Frequently Asked Questions About the Bachelor’s Programme in Biology

We strongly advise you to submit your credit transfer request by 4 April (summer semester) or 10 October (winter semester) at the latest to ensure that you will be able to create a timetable for the following semester that makes sense for you and to register for the modules in time.
If you submit your request after this date, you might not be able to plan your progress toward degree completion in a way that makes sense for you and/or your chosen modules (lab courses and seminars) may be full already.

The general rule is:

A transfer of credits earned in prior degree programmes can be requested only once and must be requested within your first semester of study in your new programme at JMU.

A transfer of credits earned at another higher education institution or in a country other than Germany must be requested within the first semester after your return to JMU.

Please also read the information provided on page 2 of the credit transfer request form.

Yes, you will have to supply a transcript of records as evidence of the credits you have earned as well as module descriptions as evidence of the material covered in, and the number of contact hours for, the courses taken.

We will only accept credits from complete modules for transfer. If you only want to have individual components of modules recognised, e.g. lab courses, this does not fall under credit transfer. In this case, please contact your teacher directly to enquire if you can be exempted from particular lab courses or individual components of them.

No, you cannot have modules recognised across different areas.

No, you cannot have achievements from vocational training recognised for credit towards a university degree. However, you can contact your teacher directly to enquire if you can be exempted from particular lab courses or individual components of them that you already completed while training, for example, as a biological technical assistant.

No, we will not accept requests sent by email. Please send us your request form and supporting documents by postal mail or come to our offices and hand them in in person.

If you want to change to biology and it is necessary to review the equivalency of chemistry, physics and/or mathematics courses, please contact the examination committees or the competent teachers at these Faculties first.

Please get in touch with them as soon as possible, as such reviews will usually take some time to complete. Sending out the completed forms to the different Faculties at the same time may speed up the process. Please be aware that you may be required to appear in person.

The recognition of biology courses AND the overall process of transferring your credits (with the help of the forms received from the other subjects) will ultimately be the responsibility of the examination committee for the Biology programme, which will also decide in which subject semester you will be placed.
Therefore, please do not submit your final request until you have received the credit transfer request forms from the other subjects.

A transfer of credits may be requested only once. Please send your final request bearing your original handwritten signature along with any credit transfer request forms received from the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and/or Chemistry by postal mail (not by email) to

Studiendekanat Biologie
Biozentrum
Universität Würzburg
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg

Although the minimum ECTS score requirement is called a ‘Prüfung’ in German, it is not an actual exam that you will need to sit. Rather, the Examination Office will check automatically whether you meet certain requirements.

The specific regulations regarding the minimum ECTS score requirement that apply under the examination regulations version that governs your programme can be found in § 5 of the subject-specific provisions (FSB) for your programme.

No, the provision regarding the modules to be passed by the end of the second subject semester will not apply to you if you met the requirement regarding the modules to be passed by the end of the first subject semester.

You will not have to provide this proof actively. The Examination Office will automatically check, on the basis of the assessment results entered into the system, whether you meet the requirement.
In many cases, the results of assessments taken in a particular semester are not entered into the system until after the start date of the lecture period of the subsequent semester. This is why we will not check whether you meet the minimum ECTS score requirement until the beginning of May (first attempt) or the beginning of November (second attempt). This means that the corresponding notification letters will be delayed accordingly.

If you are on your first attempt, we will take into account all relevant assessments that were assigned to the winter semester, including those whose results were not entered into the system until April.

If you are on your second attempt, we will take into account all relevant assessments that were assigned to the winter or the summer semester, including those that were not taken, or whose results were not entered into the system, until October.

Please enquire with the Examination Office if in doubt!

Yes, you can. If you are on your second attempt and are still missing some ECTS credits or modules for reasons beyond your control, you can request a deadline extension by sending an informal letter to the Examination Office. Please note that this letter must have been received by the Examination Office by the start date of the lecture period of the winter semester at the latest and must provide a justification of why you have not been able to meet the minimum ECTS score requirement.

You and your reviewer will have to propose a start date on the request form. If the chairperson of the examination committee gives their approval for this date, the due date for the submission of your thesis will be exactly ten weeks after it. The Examination Office will enter your due date into the WueStudy system, and you will find it in the list of the assessments for which you have registered. It may take up to one week after you submit your request for the date to appear in the system.
If your proposed start date is not approved, the Examination Office will let you know.

According to the ASPO general academic and examination regulations, you will have to submit one electronic copy (usually a PDF file) of your Bachelor’s thesis that is saved on a standard storage device (e.g. USB stick or CD). The storage device should be labelled with your name and student ID number.

Your storage device must be accompanied by a declaration of authorship (form found here in the ‘Theses’ section).
You will have to 1. submit one printout of the declaration that bears your original handwritten signature and 2. in addition to that, will have to add the declaration, without a signature, to the electronic copy as the last page of the file. If no declaration of authorship has been included or you have made a false declaration of authorship, you will be awarded a fail grade for your thesis.

If required by the reviewer of your thesis, you will have to submit two (!) bound paper copies in addition to the electronic copy. A declaration of authorship bearing your original handwritten signature must be bound into these paper copies. Please contact your reviewer directly to find out if they require paper copies. You will not have to notify the Examination Office of your reviewer’s requirements.

You have the following options for submitting your thesis:

• Come to the Examination Office (Josef-Martin-Weg 55, 97074 Würzburg) during our office hours and hand it in in person.
• Place it in an envelope addressed to the Examination Office for Biology (Prüfungsamt Biologie) and drop it in the letter box located at the north-east entrance to the Neue Universität building at Sanderring 2 no later than at 23:59 on the due date (be aware that there is a system to identify whether a document has been put in the letter box before or after midnight).
• Send it by postal mail to Universität Würzburg, Prüfungsamt Biologie, Sanderring 2, 97070 Würzburg (important information: the ‘normal’ mail (not internal mail) postmark date will be deemed the date of submission).

Yes, students writing their Bachelor’s thesis can be granted an extension of their thesis submission deadline of up to four weeks. To request an extension, please submit the completed request form to the Office of the Dean of Studies (Studiendekanat) of your Faculty. You can complete the form on your computer if you open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
The request must include sufficient justification and must provide information to prove that the requested amount of time is justified.

Important information: Deadline extensions must be requested at least two weeks before the original due date for thesis submission! 

Deadline extensions for reasons of illness may also be granted on presentation of a doctor’s note. In such cases, you will not be required to submit the deadline extension request form mentioned above. There is no specific deadline for submitting your doctor’s note, but please submit it to the Examination Office as soon as possible (preferably by postal mail). 

You cannot be granted an extension of your thesis submission deadline of more than four weeks!