Corona Pandemia Special Regulations

In winter semester 2022/2023 the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt will offer some courses on campus. All students shall have the chance to attend courses on campus, but not each course. This also applies, of course, to the IBWL and MBA programs. 

As the MBA program is an international program, not all students coming from abroad will be able to be in Germany for the start of their studies. Therefore, courses will be held in a hybrid format or online. This can vary from streaming or recording of in-class courses to web conferences for the whole course.

Presence-free teaching or hybrid courses can be designed in very different ways. Some examples can be found in a short video on the FBW website (German Language). All MBA lecturers summarized their course design and exam formats in a Syllabus, which can be found here. (You need to be logged in to see the link. The login data has been sent to you via E-Mail) 

In the MBA courses, all lectureres offer an accompanying Moodle course for the course. In addition, you will be sent a textbook, if the lecturers have ordered such.

Differing from the university-wide semester dates, the courses will start in beginning of October as usual. The lectures will end in end of February. The retry-exam will take place on 11th March 2023. Please find the MBA timetabales here. 

Due to the fact that the concepts of the courses will be revised, it is possible that the proportions of 'lecture' and self-study as well as exam formats will differ from the formats shown in the module handbook. Please find the syllabi for further information on the course formats here. (You need to be logged in to see the link. The login data has been sent to you via e-mail)

The lecturers will inform you about further details on the lecture mode and communication channels at the beginning of each course. 

In order to be able to offer as many examinations as possible without the need for attendance and to coordinate courses and examinations in a meaningful way, the examination formats will frequently deviate from those listed in the respective module handbook.

The lecturers will involve the examination boards in the design of the courses and will announce the respective examination performances in the Syllabi and in more detail at the beginning of the courses.

Due to the current (pandemic) situation, we are currently assuming that exams in the winter semester 2022 will be offered in presence format if possible. The possibility of this format should be carefully considered and preferably used in individual cases. However, since the further development of the pandemic is very uncertain, we are striving to reduce the number of exams by using alternative examination formats where possible and advisable.

If the lecturer of a module for which you have registered has ordered a printed book from the Department of Advanced Education, we will send it to your home address by post. Please make sure, that your contact data is up to date to avoid delay.

If the lecturer has ordered an e-book, the link or file will be given to you by the lecturer before or at the beginning of the respective lecture. Please make sure to check your student e-mail account regularly.

You will receive all scripts, presentations and additonal documents in electronic form via the Moodle course of the respective course.

Registrations for examinations must be made regularly via my-hda. From summer term 2021 on, the latest date for registration is 48 hours prior to the first (part-)examination. The schedules show the exam dates as well as the registration deadline. Please make sure to meet the deadline!

We strongly recommend registering for examinations at the beginning of the semester as cancellations can be done without difficulties. However, registrations after the registration deadline has expired are not possible!

If it is not possible to register via my-hda, please send an e-mail including a screenshot to mba@h-da.de to meet the deadline. Please also note: You will receive a confirmation e-mail for each registration successfully completed via my-hda. If you do not receive it, a problem has occurred. Please clarify this point immediately in order to meet the deadlines.

Please find further information and guidelines on how to register for exams here. Please consult the FAQ of the examination board for any exam related issues.

Cancellation of registration to an exam up to 24 hours before the exam is done as usual via my-hda.

Under certain circumstances withdrawal from the exam registration is possible on the exam date during the Corona Pandemia. Please see the h_da FAQ for further information.

As soon as the special regulations on cancellations terminate, cancellation within the 24 hours prior to the examination require a medical certificate as usual. This can be sent as a scan or photo by e-mail as long as the special regulations occur. Submission of the original certificate is mandatory as soon as the situation allows it.

Please find further information and guidelines on how to de-register for exams here. Please consult the FAQ of the examination board for any exam related issues.

Written exams will continue to be held on-site, as to date there is no legally secure way of taking exams online. Examinations can be held in attendance if all measures have been taken to minimise the risk. We comply with this with the hygiene concept of the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the specific hygiene concepts for the individual exam dates.

If you belong to a risk group and are therefore unable to take part in a scheduled on-site exam, you can apply for compensation for disadvantages (Nachteilsausgleich). For this purpose, a qualified medical certificate must be submitted. If you wish to apply for compensation for disadvantages, please inform your lecturer directly and submit an informal application to the examination board. Your lecturer will then, in consultation with the examination board, search for an adequate alternative form of examination in order to ensure equal treatment of all students.

Participation in exams

As of the winter semester 2021/2022, there is again an obligation to take the exams according to the rules of the ABPO (General Examination Regulations).

For participation in in-class exams, the Presidential Board may set the 3 G rule as an admission requirement.

Failed Attempt Regulation 

The Corona special regulations of the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, which are valid as of 01.05.2022, do not provide a failed attempt regulation for examinations in §5 (4):

The free attempt regulation will cease to apply as of the summer semester 2022.

Theses are currently being written under exceptional challenges. Situations concerning the cooperation with your practice partner should be discussed with your supervisor, as well as possible problems in obtaining literature (closed libraries etc.). Due to the special circumstances, it is possible, in consultation with your supervisor, to modify the topic if necessary, e.g. to convert a practical thesis into a literature thesis. Upon reasoned request, the processing period can also be extended.

