Suitability assessors

What is a suitability assessor?

Suitability assessors are appointed by the respective university. Usually, they are full-time members of the teaching staff, e.g. professors, doctors, lecturers.

What are the tasks of suitability assessors?

Their task is to check the suitability of BAföG recipients at the boundary between the fourth and fifth semester. For this purpose, the infamous pink "Form 5" is issued.
You can download it here as a PDF file.

The suitability assessment is the responsibility of the competent suitability assessor. It is based on the performances achieved up to the time of the assessment (such as course attendance and tutorial certificates, examinations, etc.). Each suitability assessor decides independently what the suitability assessor wants to be submitted for assessment. However, if a suitability assessor is stingy with the proof (the positive confirmation of the usual performances), he does not necessarily have to mean it badly with you. Suitability assessors know: Those who at the end of their studies do not complete their studies within the maximum period of support must be able to give an important reason for the delay. Once the certificate of achievement has been issued, it is logically no longer possible to invoke possible reasons for delay prior to the issue.

What are your duties as a student?

Of course, towards the end of the fourth semester you have to contact the responsible suitability assessor yourself. Those who have not achieved the usual performance at that time lose their entitlement to support until they can prove by a positive suitability assessment that they have made up for their performance deficit.

For each main subject (e.g. teaching profession with 2 subjects, Bachelor's programme with 2 main subjects) a suitability assessment must be submitted (certificate of achievement).

So what to do if the certificate of achievement is not issued?

There is also a recipe for this: Apply to the Office for Education and Training Assistance for postponement of the certificate of achievement for a reasonable period of time and state the reason for the delay. If the reason is serious, your application can be granted. Otherwise, you have to make up the performance deficit as quickly as possible, as hard as that may be.

The legal basis and possible reasons for postponing the certificate of achievement are described on the back of Form 5.

Deadlines that you must observe?

When applying for BAföG benefits for the fifth and sixth semesters, please first note the deadline for applications for further support. They must always be submitted two months before the end of the current approval period. If your approval expires in September of a year and your fifth semester is therefore the winter semester, you must submit your application for further support by 31 July of the year. If your approval expires in March of a year and your fifth semester is therefore the summer semester, you must submit your application for further support by 31 January of the year.

If you submit your certificate of achievement (form 5) to us at the same time as your application for further support within the above deadlines, the suitability assessor must confirm the usual performance status by the end of your third semester. As soon as you submit the certificate of achievement later, e.g. on 15 August of the year, you will be required to confirm your usual performances for four semesters.

Note: Make sure that you submit the certificate of achievement (Form 5) in good time.

Example:

3rd

4th semester

5th semester

6th

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

Presentation of the certificate of achievement to the Office for Education and Training Assistance by 31 July;

Confirmation of performances of 3 semesters achieved until the end of March.

If the certificate of achievement is presented in the period from 1 August to 31 January, the performances of 4 semesters must be confirmed which were achieved by the end of September.

If the certificate of achievement is presented as of 1 February, confirmation of the performances of 5 semesters achieved by March is necessary.

This means that if you submit your application for further support for the 5th semester in good time by 31 July, the performance level of 3 semesters is sufficient.

If you submit your application during this period, payment may be interrupted between the 4th and 5th semester.
If the application is received by the end of October, for example, but the certificate of achievement is not submitted until January, for example, retroactive approval can be granted from October.

Even if the application was already submitted in October, support can only be awarded from the time of submission of the certificate of achievement.