Application and admission: Consideration of concerns of impaired prospective students necessary

Impairments can significantly limit the choice of study location and subject. Disadvantages often arise during the school years. With the help of various special applications, disadvantages or hardships for impaired prospective students are to be compensated for in the admission process.

Students should be mobile and flexible

Today's study system offers many opportunities to find undergraduate and graduate degree programs that match personal aptitude and motivation. This is best achieved when applicants are flexible in terms of content and location when choosing a course of study. They should also be prepared to bridge possible waiting times for a place at university in a sensible way. However, this is often not possible for prospective students with disabilities for various reasons.

Disadvantages from school days have an impact

Frequent consequences of barriers and a lack of compensation for disadvantages during school are poorer A-levels grades and longer periods of schooling. Many impaired prospective students also lack professional practice or experience abroad, which can have a chance-increasing effect when applying. Similar problems can arise when applying for a Master's degree, because university education is not barrier-free either. Particular hardships may arise if an illness steadily worsens.

Compensation for disadvantages in access to studies often insufficient

In order to provide people with disabilities and chronic illnesses with equal access to studies and an equal opportunity admission process, there are various "special applications" that are intended to compensate for existing disadvantages or take special hardships into account. Separate provisions apply to application procedures for master's degree programs. Since some impairment-related concerns cannot be sufficiently taken into account in the current study system, the choice of study program and university location should be very well prepared.

No uniform federal regulations

Uniform federal regulations exist only for the central allocation of study places in the subjects: Human Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy.