Coordination and Clearing

The uni-assist Coordination Procedure

Many degree programmes at German universities now have restrictions on admission. This means: There is only a limited number of university places and not every applicant satisfying the formal admission requirements will automatically be admitted. In order to improve their prospects of acquiring a place, many applicants therefore apply to several universities at the same time.

uni-assist has developed a coordination procedure in order to simplify the universities' admission process and to make it more transparent and, above all, faster. This procedure matches what both applicants and universities are looking for in a centrally managed, optimised process.

The universities compile ranking lists according to which they will admit candidates. The university applicants provide a list of priorities indicating their study preferences. On the basis of these ranking lists and of all priorities, uni-assist calculates the probability with which the university places offered are being accepted by applicants. This prognosis enables the universities to become aware of university places possibly remaining vacant well ahead of time and to offer these to other applicants.

By means of the uni-assist coordination process:

applicants and universities will have and retain full freedom of choice.
applicants still can apply for an unlimited number of universities and thus might receive several admissions.
applicants will be able to use the uni-assist online system to keep themselves informed as regards the status of their application and will learn much earlier from which universities they may expect an admission.
the universities will know sooner whether all their places will be filled or whether they can admit further applicants.

In our applicant portal, university applicants will find further information regarding the participation in the coordination procedure.

Entering Priorities

The uni-assist Clearing Procedure

The clearing procedure is a service providing uni-assist member universities with a tool to find suitable candidates for free study places in an uncomplicated manner.

For the clearing procedure, uni-assist stores the up-to-date personal information supplied by applicants in a database. All uni-assist member universities, that still have free places, are given access to the list containing the name, address, country of origin, the study programmes that were applied for and the result of our processing at uni-assist (e.g. type of admission qualification in Germany (HZB), titles of submitted certificates, HZB grade, language skills).

From this list, universities will be able to look for suitable candidates depending on the course of study and to contact them directly.

Only for Undergraduate Studies: The uni-assist clearing procedure applies for all undergraduate studies. As the requirements for Master's degree programmes are very specific, a clearing procedure for these courses of study currently does not seem to make much sense.
Only universities that still have free places after the end of their regular admission procedure will use the clearing procedure.

Participation only with an Admission Qualification for German Universities: All applicants for the current semester and who were assessed by uni-assist to generally possess an admission qualification for German universities and whose application was forwarded by uni-assist to at least one university of their choice can participate in the clearing procedure. However, they can only participate if they have not yet received an admission letter from one of the universities of their choice.

Applicants Will Receive a Written Notice by uni-assist: Applicants will be asked by uni-assist via email, whether they wish to participate in the clearing procedure. Those wishing to participate will give their written consent that the application data can be forwarded also to uni-assist member universities for which they had not applied for. It is important to include the application registration number in this consent.

Clearing Procedure Free of Charge: The clearing procedure is part of uni-assist's service and therefore free of charge for university applicants.

University Applicants Will Receive an Answer from the Universities: Usually, the clearing procedure will take two to three weeks. uni-assist has no influence on which universities take part in the clearing procedure and for which courses of study they offer places. It can happen that an applicant participates in the procedure but is not offered a university place as there are no free places left.

uni-assist will not send an extra reply to the participants of the clearing procedure.