Hardship case
With this special application, you can claim circumstances that may require you to be admitted to studies immediately. Exceptional hardship is present if exceptional social or familial circumstances regarding your own person make it absolutely necessary that you be admitted to studies immediately, i.e., if even a delay of only a semester is unreasonable on account of these personal circumstances.
The University of Freiburg reserves 5% of the places in degree programmes with restricted admission for cases of exceptional hardship.
Hochschulstart reserves up to 2% of the places in Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry degree programmes for cases of exceptional hardship.
- Special health-related circumstances requiring that you be admitted immediately*
- An illness with a tendency to worsen, which is highly likely to lead to a situation in which you are no longer in the condition to cope with the strain of completing this degree programme in the future*
- Limitation to a narrow occupational field due to a physical disability; the degree programme may be expected to lead to your rehabilitation*
- Physical disability; your disability stands in the way of any other reasonable activity until a place in the degree programme is allocated*
- Necessity of abandoning previous studies or occupation for health reasons*
- Exceptional family or social circumstances requiring that you be admitted immediately (suitable documents as evidence)
- Ethnic German resettlement and commencement of a degree programme corresponding to your chosen degree programme in your country of origin (official confirmation of ethnic German resettlement and confirmation of commencement of a corresponding degree programme in your country of origin)
- Previous admission to the degree programme in question and impossibility of accepting it for a compelling reason beyond your control (evidence of the compelling reason that prevented your enrolment and your previous letter of acceptance)
- Fear of disadvantages if your waiting period is extended with regard to an opportunity to be hired by a medical practice or pharmacy:
- for your own future livelihood
- for the ability to work, the health, or the provision of the owner of the medical practice or pharmacy
- or for the provision of the local population
- Admission to studies as compensation for mental illnesses
- Abandonment of your previous studies or previous occupation due to unemployment or poor career prospects
- Abandonment of your previous studies or occupation due to a lack of motivation or aptitude
- Abandonment of your previous studies or previous occupation for reasons of conscience
- Claim of special aptitude for your first-choice degree programme and the corresponding profession
- Successful completion of practical activities that are either mandatory or led under previous law to an improvement in chances for admission (e.g., nursing work, pharmacy preliminary examination)
- Presence of transferrable credits and/or periods of study
- Many years of theoretical work in the area of the desired degree programme
- You are already of an advanced age.
- Repeated rejection for the desired degree programme
- You will pass an important age limit if the beginning of your studies is delayed any further (e.g., that for admission to practical training or for appointment as a civil servant).
- You will lose statutory relaxations of study or examination requirements if you are not admitted immediately.
- Completion of a period of service
- Regional limitation of higher education entrance qualification
- You cannot complete a degree programme begun abroad and therefore wish to continue it here.
- Necessity of high expenditures to earn your school-leaving certificate through adult education
- Family ties at your place of study
- You have a child or several children.
- A family member is ill, severely disabled, or in need of care.
Disadvantage compensation to improve your average grade
You can use this special application to claim circumstances that prevented you from earning a better average grade. These must be circumstances for which you are not yourself responsible.
Please note that what is considered is not the Abitur examination itself but your performance in the upper classes of secondary school leading up to the completion of the Abitur.
Evidence of the circumstances that led to a reduction in performance (e.g., a months-long hospital stay) is not on its own sufficient justification for an application. Rather, you must additionally demonstrate that the circumstances affected your average grade and how they did so.
Evidence to be submitted
- Certified copies of your school reports
- Report from the school headship (not your teachers!)
- The report must be signed by the head of the school and must include the official seal of the school.
1. Special health circumstances
- Extended absence from class due to illness during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (medical certificate)
- Extended severe disability or illness (medical certificate)
- Other comparable special health circumstances (medical certificate)
- A pregnancy during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (medical certificate or birth certificate of child)
2. Special family circumstances
- Support of at least one underage child of your own during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (birth certificate of child)
- Care for dependent underage siblings who shared a household with you during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (birth certificates and resident registration certificates of the siblings, evidence that parents were absent)
- Loss of a parent during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification, provided that you were unmarried at that time and were under the age of 25 (death certificate of parent and explanation of your marital status at the time)
- Repeated change of schools due to your parents’ moving during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (leaving certificates and resident registration certificates of your parents)
- Other comparable special family circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
3. Special economic circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
4. Membership in relevant sport squads
If you were a member of an Olympic squad, prospect squad, reserve squad, junior squad 1, junior squad 2, or team squad for at least one uninterrupted year during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification, you may claim this by submitting the following documents/evidence: certificate from the responsible national sport federation confirming your membership in the squad as well as certificates from training courses, competitions, etc. in which you participated as part of your squad membership; report from your school.
