Module examinations, partial module examinations, coursework – all these new terms often make it difficult for first-year students to figure things out at university. The examination regulations do not always help to alleviate this confusion, as they can contain terminology that is not always clear and consistent. This glossary is intended for all new students. In it, we would like to briefly explain what these terms mean – and what the associated examinations mean for you.

The Examination Office of the Department of History is part of the Central Examination Office of Faculty 7: History and Cultural Studies. Ms. Shahla, who supervises examination matters in the Department of History degree programs, is responsible for these tasks at the Department of History. Information on examination law on the website of the Central Examination Office in Faculty 7: History and Cultural Studies therefore generally also applies to the Department of History.

  • Advising students and teaching staff on examination issues
  • Planning examination dates and examination times in coordination with the examiners and other responsible bodies
  • Administration of exam registrations and exam data in Campusnet/JoguStine
  • Registration and deregistration of students for examinations

Office: Philosophicum, Room 01-543
Office hours: Upon appointment via email

You can contact the Examination Committee for History for some examination matters – for example, if you require a writing time extension in written exams or when it comes to similar matters. The Examination Committee for History rules on all important questions and cases of doubt on the topic of examinations and decides on complaints and appeals. Appeals (to grades received, for example) must be submitted within the specified deadline. In such matters, you are welcome to send an inquiry to the examination office for History to find out if you need to submit an application to the examination committee. Generally, you are required to submit an informal application to the examination committee addressed to the chair of the committee. The current chair of the examination committee is Prof. Dr. Jan Kusber. You can submit your application to Ms. Shahla in the examination office for History.

With immediate effect, all inquiries, proposals and appeals must be submitted to the Examination Committee for History as letters by post, including an explanatory statement and original signature. Emails are no longer accepted. Please send your letter to:

Prüfungsausschuss Geschichte
z.Hd. Prof. Dr. Kusber
Prüfungsamt Geschichte
Jakob-Welder-Weg 18
55128 Mainz, Germany

If your appeal (against an examination grade, for example) is rejected by the examination committee, you will be charged a fee. This fee is currently €45.60. Appeals with a positive outcome do not incur a charge. Applications for disadvantage compensation, for example, are generally free of charge.

You must register to take examinations and repeat examinations! If you do not register for an examination before the deadline, you cannot take the examination. If you cannot register for an examination through JOGU-StINe for technical reasons, you must inform examination management of this via email before the end of the registration period.

Inquiries regarding examination law and examination modalities/matters should be addressed to the examination office.

You can generally only carry out a de-registration from an examination on your own during the examination registration phase.

The Examination Committee for History has set March 18, 2026, 23:59 (receipt!) as the deadline. Term papers submitted after this point cannot be accepted.

Friday, February 7, 2025, 8.30 AM – 9.30 AM, P 5 (Philosophicum)

Requests to extend the submission deadline for term papers and lesson plans due to illness:

Please send requests to extend the submission deadline to the examination office via email (shahla@uni-mainz.de). You can attach scans or photos of the medical certificate or other documents. Send the original c/o S. Shahla as soon as possible:

Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Historisches Seminar
z.Hd. Frau SHAHLA
Jakob-Welder-Weg 18
55128 Mainz, Germany

Please note: If your submission deadline is extended, we cannot guarantee that the corrections and entry of the grade will occur in time for the course registration phase in the following semester.

In the Department of History, repeat examinations are offered every six months. This means that a repeat examination is always offered at the end of the next semester at the same time as the regular examinations for the current semester.

Example: If you failed an examination in the summer semester of 2019, the repeat examination will take place in the winter semester of 2019/20.

The above-mentioned examination registration period also applies to repeat examinations from previous semesters.

Please note: Module examinations and partial module examinations can only be repeated twice. If you do not pass the second repeat examination, you will lose your eligibility to take exams. According to the examination regulations, you are required to take the repeat examination on the next possible date. This means you must independently register for the repeat examination in JOGUStINe. If you do not do so, you will receive the grade 5.0 due to missing the deadline.

Therefore, please make sure you register for the available repeat examinations if one of the descriptions below applies to you.

