Contents

• What are suitability assessors?
• What is the role of suitability assessors?
• When must the certificate of eligibility according to § 48 BAföG be submitted?
• What are your obligations as a student?
• What to do if the certificate of achievement is not issued?
• Deadlines that you must observe?
• Aptitude assessors, broken down by university and field of study
  • Deggendorf Institute of Technology
  • Landshut University of Applied Sciences
  • University of Passau
  • University of Regensburg
  • East Bavarian Technical University of Regensburg
  • University of Catholic Church Music
  • TUM Campus Straubing

What are suitability assessor?

Aptitude assessors are appointed by the respective university. They are usually full-time members of the teaching staff, e.g. professors, doctors, lecturers.

What is the role of suitability assessors?

They have the task of checking the aptitude of BAföG recipients and issue Form 05 - Certificate of Aptitude in accordance with § 48 BAföG.

Form 05 - Certificate of eligibility according to § 48 BAföG to view and download

The aptitude assessment is the responsibility of the responsible suitability assessor. It is carried out on the basis of the work completed up to the assessment (e.g. seminar and exercise certificates, examinations, etc.). Each suitability assessor decides independently what he or she would like to be presented for assessment. However, if an aptitude assessor is reluctant to confirm the evidence (the positive confirmation of the usual achievements), he or she does not necessarily mean you any harm. Suitability assessors know: If you do not finish your studies within the maximum funding period, you must be able to give an important reason for the delay. Once the transcript of records has been issued, you can logically no longer invoke possible reasons for delay that predate the issue.

When must the certificate of achievement according to § 48 BAföG be submitted?

The law states that from the fifth semester onwards, training grants are only paid from the time when the student has submitted a certificate issued by the training institution after the start of the fourth semester stating that he or she has completed the usual course of training by the end of the respective semester. This means that educational support is granted for the first four semesters without the need to submit a certificate of achievement. As a rule, the BAföG application for the fifth semester must be accompanied by the performance certificate. However, exceptions must be taken into account, e.g. due to the corona pandemic.

What are your obligations as a student?

Of course, you must contact the relevant suitability assessor yourself towards the end of the fourth semester. If you have not achieved the usual performance at this point, you will lose your entitlement to funding until you can prove that you have made up for your performance deficit with a positive performance certificate.

A certificate of achievement must be submitted for each major subject (e.g. teaching degree with 2 subjects, Bachelor's degree program with 2 majors).

Please note the special regulations regarding the pandemic semesters (summer semester 2020, winter semester 2020/2022, summer semester 2021 and winter semester 2021/2022)!
In principle, educational support can only be provided from the fifth semester onwards if it can be proven that the student has reached the usual level of performance by then. The exact regulation for this is contained in § 48 para. 1 BAföG. Proof is provided by submitting form 5, which is issued by the aptitude assessor (full-time member of the teaching staff).

This REQUEST IS MANDATORY for funding from the fifth semester onwards.

For each pandemic semester (summer semester 2020, winter semester 2020/2022, summer semester 2021 and winter semester 2021/2022), the submission deadline for the transcript of records will be postponed by one semester (Art. 130 para. 2 BayHIG in corresponding application). This only applies as long as you are enrolled in one (and the same) degree program at one of our universities and were not on leave of absence during these semesters.

Example: Students for whom the summer semester 2020 was the fourth semester of study must actually submit the proof of performance of four semesters of study, achieved by the end of the fourth semester of study, in order to be eligible for funding for the fifth semester of study, the winter semester 2020/2021. In this case, the submission can now be postponed by up to four semesters. This means that it is sufficient to prove that you have achieved the usual level of achievement of four semesters by the end of the summer semester 2022, although in the example case the summer semester 2022 is already the eighth semester. In this case, you will have 4 semesters longer to achieve the usual level of achievement of four semesters.

So what should you do if the transcript of records is not issued?

There is a recipe for this too: apply to the Office for Educational Support to postpone the certificate of achievement for a reasonable period of time and state the reason for the delay. If the reason is serious, your application may be granted. Otherwise, you will have to make up the shortfall as quickly as possible, as hard as that may be.
The legal basis and the possible reasons for postponing the proof of performance are described on the reverse of form 5.

Background: The BAföG contains the option of postponing the submission of proof of performance, i.e. in justified exceptional cases, trainees can be granted more time to complete the usual work, § 48 Para. 2 in conjunction with § 15 Para. 3 BAföG. § 15 para. 3 BAföG. For example, unavoidable interruptions to training through no fault of the student may constitute a serious reason within the meaning of § 15 Para. 3 No. 1 BAföG. According to § 48 para. 2 BAföG, the submission deadline for certificates of achievement may also be postponed accordingly.

Please note the special regulations regarding the pandemic semesters (summer semester 2020, winter semester 2020/2021, summer semester 2021 and winter semester 2021/2022)!
For students who were enrolled in a degree program at a state or state-recognized university in the summer semester 2020 and were not on leave of absence, the submission deadline for the transcript of records is postponed by one to four semesters (Art. 130 BayHIG in corresponding application) - see previous question.

Example: Students for whom the summer semester 2020 was the fourth semester of study must actually submit the transcript of records for the usual four semesters of study by the end of the fourth semester of study in order to be eligible for funding for the fifth semester of study, the winter semester 2020/2021. In this case, the submission can now be postponed by up to four semesters. This means that it is sufficient to prove that you have achieved the usual level of performance of four semesters by the end of the summer semester 2022, although in the example case the summer semester 2022 is already the eighth semester. In this case, you will have up to 4 semesters longer to achieve the usual level of achievement of four semesters.
However, further reasons for delay from the summer semester 2020, the winter semester 2020/2021, the summer semester 2021 and the winter semester 2021/2022 can then generally no longer be taken into account, as all delays are compensated for with the postponement option.

However, if delays had already occurred before the pandemic, BAföG offers the option of further postponing the submission of proof of performance in these cases.
The Office for Educational Support checks the causality on the basis of the course of study (overview of the performance in the individual semesters - passed and failed examinations) and on the basis of the student's declaration.

Deadlines that you must observe?

When applying for BAföG from the fifth semester onwards, you must first observe the deadline for applications for continued funding. These must always be submitted two months before the end of the current approval period. If your grant expires in September of a year and your fifth semester is therefore the winter semester, you must submit your application for continued funding by July 31 of that year. If your grant expires in March of a given year and your fifth semester is the summer semester, you must submit your application for continued funding by January 31 of that year.

If you submit your transcript of records (Form 5) at the same time as your application for continued funding within the above-mentioned deadlines, the aptitude assessor must confirm your usual level of performance up to the end of your third semester. As soon as you submit the transcript of records later, e.g. not until August 15 of the year, you will be required to confirm your usual performance over four semesters.

Note: Make sure you submit the certificate of achievement (Form 5) in good time.
Please note the special regulations regarding the pandemic semesters (summer semester 2020, winter semester 2020/2021, summer semester 2021 and winter semester 2021/2022)!

Example:

 Suitability assessors, structured according to universities and fields of education

 Technische Hochschule Deggendorf (THD)

The following suitability assessors have been appointed for degree programs at the Pfarrkirchen site of Deggendorf Institute of Technology (TH Deggendorf):

The following suitability assessors have been appointed for degree programs at the Cham site of Deggendorf Institute of Technology (TH Deggendorf):

 Hochschule Landshut

 Universität Passau

 Universität Regensburg

 Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg (OTH)

 Hochschule für katholische Kirchenmusik 

 TUM Campus Straubing

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