FAQs

Your department specifies if and how many courses each student can attend free of charge or receive credits for in his/her degree programme. During the registration process, you will be shown the information as to whether the desired course is funded by your department and, if so, whether credits for the course can be transferred (the ultimate decision, however, lies with your department).

Specific courses for employees are listed separately. Generally, however, employees participate in courses which are offered to students.

External students register for courses offered in the STUDIUM PLUS programme for which a course fee is charged. Exception for German courses: here, external students can only enroll if there are places left over after the registration period has ended and are therefore automatically placed on the waiting list.

Unless otherwise stated on our website, courses at the Language Centre begin either one or two weeks after the official semester start at the University of Kassel. Some courses are also offered in compact form during the lecture-free period. The current course dates can be found at:  News

COURSE WITHDRAWAL

You can withdraw from the course by clicking on the button "Request for course withdrawal".

You can find information about the course format on our website.

The course takes place in the virtual classroom at the specified course times. You join in with your camera switched on and your microphone.

The Language Centre will send access data 4 hours before the start of the course at the latest to the e-mail address you provide when registering.

Yes, the same compulsory attendance rules apply as in the on campus courses; see our terms and conditions.

IMPORTANT: your "attendance" will only count if you participate in the course sessions with your camera switched on and a microphone plugged in.

Unless otherwise communicated, the final exams will be taken in the last and/or the second to last course session. Unless otherwise communicated, the written exam will take place on campus, whereas the oral exam will be held online in a Zoom meeting via a protected server for increased confidentiality and in accordance with data protection requirements. Separate registration is not necessary (except for the UNIcert®-III exam, which is conducted separately, and resits). The Language Centre will send you information regarding the exam procedure and current hygiene regulations prior to the exam.

Please contact sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de at least 5 weeks before the exam (for compact courses at the beginning of the course!). At the same time, please send a valid medical certificate by post to: Sprachenzentrum der Universität Kassel, Geschäftszimmer, Kurt-Wolters-Str. 5, 34109 Kassel.

Late applications or applications not accompanied by a medical certificate will not be processed.

There are different regulations, depending on the department you belong to. When you select your desired course on our website, you will be shown whether the course is free of charge for you or subject to a fee. Only courses listed under Studium International or Patenplatz (sponsored places) are free of charge in your department. You will not receive an invoice when you register for a course listed there. The Language Centre will invoice your department for the cost of your course place.

The course fee depends on the number of lessons, the size of the group and your status of the participants (student, employee or a guest who pays a higher course fee). Some departments cover the costs for their students (see "Will my department pay for my course?" ).

You will receive an invoice by e-mail about 4 - 6 weeks after the start of the course. The course fees are then to be paid by bank transfer. In so doing, please quote the invoice number. DSH courses and pre-courses/preparatory courses are to be paid for via PayPal.

No refunds are available either from the Language Centre or your department.

Your registration is binding and commits you to payment, regardless of course attendance. For the regulations concerning a withdrawal from the course, see Course Withdrawal. 

You can register via the Language Centre's website.

Home

After successful registration you will receive an automatically generated confirmation e-mail. Please save this e-mail for future reference. If you withdraw from the course, you may need the registration number printed on your confirmation e-mail.

As long as we have not received and approved an official application for withdrawal, you will remain enrolled in the course. You do not need to inform the instructor. Are you having problems accessing the virtual classroom?

Please change your browser, for example to Firefox, and/or use a different device (smartphones are not recommended).

Please check the following:

• Have you entered the code correctly (consider typing errors, upper or lower case)?
• Have you used the same E-Mail address to which your registration code was sent?
• Have you selected the course type as assigned to you with the code? (The code ONLY allows you to register for the assigned level (course type)!)

If none of this works, please take a screenshot of the completed registration form AND the error message that follows and send it to: sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de. Please understand that we can only process enquiries that provide these two items.

This message can mean two things:

1) Each student has an individual limit set by his/her department (a limit on how many courses he/she can take at the department's expense). If you have already taken the maximum amount of courses at the Language Centre which can be paid for by your department, you will have to register for the course via the STUDIUM PLUS link and you will be charged for the course.

2) Each semester departments allocate a maximum amount of money for courses for all of its students. Once this budget has been used up, no more free course places will be available. Please register via the STUDIUM PLUS link.