You must register for a repeat examination

  • if your module examination or partial module examination (e.g., exam, term paper, oral examination) was last evaluated with a grade of 5.0,
  • if you had registered for a module examination or partial module examination, but did not take part in the examination without giving a reason why or did not submit a term paper (default result = examination was evaluated with a grade of 5.0!),
  • if you had registered for a module examination or partial module examination and were unable to take part in the examination for recognized reasons (e.g., sick note with certificate, academic leave of absence, etc.),
  • if you failed to register for a repeat examination during the last examination registration period in the previous semester and your examination was evaluated with a grade of 5.0 due to missing the deadline (failure to register for the repeat examination = missed deadline = grade 5.0 / further unsuccessful attempt).

If you do not register, you fail the examination. If you have questions about your examination attempts, please send an email to Ms. Shahla at the examination office.

Repeat examinations can be displayed in JOGU-StINe in different ways. If the course has been offered again, you will usually find the examination in the current semester. If the examination is offered again on its own, you will find the repeat examination in the semester in which the original examination took place. Use the drop-down menu to select the appropriate semester. In case of doubt, please send Ms. Shahla at the examination office an e-mail.

Students often request that the deadline for submitting term papers be postponed to a later date. The Department of History is not fundamentally opposed to this. However, the Examination Committee for History, which is made up of members from all university groups, has to take many parameters into account at the same time when setting deadlines. These include the correction times of the teaching staff (four weeks), work planning in the examination office, which must ensure that grades are published in accordance with the examination regulations, deadlines for the submission of BAFöG extension applications (and deadlines for other social benefits), deadlines for conditional master’s degree admission, de-registration deadlines in the event of failing an examination three times, school internships, and much more. Reconciling all these aspects with the didactic considerations for writing a term paper and the requirements of the examination regulations is no easy task. We therefore ask you to trust that we take this task very seriously.

You can find important information on examination law on the homepage of the Central Examination Office in Faculty 7: History and Cultural Studies.

You can find the university-wide examination regulations on the Academic Affairs homepage.

Anyone who has registered for an examination must take it. Non-attendance without a valid reason, late submission of work without a valid reason, withdrawal before or after the start of the examination without a valid reason is considered an examination attempt and will be given as a failing grade (“insufficient”, 5.0) (Section 20 (1) BAPO, Section 19 (1) POLBA, Section 24 (1) MPO).

Section 20, subsection 1 of the Regulations for Examinations in the Two-Subject Bachelor’s Degree Program of Faculties 02, 05 and 07 (Ordnung für die Prüfung im Zwei-Fächer-Bachelorstudiengang der Fachbereiche 02, 05 und 07) or, alternately, section 18, subsection 1 of the Regulations for Examinations in the Teaching-related Bachelor’s Degree Programs (Ordnung für die Bachelorprüfung in lehramtsbezogenen Studiengängen): “If the candidate fails to appear to an examination which had been properly scheduled and announced without a valid reason or if they withdraw after the examination has begun without a valid reason, the corresponding examination is graded as “insufficient” (5.0).”

  1. Serious illness evidenced by a medical certificate, obvious illness (hospitalization/accident) on the day of the examination or on the day of the deadline.
  2. Sudden calamities such as the death of close relatives on a date near to the examination/submission deadline; being a victim of a crime. A date near to the examination or submission deadline is defined as the death occurring within one week before the submission deadline. Close relatives are hereby defined as spouses, life partners, siblings, children (adopted and foster children), parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, grandchildren.
  3. Unforeseeable, serious private issues: loss of home, illness of children or spouse if no other caregiver can be found (proof must be provided), parents in need of care.

If you are unable to take the examination due to illness or cannot meet the deadline for submitting your work, you must submit a medical certificate to the examination administration (in this case the student advising office responsible for your subject). If this is the first time you are unable to take an examination, a simple medical certificate without further details is sufficient. It must only certify the inability to take the examination from a medical point of view. Starting with the second notification of inability to take an examination, either a medical officer’s certificate or a qualified certificate from the doctor who treated you must be submitted along with the following: duration of the illness, dates of medical treatment, nature and extent of the illness based on the doctor’s own findings, and the effect of the illness on the examination. See e.g., Oberverwaltungsgericht Lüneburg, judgment handed down on September 15, 1998 – 10 L 3178/96, KMK-HSchrR/NF 21 C.1 No. 30; Verwaltungsgericht Minden, GB of January 25, 2000 – 2 K 3874/99, NWVGl. 2000, 232, and Verwaltungsgericht Saarlouis, judgment handed down on May 21, 2001 – 1 K 7/99 – (n.v.).

