A certificate of incapacity for work (AU) is a medical certificate confirming that you are unable to attend lectures, seminars or examinations due to illness. You can obtain this certificate at a doctor's surgery, for example at your GP surgery, or online.

If you don't have a GP practice, there are various ways to find one. You can use online portals such as Doctolib to book an appointment directly or, if you have statutory health insurance, you can search for practices via the website of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.

There are providers on the Internet who offer medical certificates (AUs). You should make sure that the issuing doctor really exists and is authorized to issue a medical certificate. Unfortunately, there are also fraudulent offers.

You should therefore always check the following points:

• Provider’s details: Check the legal notice or provider's details to see if the provider has an office registered in Germany. This is because doctors from abroad have to provide more information in their medical certificates than is usual in Germany. Check the name of the doctor on the website of the Medical Association.
• Contact with the doctor: In order to get a medical certificate, you must have spoken to a doctor. Filling out a questionnaire is never enough.
• Check the AU: If you have been issued an AU online by a doctor, check whether all the data is correct and whether the doctor really exists. To do this, you can search for the name and address listed on the stamp online.

The safest way is to contact a doctor's practice or your health insurance company directly. They can give you the names of practices that offer video or telephone consultations where a medical certificate can be issued in accordance with the law.

If it turns out that your sick note comes from a non-existent doctor, for example, this is fraud. This can lead to serious consequences, such as

• Criminal charges for fraud.
• Disciplinary measures by the university, up to and including removal from the register of students.

If you suspect that your AU comes from a dubious provider, you should report this to the Examinations Office immediately and, if necessary, submit a new, valid certificate. Reporting this quickly could result in extenuating circumstances.

Compulsory attendance can take different forms. It can mean that you have to attend all sessions of a seminar or only certain sessions. Compulsory attendance can also mean that you may be absent without excuse up to two times. Your examination regulations specify the conditions under which attendance is compulsory. In most cases, the lecturers will tell you at the beginning of the course exactly what attendance requirements apply in their courses.

At the beginning of the course, your lecturers will tell you how often you are allowed to be absent without an excuse, i.e. without a certificate or sick note (see below). This is usually twice. If you are absent more often, you will unfortunately have to attend the course again in the next semester.

It's best to talk to your lecturers. You may be able to attend some sessions online or provide substitute work. However, you will need a medical certificate in any case: a medical certificate or a certificate of incapacity for work from your doctor. Sometimes, however, you may be allowed to be absent a maximum of two times or not at all despite a doctor's certificate. In this case, you will unfortunately have to attend the course again in the next semester.

You can ask your student council. Compulsory attendance for a course must be applied for in the examination board and there are always student members on the examination board - in most cases from the student council. Therefore, the council also knows in which courses compulsory attendance has been approved. Sometimes it is also stated in the module handbook that attendance is compulsory for a course. If you are still unsure, you can also contact the Department of University Policy and Teaching by e-mail.

The NRW Higher Education Act states that compulsory attendance is possible: “the ordering of compulsory student participation in courses as a prerequisite for attendance” (Section 64 (1) HG NRW) has been permitted again since 2019.

Students who are less flexible in terms of time because they have to work, have children, care for relatives or have a disability may be disadvantaged by compulsory attendance. If you are affected by one of the last three points, you can try to get a place on a course directly via the hardship regulation. You can obtain information about this from your faculty(ies). Another argument against compulsory attendance is that the aim of every lecturer must be to teach so well that students participate voluntarily. If students are forced to attend courses because attendance is compulsory, some lecturers will see no incentive to improve their teaching. Unfortunately, the quality of teaching essentially depends on how interested lecturers are in teaching.