The colloquium will be held without attendance until further notice. Please coordinate the procedure, the use of online tools and the prior submission of presentation slides (PDF format) with your supervisor.

Please find further information on the current situation in the h_da FAQ.

Please use the usual forms available in the form center and send them to mba@h-da.de to register for the thesis. An electronically completed form without the student's signature is considered a binding registration during the validity period of the Corona special regulations. The printed form must be submitted as soon as the situation allows it.

The signatures to be obtained from the lecturer or supervisor are deemed to have been provided with a scanned/electronic signature or, if this is not possible, as a simple e-mail confirmation. The signatures must be obtained by the student.

If everyone has agreed, the Department of Advanced Education and the Examination Board will confirm the registration by means of an approval. The date of submission will also be reconfirmed.

If you do not meet the requirements for admission to the final thesis due to Corona-related reasons, please inform us in good time by e-mail. In any case, we will find an individual solution so that you will not be disadvantaged by the current situation.

The submission of your thesis must be done on submission day until 12am in pdf format (this also applies to attachments) via the student email address to the university email address of the (co-)supervisor and at the same time to the Department of Advanced Education (mba@h-da.de). The latter will then confirm that it has been received in due time.

A printed copy must be handed in to the secretary's office or sent by post no later than 14 days after the present deadline for submission of the thesis. Further printed versions are to be handed in to the lecturer and co-referee if required.

Please note that due to the current pandemic situation, it is currently not possible to ensure that the printed version is handed in personally at the secretariat. Therefore, it should currently only be sent by post. You are welcome to send the printed copy by post to Hochschule Darmstadt, Weiterbildung und Duales Studienzentrum, Schöfferstraße 3, 64295 Darmstadt. 

This procedure also applies if the work is marked with a non-disclosure notice and a confidentiality agreement has been signed. Please agree the way in which the work is to be handed over to your company's advisor in confidence with him/her.

The file size must not exceed 10 MB. If larger files have to be handed in for an important reason, the files must be split up or uploaded to the h_da cloud (please ask your supervisor to create a folder). If the work contains parts that cannot be converted into a pdf (Excel with calculation logic, program code, etc.), please discuss with your supervisor individually how to proceed. Please do not send such attachments to the Department of Advanced Education.

Teaching staff, administration, university management or IT services will contact you exclusively via your student e-mail address until further notice.

Please also contact us only via your student e-mail address. This applies in particular to contact with the administration. Due to the high number of e-mails, it is not possible to search for your correct e-mail address for a reply. We therefore reserve the right not to answer e-mails coming from external mail accounts or to answer them only when we have free resources.

Please make sure that you check your e-mails regularly. Information that reaches you in this way is considered to have been delivered by post.

These measures serve the purpose of IT security, as we are currently particularly dependent on stable systems and at the same time we are registering an increasing number of attacks on the infrastructure.

If you do not want to use the web client Roundcube to manage your e-mails, you are welcome to set up an account in your e-mail program. You can find instructions for this at https://webmail.stud.h-da.de/manual_imap4.pdf.

Please note that until further notice we are only allowed to open PDF files. File attachments in e-mails that have other formats will not be opened and are therefore considered undelivered. Instructions on how to convert various file formats into PDF can be found in the respective help section of the program or on the Internet.

Questions that are not answered here are regulated at departmental level by the faculty of economics: https://fbw.h-da.de/studium/hybrides-wintersemester-202021/ (German information only). Please note that the adminstrative regulations mentioned here do firstly address full-time study programs and differ considearbly from the MBA regulations.

All questions going beyond this are regulated on a university-wide basis: https://h-da.de/index.php?id=19270 

If regulations differ from the above described Corona-Special-Regulations, the ones more specific for your program of study applies. This ranking is necessary, as there are several reasons to specify or deviate from gereneral regulations.

An overview of the availability and accessibility of the university's services and facilities can be found at https://h-da.de/hochschule/corona. 

Most of the general information is available in German and English language. However, if any questions apply, which are only answered in German language, feel free to consult the department of advanced education for further information via mba@h-da.de or. All contact data of the administrative staff can be found here.

If there are individual questions about cases that we have not considered so far or for which the descriptions here are not clear, we will be happy to answer them. You can find all contact information here. Please contact

• the Examination Board for all exam-related aspects (Prof. Knoll)
• the Academic Director for all general questions regarding teaching (Prof. Schellhase)
• for course-related questions the respective lecturer(s)
• for all other questions concerning administration the team WBDS

If possible, please contact the WBDS Team by e-mail via mba@h-da.de.

The telephone availability of the administration is guaranteed as far as possible, but maytemporarilybe limited. If your concern can only be clarified by telephone, please contact the staff member in charge for your issue directly until further notice. Please find all contact data here.

If you have any corona-realted issues concerning your studies, feedback on lectures or suggestions for online lectures, please write a note to the suggestion box.

All teachers and staff are working with great commitment to ensure that teaching and administration are of the usual quality. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee that there will not be a "hitch" in some areas.

For this reason, the academic director and the examination board have introduced a suggestion box for your suggestions and criticism in connection with the presence-free teaching. Please do not hesitate to use this channel for constructive feedback. Only in this way can we together make the best out of this situation, which still is exceptional for all of us.