Please note: A medical certificate of incapacity for work is insufficient!

Withdrawal from an exam must be reported to the examination office immediately, generally before the start of the examination/the end of the deadline for submitting the paper. A medical certificate must generally be submitted within 3 days. The examination authority will form its own opinion on your inability to take the examination, particularly in the case of long-term illnesses. The candidate must release the doctor in question from their duty of confidentiality as part of their duty to cooperate.

JGU has developed a university-wide standardized form for this proof, which you can download here and take with you to your doctor:

If you have a recognized disability, you can be granted a submission deadline extension or a similar form of concession. Please submit a request to the examination committee responsible for your subject of study. Please contact the academic advisory office in good time in all cases of physical disability or mental impairment. There is a special academic advisory office for students with disabilities.

  1. Difficulties in obtaining materials (submission of the magister/bachelor’s thesis): The chair of the examination committee decides on exceptional cases on the basis of a reasoned appeal from the primary evaluator.
  2. Technical problems: computer viruses, loss of data, or a defective printer are not to be recognized, as backup/data protection is assumed and students can work in the Data Center or back files up to the university’s network drive.
  3. Pregnancy, as long as it proceeds without complications. Acute disorders are treated as an illness.

According to section 4 subsection 3 of the Regulations for Examinations in the Two-Subject Bachelor’s Degree Program of Faculties 02, 05 and 07 (Ordnung für die Prüfung im Zwei-Fächer-Bachelorstudiengang der Fachbereiche 02, 05 und 07), a stay abroad of up to two semesters in due and appropriate form interrupts running deadlines; however, this does not apply to stays abroad mandated by the examination regulations (there are no mandatory stays abroad in the subject of history). If the date of your repeat examination falls within the time frame of your stay abroad, please send an informal appeal for an extension of the examination deadlines to the examination office for History, c/o Ms. Shahla. Please add credible proof about your stay abroad, including the time frame of your stay.

If you have applied for a semester on leave for your stay abroad and this has been approved, you are not allowed to take examinations in Mainz during this time. This results in special circumstances, as semesters on leave do not have an effect on deadlines. This means that although you are generally not allowed to take an examination, you may still be obliged to re-take an examination from a previous semester and may even receive another unsuccessful attempt. As a rule, however, students have particular reasons for applying for a leave of absence. If this reason (illness or similar) could justify an interruption of the deadline, you can submit a proposal for an interruption of the deadline to the Examination Committee for History. In this case, you must include all necessary documents that make the stated reason plausible along with the appeal. Please contact us in advance (academic advisory office, study management).

In order to make students applying for a leave of absence more clearly aware of this legal situation, the Student Service Center has included corresponding passages in the proposal for an academic leave of absence: Firstly, students must confirm that they are aware that no credits may be earned during the semester on leave. Secondly, they are asked to clarify with their student advising office whether they are in an ongoing examination procedure and which deadlines apply for repeat examinations before applying for a leave of absence. And if students wish to take a leave of absence during the ongoing semester due to unforeseeable, long-term illness, they must confirm that they have not completed any examinations or credits.

The examination regulations for the B.A. and B.Ed. History degree programs allow for the possibility of early module examinations. This means that you can take a module examination in almost all modules of these degree programs even if you have not yet attended all the courses of this module; you will usually be informed of this as part of the module. This is solved via the form of exemplary examinations, in which the learning objectives of the module are examined by way of example. For you, this mainly means your course program can be freed up. If you do not wish to make use of this option, you are not obliged to do so. Important to know: Advance module examinations are only taken “conditionally”, i.e., they are only valid once you have successfully attended all the courses in the module in question.

Students can access an overview of their grades in JOGUStINe for the examinations they have already completed. It looks something like this:

We advise you against spending too much time on this view for several reasons:

  1. Students register for the same examination via different modules in different degree programs. JOGUStINe keeps these registrations in separate lists and then also shows the overview of grades sheet separately. This means that the overview of your grades does not reflect the total number of exam participants. This distorts the average value.
  2. Unlike schools, universities are not obliged to distribute grades according to a Gaussian distribution. Grade overviews therefore have no relevance for university examinations. At best, you can assess yourself individually (am I below or above the average?) – but this is effectively prevented by point 1.

