FAQs for students at Saarland University

Yes, you are allowed to switch to another degree programme. However, even though you are already enrolled as a student, you must still adhere to the admission application and enrolment deadlines.

If you receive financial support from the federal education and training funding programme BAföG and you decide to switch to another degree programme, certain requirements will need to be met in order that you can continue to receive financial assistance. To find out which conditions or constraints may apply, please contact the BAföG Office before you switch to another degree programme.

When you switch degree programmes, you cease studying your previous degree programme and change to a new programme (e.g. switching from a teacher training degree programme (Lehramt) to a Bachelor's degree programme or from Law to Medicine). 

If you switch subjects, you will remain in your degree programme and will usually swap one subject for another (e.g. switching to a different subsidiary subject in a dual-subject Bachelor's or Master's degree, or changing one of the two school subjects that you are studying in your teacher training degree, or switching to a different general school subject in the Bachelor's programme 'Business and Economics Education' (B.Sc. Wirtschaftspädagogik)). Switching subjects is therefore only possible if you are enrolled in a multiple-subject degree programme. 

If you wish to change one of the two school subjects that you are currently studying or you want to apply for a place to study an additional (third) school subject and you have not yet earned any academic credit in this new subject area, please apply for admission in the first subject semester. To submit your application to switch subjects, please access the SIM portal and enter the new general education subject that you want to study. For the second mandatory subject, please select the option 'Allgemeinbildendes Fach vorhanden' ('General education subject - already selected'). 

If you want to change the type of school (or educational level) that you later want to teach in (e.g. switch from the lower and upper secondary level LS1+2 to the lower secondary level LS1), please note that higher-semester entry is only possible if the Central Teacher-Training Examinations Office (ZPL) has verified that you have acquired enough credits in both school subjects and in Educational Science ('Bildungswissenschaften’). If this is not the case, you will need to apply for admission in the first subject semester.

To access the applications that you have already submitted, please log in to the SIM application portal and select the menu item 'My applications'. You can now withdraw one or more of your applications and can submit new applications (before the relevant deadline).

In most cases, yes. Many of the examination regulations include provisions that allow applications from students who will be graduating in the near future. However, the detailed requirements vary from degree programme to degree programme. In such cases, you will need to submit your certificate of graduation within a specified period of time after the start of the Master's degree programme. For more detailed information, please refer to the list of Master's programmes. You can also discuss procedural details with the relevant programme advisers.