5. Other comparable special circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
- Work in your parents’ household or business during your time at school without being forced to do so due to an emergency
- Separation/dispute of parents
- Illness of parents
- Purported disadvantage due to attending a particular type of secondary school or taking a school-leaving examination for non-pupils
- Purported disadvantage due to taking the Abitur examination in a state with a central Abitur examination
- Attendance of a school with a lack of sufficient space or teachers
- Claim of having been disadvantaged through unfair assessment
- Illness during the Abitur examination
- Long and time-consuming way to school
- Participation in an exchange programme
- Involvement in pupil administration
Disadvantage compensation to shorten your waiting period
If you had many absences during your time at school, e.g., due to a disability or chronic illness or due to extended hospital stays, and were held back a year because of that, you can have that taken into account.
With this special application, you can claim circumstances that prevented you from achieving a better placement on the waiting list.
Evidence of the circumstances that led to a delay in earning your university entrance qualification is not on its own sufficient justification for an application. Rather, you must additionally demonstrate that you were delayed in earning your university entrance qualification on account of these circumstances. As evidence of the delay, you must submit the relevant school reports as well as a certificate from the school (not your teachers!) setting forth the reason for and the duration of the delay in earning your university entrance qualification.
In the case of degree programmes with local admission restrictions, we can only consider a maximum of seven waiting semesters in the procedure.
For degree programmes with national admission restrictions (at the University of Freiburg, this applies to Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry), waiting periods are no longer considered.
1. Special health circumstances
- Extended absence from class due to illness during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (medical certificate)
- Extended severe disability or illness (medical certificate)
- Other comparable special health circumstances (medical certificate)
- A pregnancy during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (medical certificate or birth certificate of child)
2. Special family circumstances
- Support of at least one underage child of your own during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (birth certificate of child)
- Care for dependent underage siblings who shared a household with you during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (birth certificates and resident registration certificates of the siblings, evidence that parents were absent)
- Loss of a parent during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification, provided that you were unmarried at that time and were under the age of 25 (death certificate of parent and explanation of your marital status at the time)
- Repeated change of schools due to your parents’ moving during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification (leaving certificates and resident registration certificates of your parents)
- Other comparable special family circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
3. Special economic circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
4. Membership in relevant sport squads
If you were a member of an Olympic squad, prospect squad, reserve squad, junior squad 1, junior squad 2, or team squad for at least one uninterrupted year during the last three years before you earned your higher education entrance qualification, you may claim that by submitting the following documents/evidence: certificate from the responsible national sport federation confirming your membership in the squad as well as certificates from training courses, competitions, etc. in which you participated as part of your squad membership; report from your school.
5. Other comparable special circumstances (appropriate documentation required as evidence)
- Work in your parental household or business during your time at school without being forced to do so due to an emergency
- Separation/dispute of parents
- Illness of parents
- Purported disadvantage due to attending a particular type of secondary school or taking a school-leaving examination for non-pupils
- Purported disadvantage due to taking the Abitur examination in a state with a central Abitur examination
- Attendance of a school with a lack of sufficient space or teachers
- Claim of having been disadvantaged through unfair assessment
- Illness during the Abitur examination
- Long and time-consuming way to school
- Participation in an exchange programme
- Involvement in pupil administration
Top athletes
Are you a top athlete in an Olympic, prospect, reserve, or team sport squad or a junior squad 1 of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and depend on Freiburg as a place to study? Then you can claim that with a special application within the context of your application for admission.
You have to obtain confirmation in writing that you are a member of such a squad and depend on Freiburg as a place to study from the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
The University of Freiburg reserves 1% of the places in degree programmes with restricted admission for top athletes..