However, the examination committee can look at grade distributions for individual examinations at any time and must and will do so at the proposal of a member. All university groups send delegates to the examination committee. This ensures that examinations at the Department of History are also conducted fairly in this respect.

The History student advising office administers the bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at the Department of History. It is available to students and teaching staff as a contact for program-specific questions or for questions about Jogustine. You can reach the student advising office either in person or by telephone or email at the shared email address studienbuero-geschichte@uni-mainz.de. Please use this address if you are not sure who to address your inquiry to; please do not send parallel emails to several employees.

  • Responsible for the organization and coordination of the history degree programs
  • Ensuring the proper admission of students to courses in accordance with examination law
  • Quality assurance
  • Further development of current degree programs
  • Registration and deregistration of students for courses in the system
  • Semester planning
  • Advising students and teaching staff on examination issues
  • Planning examination dates and examination corridors in coordination with the examiners and other responsible bodies
  • Administration of exam registrations and exam data in Campusnet/JoguStine
  • Registration and deregistration of students for examinations

E-mail: shahla@uni-mainz.de
Phone: (49)-6131-39-20195
Fax: (49)-6131-39-20324

Office: Philosophicum, Room 01-543

Sprechzeiten:
Nach Vereinbarung per Mail
  • Semester planning and administration of courses in Campusnet/JoguStine
  • Spatial planning
  • Participation in the course-related work of the study management team
  • Administration of teaching contracts

The “link” between the administrative tasks of the academic offices and the actual “academic area” of the teaching staff is a degree program officer for each degree program. This person belongs to the group of university teaching staff. The program representatives work closely with the study management and bear the ultimate responsibility for the proper implementation of the examination regulations and module catalogs. In addition, they should be particularly active in cases of conflict between the study offices and the academic teaching staff.

We offer a wide range of academic advising on all questions relating to studying history at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and are also happy to support you in the transition phases between school, program of study and transition to a profession. We have organized our advisory services thematically in the menu tree on the left so that you can find the right person to answer your questions. Please take a moment to think about which topic your questions can be assigned to.

Please contact the relevant academic advisory offices and make use of the consultation hours. Some questions will certainly be resolved if you follow our first aid links or use the university’s interdisciplinary information services. If you are unsure who to address your query to, use this address: studienberatung@geschichte.uni-mainz.de. Please do not send emails with the same request to several academic advisory offices and employees of the Office of Student Affairs at the same time.

The academic advisory office specializes in specific subject areas:

  • Where can I find support if I have difficulties with event or exam registration?
  • What deadlines do I have to meet?
  • Why doesn’t “the Jogustine” do what I tell her?
  • How can I plan my program of study sensibly?
  • What proof of language proficiency do I have to provide when studying history?
  • How can I organize my academic papers better?
  • What can I do if I am unsure whether I have made the right study choice?
  • How do I prepare for examinations?
  • What do I have to consider when I want to log in my bachelor’s thesis?
  • Does a master’s degree program make sense for me, and what requirements does it have?
  • …

Information events

The History Examination Office is part of the Central Examination Office in Faculty 07: History and Cultural Studies. Ms. Shahla, who supervises examination matters in the History degree programs, has been delegated by the faculty to the History seminar for these tasks. Instructions on examination law on the website of the Central Examination Office in Faculty 07: History and Cultural Studies therefore generally also apply to the History Seminar.

  • Advising students and teaching staff on examination issues
  • Planning examination dates and examination corridors in coordination with the examiners and other responsible bodies
  • Administration of exam registrations and exam data in Campusnet/JoguStine
  • Registration and deregistration of students for examinations

E-mail: shahla@uni-mainz.de
Phone: (49)-6131-39-20195
Fax: (49)-6131-39-20324

Office: Philosophicum, Room 01-543

Office hours:
Currently only by appointment by e-mail; later again Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 09:30-11:30 a.m.
  • I have been threatened as a person or as a member of a group (because of my appearance, my gender, my sexual orientation, my nationality, my religion, etc.).
  • I have been approached by people or groups that I would classify as radical, racist, misogynistic or anti-healthcare.
  • I have come across statements or activities in my university environment that I would classify as such an environment, but I am unsure whether I am perhaps wrong.