Further enquiries should be sent to: ebest@uni-kassel.de AND in CC to: studinternational[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.

You must complete the "Request for Course Withdrawal“ form on the Language Centre home page by the deadline and submit it electronically. You can only withdraw from a course if your reason corresponds to one of the four reasons for withdrawal set out in the Terms and Conditions for our courses and you provide appropriate evidence for the information you have provided.

Your withdrawal only becomes official when you receive an official confirmation of your withdrawal per email from the Language Centre. If you withdraw from the course within the prescribed period, you only have to pay an administration fee of €10 and the course fees proportional to the date on which your request for withdrawal was received via the Language Centre's home page. It is by no means sufficient to only inform your instructor!

Withdrawal after receipt of the invoice is only possible in the case of illness if this prevents further attendance of the course (a doctor's certificate is required). Withdrawals after the end of the course are not possible under any circumstances.

Notice of an approved withdrawal will be sent by email by the departmental office.

If and how many ECTS you will receive after successfully completing a course is displayed when you select your desired course. The following applies in principle: Please ask the examination office responsible for you whether you can have the ECTS for the course you wish to attend count towards your course of study. Many departments at the University of Kassel accept the ECTS for courses offered by the Language Centre if they are listed under "Studium International" or "Patenplatz". Some departments, however, will not recognise the ECTS listed on the Language Centre certificates for your course of study but will pay for the courses listed in these categories.

After the end of the course, please collect your certificate of achievement from the Language Centre office. Please check our current opening hours. We will also be happy to send you your certificate as a pdf. Please show your certificate to your examination office, where they will register the grade for you. With the exception of the course "Legal and Business English", the Language Centre itself does not register any grades in HISPOS.

This is done by the International Office. The staff member there has access to the Language Centre's database and can view your result(s). Please contact Marlis Fellmann directly at: exchange[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

A placement test informs both you and us of your current level of proficiency in the language in question. The purpose of taking a placement test is to ensure that you take a course at the appropriate level (and not one that is too difficult or too easy).

Anyone who wants to attend a language course at the ISC parallel to their course of study.

Exceptions:

1. Those who want to take part in a course for absolute beginners with no previous knowledge.

2. Those who have successfully completed a course one level below the course they wish to attend in one of the previous two semesters. (Please note: There is a separate entrance test for the DSH preparatory course! Special regulations also apply to the INTEGRA courses for refugees).

Depending on the language (see below), you take a placement test. After receipt of your result, we send you a registration code for a course of the corresponding course level. When you register for the course in question, you must enter this code in the registration form. You can only use the code for the course level we name in the e-mail you receive based on the results of your placement test.

German, English, French and Spanish
You will receive information during the registration process for the desired course.

Portuguese
If you need advice, please contact: izquierdo@uni-kassel.de

All other languages
If you need advice, please contact: i.paulsfeld@uni-kassel.de

You will find out the dates when you have selected your language of choice under Language and Key Skills Courses on the homepage.

Courses at the Language Centre are subject to compulsory attendance regulations. If you exceed the maximum amount of time you are allowed to be absent (for whatever reason!), you will lose your right to take the examination. You can then continue to attend the course, but you will neither receive a qualified performance record/certificate nor grade, nor ECTS.

If you attend 60% of the course, we can issue a certificate of attendance upon request (without grade, without ECTS).

Please note: In online courses, attendance means active participation in the virtual classroom with sound and your camera switched on.

Unfortunately, if you exceed the maximum amount of time you can be absent, no exceptions can be made, regardless of the fact that the conflicting event is compulsory.

You can then:

• withdraw from the course and pay a handling fee of 10 € (see Withdrawal from course). This is only possible by providing proof of the conflicting event and no longer possible if you have already received the invoice for the course.

OR

• continue to attend the course and at the end, on request, receive a certificate of attendance without a grade and without CREDITS. (Please note: The latter is only possible if you have not missed more than 40% of the course in total).

No, there is no need to provide reasons for your absence. Should you exceed the maximum amount of absence allowed, you will be excluded from the examination even if you have a medical certificate.

You have made a binding reservation for your place on the course, so it will not be assigned to anyone else even if you are absent from the first lesson.

