Faculty of
Life Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences

The Hamburg government's emergency corona loans for students (Hamburger Corona Notfalldarlehen für Studierende) provide quick interim funding for students who can demonstrate financial need and are not able to obtain adequate support through the corona assistance and support programmes provided by the federal government and the City of Hamburg.

You can find more information on the Studierendenwerk Hamburg website.

Please register for your exams as usual via myHAW. You can find additional information under the menu item LS exams.

PLEASE NOTE - UPDATE 12 January 2021: During the upcoming examination period beginning on 16 January 2021, no exams will be held on campus!

Your instructors will inform you about the alternative forms the exams will take.

Submitting your final thesis:

Due to the current situation, the Copyshops have been closed since 16 December 2020, which means that print versions of final theses cannot be submitted.

You can submit on time using one of the three option described here:

Option 1 – Submission of digital version on storage device for the reviewers

Please submit three data storage devices (these can be CDs, SD cards or USB sticks) each containing the digital version of your thesis and the examination file (consisting of five documents) via registered mail. Please clarify with your reviewers if they still expect you to also submit a hard copy once the Copyshops have opened again. Please include this information (printed copies of the mails are sufficient) with your data storage devices where we can see it. Subsequent submission of print versions will then no longer be necessary.

The postmark date will be considered the submission date (noted on postal receipt for registered mail). This will confirm that the deadline has been met, even if it takes us longer to process the thesis! Please be sure to keep your postal receipt.

Option 2 – Sending the final thesis via email

Because of the General Data Protection Regulation, we are not permitted to recommend the sending of final theses via email. The decision to do so is completely the responsibility of the students. This must also be agreed to by the two reviewers in advance (primarily because of potential trade secrets).

If the reviewers agree to the sending of the document via email, students are welcome to do this.

In this case the only other thing we need, as described above, is the data storage device and the forms (examination file) so that we can note submission by the deadline. Please send these via registered mail! Be sure to enclose the reviewers' approval with the data storage device (printed copies of the mails are sufficient)! Please clarify with your reviewers if they still expect you to also submit a hard copy once the Copyshops have opened again. Please also include this information (printed copies of the mails are sufficient) with your data storage devices where we can see it.

Please submit a data storage device (CD, SD card or USB stick) containing the digital version of your thesis and the examination file (consisting of five documents) via registered mail.

The postmark date will be considered the submission date (noted on postal receipt for registered mail). This will confirm that the deadline has been met, even if it takes us longer to process the thesis! Please be sure to keep your postal receipt. The print versions of the thesis must be submitted once the Copyshops have opened again so that they can be given to the reviewers.

Option 3 – Submission of data storage device by post and submission of print versions following reopening of the Copyshops

If the reviewers do not agree to the submission of the thesis via email or do not wish to review the document using a data storage device, the submission process is as follows:

Please submit a data storage device (CD, SD cards or USB stick) containing the digital version of your thesis and the examination file (consisting of five documents) via registered mail. The postmark date will be considered the submission date (noted on postal receipt for registered mail). This will confirm that the deadline has been met, even if it takes us longer to process the thesis! Please be sure to keep your postal receipt. The print versions of the thesis must be submitted once the Copyshops have opened again so that they can be given to the reviewers.

Mailing address:

HAW Hamburg
Fakultät Life Sciences
Fakultätservicebüro
Ulmenliet 20 
21033 Hamburg

Automatic extension of the deadline for final theses

Because of the pandemic-related lockdown from 14 December 2020 and the accompanying closure of the libraries and cancellation of on-campus teaching at HAW Hamburg, the decision has been made to extend the time available to work on final theses and student essays that were registered before December 2020 for the duration of the lockdown. Please note that this is an offer: this option can be utilised if necessary, but students can also submit their theses and essays by the original deadline.

If the thesis was registered during the library closure, the days on which the library was closed during the deadline for submitting the thesis will be extended by the number of days the library was closed following registration.

In both cases, it is not necessary to submit an application for extension. It is also not necessary to obtain confirmation from the chair of the Examinations Committee. The extension takes place automatically.

Application documents can be submitted digitally to the chair of the responsible Examinations Committee.

You must sign the documents and obtain the reviewers' signatures before submitting your application. This can also be done digitally (with scans or photographs). The submission deadlines will be determined by the chairs of the examinations committees.

Automatic extension of the deadline for final theses

Because of the pandemic-related lockdown from 14 December 2020 and the accompanying closure of the libraries and cancellation of on-campus teaching at HAW Hamburg, the decision has been made to extend the time available to work on final theses and student essays that were registered before December 2020 for the duration of the lockdown. Please note that this is an offer: this option can be utilised if necessary, but students can also submit their theses and essays by the original deadline.

If the thesis was registered during the library closure, the days on which the library was closed during the deadline for submitting the thesis will be extended by the number of days the library was closed following registration.

In both cases, it is not necessary to submit an application for extension. It is also not necessary to obtain confirmation from the chair of the Examinations Committee. The extension takes place automatically.

If you require graduation documents or certificates, you must still request them. The application form is available under 'Final these and certificates'. Please send us your application via remgular mail or email.

We are currently unable to hand out graduation documents and certificates in person. Provided that the documents have already been completed and signed (in which case you will have a received a message from us), we will send them to you by regular mail. The address will be requested in the preceding email so that they will be sent to the correct location even following a move.

You can send us the checklist via regular mail or email. We will circulate it via our internal mail system.

It must be ensured that the number of participants is very small and the hygiene rules and distancing measures can be followed.

Instructors are requested to do this conservatively and keeping in mind the necessity of limiting virus transmission. Advising sessions between instructors and students can only take place online or via telephone.

The deadlines for carrying out oral examinations given in the Examination Regulations have been suspended for the time being.

If you are worried that you will not be permitted to take an exam because you have not been able to complete some of the prerequisites in this semester, please contact the chair of the Examinations Committee for your degree course.

You can send copies of all applications, forms, etc. via email or the original documents via regular mail. If you send documents via email, please keep the originals in case they need to be submitted at a later date.

If you need the signatures of instructors or professors, please contact these people directly before sending your documents to the Faculty Service Office. You can arrange this via email.

Our contact information and office hours are listed below under 'How to contact us'.

Please note that we are currently operating at very limited capacity. This means that much of the information on the other Faculty Service Office pages is not up to date (e.g. information about picking up marked exams, etc.).