JGU offers its members, especially its students, a specialized advising and support service as a component of its diversity strategy: For example, as part of the implementation of a diversity-sensitive university culture, a further step towards an equal opportunity and low-discrimination university was taken with the institution of an Anti-Discrimination Officer position in the Equality and Diversity Office. Ms. Gonca Sariaydin is the anti-discrimination officer. She has already headed several anti-discrimination projects for various ministries and most recently an anti-discrimination office at a higher education institution in Hesse. The office’s task is to offer affected students and members of the university a contact point and to develop prevention and awareness-raising offers.

  • Where can I find the right contact points and contact persons?
  • What are the advantages of studying history in Mainz?
  • Which degree program is right for me: B.A. or B.Ed.
  • Is studying history the right thing for me?
  • What requirements do I need for admission to the History degree program?
  • Where can I get a placement in the appropriate academic semester if I want to transfer to Mainz?
  • Which credits from my home university will be recognized if I transfer to Mainz?
  • Which credits will be recognized if I want to change degree programs or start studying for two degrees?
  • Can I already complete courses for the Master’s degree during my Bachelor’s degree? How can they be recognized?
  • …

Studying with children / Studying with physical and mental impairments (“disadvantage compensation”) / Studying under the conditions of caring for relatives, etc.

Many students are restricted in their program of study by factors that do not stem from their studies themselves. These include, for example, physical or psychological impairments. Studying with a child can also cause difficulties due to limited childcare hours. According to legal requirements, we are obliged to provide appropriate support in these cases and are happy to do so. You are welcome to contact us about this. Everything you talk about is, of course, confidential.

  • Where can I find advice if I have problems with the organization of my studies in particular life situations?
  • Who can support me in applying for disadvantage compensation?
  • I often have bouts of illness and/or absences during examinations – what options are there to help me study successfully despite this?
  • My children are only supervised in the mornings before 12 noon – how do I organize the program of study around these childcare hours?

There is another parent-child workroom in the departmental library in the Georg Forster building. This is located in the basement of the departmental library (room no. -1.423). This room is primarily intended for parents with children. If the study room is used by students without children, you can ask them to leave the space to you.

A third parent-child room is located in the Kreuzbau. In addition to a nappy-changing and breastfeeding corner, there are also computer workstations and the option to prepare or heat up food.

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz supports students with disabilities so that they can complete their program of study on campus as independently and unhindered as possible. The point of contact for students with disabilities and for on-site supervision in Mainz is JGU’s Service for Students with Disabilities. The employees have extensive experience and will be happy to work with you to develop a customized solution for any problems that arise in connection with your program of study at JGU. The service for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz provides information about accessibility on campus. On the website(http://www.barrierefrei.uni-mainz.de) you will find a large number of useful links on all kinds of topics, as well as a detailed photo gallery and collection of accessible buildings and lecture halls.

Further offers for disabled and chronically ill students from the Service for Students with Disabilities are:

  • social law issues
  • Organization and financing of assistance in the program of study and everyday life
  • Dealing with authorities and institutions
  • overcoming personal problems and crisis situations
  • psychosocial issues
  • applying for technical aids and personal assistance

We have aids for the visually impaired and blind available for you. Currently:

  • Workstation for the blind with 80r Braille display and voice output
  • Visually impaired workstation with large print and voice input and output
  • Laptop with large print and voice output
  • Rental equipment
  • Reader and expansion of the pool of aids

Other aids, hardware or software products can be organized and purchased on request. Further information can be found on our website: http://www.barrierefrei.uni-mainz.de/unseren-hilfsmittelpool/.

