontinued entirely. If you are enrolled in a Bachelor’s or Master’s examination regulation from 2013 or the Psychology examination regulation from 2018, please refer to this page for further instructions.

In this list, you can see when the 2012 examination regulations and the 2018 Psychology examination regulations expire.

Please inform yourself well in advance if you are studying under old examination regulations (Bachelor’s and Master’s examination regulations from 2013, Psychology examination regulations from 2018). The first Master’s programs expire on March 31, 2021, with others (including Bachelor’s) following on September 30, 2021, March 31, 2022, September 30, 2022, March 31, 2023, September 30, 2023, and March 31, 2024. Studying in a discontinued program is not possible: if no application for a one-time 6-month extension has been submitted, a transfer to the new examination regulations will be attempted, or if the program is not continued, deregistration will be initiated.

In justified cases, the examination committee can extend the examination deadline by six months.

Possible reasons for this may include:

• Health reasons with corresponding documentation
• Possibly having a positively approved compensatory measure
• Justified and explained study delays due to COVID-19
• Special hardships due to family planning, caregiving for relatives, etc.

If you wish to submit an extension request, please do so immediately using the respective form and provide a justification for your request, exclusively through the contact form to the Examination Office. Postal submissions are not recommended. In cases where only a few tasks (e.g., only the master’s thesis) are left to completion, the likelihood of approval is very high. The request can be submitted until the expiration date of your examination regulations (please refer to the relevant date for you). However, please note that for programs that expired on March 31, 2023, affected individuals have been notified by email of a deadline for application until December 30, 2022. Please be aware that applications received after the deadline cannot be considered.

What happens after the expiration date?

If you have not submitted an extension request by the expiration date of your examination regulations and still have pending examinations, there are two possibilities:

1. If your program continues under the then-current examination regulations (Bachelor’s and Master’s examination regulations from 2018 or, in the case of psychology programs, separate Bachelor’s and Master’s examination regulations in psychology from 2020), you will be automatically transferred to the current examination regulations by the Examination Office. Already completed tasks will be automatically reassigned within the equivalencies. You do not need to submit a request for recognition.
2. If your program is not continued or is not continued under the same name in the current examination regulations, you will be deregistered from the expiring program. However, you can transfer to another program under the current examination regulations by contacting the Student Registry. This is essentially a change of specialization. In this case, already completed tasks will not be automatically recognized. Instead, you can submit a request for recognition to the person responsible for recognition in your new program.

Do not rely on the possibility of an extension. We strongly recommend that you complete your remaining examinations by their expiration date! Alternatively, you can also request (in writing) to switch to the current examination regulations.

Please make use of the counseling services at your institute to discuss the further steps for successfully completing your studies (even outside of the extension request!). During this process, also inquire about the possibility of switching to the current examination regulations or, if this is not possible, changing your field of study.