The department for Academic Affairs, which deals with various tasks in the context of all bachelor & master as well as medicine and law degrees, and the department for Teacher Education, which can be seen as the counterpart for teaching students, mainly fulfill two functions:

Representation:

The departments’ representatives speak on behalf of their respective status group vis-à-vis the university policy committees (reform commissions and Senate Commission for Studies and Teaching), but also vis-à-vis individuals such as lecturers, tutors, etc. They also play an active part in the change and design processes of various degree programs in order to achieve the greatest possible added value for the student body in this process.

Advice:

The speakers have the task of advising and empowering students in the respective status groups in the with regards to their specific degrees/courses. This assistance enables students to cope with a wide variety of challenges during their studies. These challenges can include:

• differences with lecturers
• disagreements with examination offices
• incomprehensible or unreasonable examination evaluations / grades
• de-registration (exmatriculation) and objection procedures
• registration of vacation semesters
• studying as a parent
• studying with illnesses or disabilities
• studying while fulfilling care obligations
• etc.