  • Help with scanning documents
  • Printout in braille
  • Support with research, e.g. in libraries and/or on the Internet
  • Reading aloud service or organization of personal assistance
  • Commissioning of sign language interpreters
  • on site, i.e. on the JGU campus in Mainz and Germersheim, supervision and support
  • Assistance with exams and term papers and their preparation
  • Who will issue me with Bafög certificates (pink form) and which services do I need for the course certificate?
  • What options are there for financing the program of study?
  • Where can I find information on student loans or fellowships?
  • Who can I turn to in a financial emergency?
  • …

If you need a course certificate for the Federal Training Assistance Office, you should have it issued on the form provided by the academic advisory office if possible. You can find the form “Leistungsbescheinigung nach § 48 BAföG” here: https://www.bafög.de/bafoeg/de/antrag-stellen/alle-antragsformulare/alle-antragsformulare_node.html, general information on course certificates at https://www.bafoeg-aktuell.de/bafoeg/leistungsnachweise.html. The aforementioned form can also be submitted instead of the reporting document introduced at JGU Mainz.

You will find current instructions on Bafög regulations on the following pages. Important: Do not hesitate to submit proposals if your financial situation or that of your parents deteriorates!

Ausführliche Informationen zum Thema BAföG können Sie auf den Seiten des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung abrufen.

The student loan is a temporary, low-interest loan to support students and pupils in advanced phases of their education. It is available alongside or in addition to BAföG. There are also special student loans. At Mainz University, student loans from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) are granted via the Studierendenwerk Mainz.

Further instructions on financing options can be found here:

The Historical Seminar cannot advise you on BAFöG itself; this is the responsibility of the Office for Educational Support.

However, we can help you to compile the documents required for BAföG, i.e. the information to be provided in the subject. These are in particular course certificates for BAföG matters. In order to obtain the relevant confirmation, you must go to the academic advisory office with the Federal Training Assistance Office’s form (pink certificate of “usual achievements”) to have the confirmation issued there. This conversation is often very productive and an important support; please make use of it!

  • How do I find my personal answer to the question of what you can do with a history degree?
  • Where can I find information on appointments for historians?
  • How can I plan my transition to a profession during my program of study?
  • Which internships are suitable for me?
  • Where can I find out about further training opportunities and academic job vacancies?
  • …

Please also use the blog“History and Appointments” for orientation. Certificates for the “compulsory internship” can be obtained from Dr. Freia Anders.

  • What are the didactic requirements of the history teacher education program?
  • How do I prepare for the M.Ed. thesis?
  • What do I have to consider when I log in for the state examination or the extension examination?
  • Where can I find information about the third-subject extension examination certificate course?
  • What requirements should I meet for a successful program of study abroad?
  • How do I apply for a program of study abroad?
  • What do I need to bear in mind when preparing my stay abroad?
  • How can I fit a stay abroad into my degree plan?
  • Which of my achievements abroad can be recognized?
  • What are the strengths of the Integrated German-French Study Program Mainz/Dijon?

Each semester, we offer events on various counseling topics:

Montag 12. Januar 2026, 14-16 Uhr im Besprechungsraum im Erdgeschoss des Philosophicum-II (Flur des Zentrums für Lehrerbildung) (Verena von Wiczlinski, Andreas Frings)

Wir informieren Sie über die Modalitäten der Bachelorprüfung sowie Fragen des Zugangs zum Masterstudium: 5. November 2025 (Mittwoch), 12-13 Uhr, Microsoft Teams-Besprechung, 

Jetzt an der Besprechung teilnehmen

Besprechungs-ID: 399 070 849 687 1, Passcode: eM9DZ2gE

Wir bieten Ihnen ein Bewerbungstraining zum Berufseinstieg für Historiker*innen an: gemeinsam mit Kommiliton*innen können Sie üben, ihre Profile mit Stellenangeboten oder den Anforderungen potentieller Praktikumsgeber abzugleichen: 21. Januar 2026 (Mittwoch), 16-19 Uhr, Voranmeldung unter Vorlage von (fiktiven oder tatsächlichen Bewerbungsunterlagen) bis 10. Januar 2025: anders@uni-mainz.de.

Besuch des Geschichtsorts Adlerwerke – Fabrik, Zwangsarbeit, Konzentrationslager – in Frankfurt am Main, Führung durch die Ausstellung und Workshop zur Gedenkstättenarbeit mit biographischen Quellen: 18. November 2025, 10-13 Uhr, vor Ort, Voranmeldung bis 9.11.: anders@uni-mainz.de.

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has a wide range of information and counseling services. On this page you will find a list of the most important links.