You can read all about affirmative action here:

https://www.uni-kassel.de/themen/barrierefreie-hochschule/studium-und-behinderung/neuer-webauftritt/studienalltag-und-hilfen/pruefungen-und-nachteilsausgleich.html 

If you have a medical certificate stating that you have such a condition and you intend to apply for affirmative action, please inform the Language Centre within the first two weeks of the course. Write to: sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de. If it concerns a compact course, please write to us by the second course session at the latest.

At the same time, please send your department's official approval (if already available) by post or, if no approval is (yet) available, a valid medical certificate by post to: Sprachenzentrum der Universität Kassel, Geschäftszimmer, Kurt-Wolters-Str. 5, 34109 Kassel.

The course coordinator will then contact you to agree on appropriate arrangements.

We are unable to process later requests or requests which are not accompanied by appropriate documentation.

You can read all about affirmative action here:

https://www.uni-kassel.de/themen/barrierefreie-hochschule/studium-und-behinderung/neuer-webauftritt/studienalltag-und-hilfen/pruefungen-und-nachteilsausgleich.html 

If you have a medical certificate stating that you have such a condition and you intend to apply for affirmative action, please inform the Language Centre within the first two weeks of the course. Write to: sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de. If it concerns a compact course, please write to us by the second course session at the latest.

At the same time, please send your department's official approval (if already available) by post or, if no approval is (yet) available, a valid medical certificate by post to: Sprachenzentrum der Universität Kassel, Geschäftszimmer, Kurt-Wolters-Str. 5, 34109 Kassel.

The course coordinator will then contact you to agree on appropriate arrangements.

We are unable to process later requests or requests which are not accompanied by appropriate documentation.

Attendance means: you participate actively in class with the sound and your camera switched on. Students who attend but have switched off their camera will not be considered present.

Your instructor will give you his/her e-mail address in the first session of the course. In the interests of data protection, the Language Centre does not provide contact details for its freelance instructors. Please note that freelance instructors do not offer consultation hours and do not carry out placement tests, nor do they provide information on regulations, etc. Our team of permanent staff is available for these purposes: Language Centre Team

As a general rule, the final examinations take place within the respective course. With the exception of the UNIcert® III examination, which is offered separately, and retakes, you do not need to register separately for the examination.

If you do not pass the examination, the coordinator responsible will make a decision based on your overall performance. You can find the staff members responsible on this page: To the Language Centre Team

Unfortunately, only the following students are entitled to resit their examination:

• Students at the University of Kassel who have the ECTS credited to their degree programme,
• Students at the University of Kassel for whom proof of their level in the relevant target language is required for their degree programme or is a condition stipulated in their letter of admission to the University,
• international exchange students at the University of Kassel who have the ECTS credited in their learning agreement.

An exception can only made for UNIcert® end-of-level examinations (UNIcert® I, Part 4, German UNIcert® II, English UNIcert® II, Part 3, separate UNIcert® III exam). In these cases, all candidates can apply for a resit. However, a fee of €30 (resp. €79 for external course guests) is payable for all persons not listed under 1. 

In addition to the details provided in the course description, information about the examination will be given to you by your course instructor.

[Translate to Englisch:]

Please send an email to: sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

s. answer to: I suffer from a chronic illness or disability and therefore cannot (or will probably not) fulfil the attendance requirements. What should I do?

As soon as the grades are recorded in our system and you have passed the exam, you will receive an e-mail. This can take between 3-6 weeks depending on the course instructor. We ask for your patience.

If you do not pass the exam, you will not receive any notification. However, on request (sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de) and if you had sufficient attendance in the course, we can at least confirm your participation (without grade, without ECTS) .

As soon as you have received an e-mail from the Language Centre informing you that you have passed the examination (see previous question), we can send you your certificate as a pdf on request.

If you also need a paper version, please come to our office during opening hours with your ID and University enrolment certificate. If our office is closed (e.g. during the pandemic), we will also send you a paper version upon request if you send us an e-mail with your current address and a scan of your enrolment certificate with your request. Please email: sz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Yes, but you will need a signed power of attorney and a copy of his/her ID and student enrolment certificate.

You can find out how here: Language proficiency certificates

No, these tests can only be taken at specially accredited institutes.

The Institute for English/American Studies at the University of Kassel offers IELTS tests for Kassel at

ttp://www.uni-kassel.de/fb02/institute/anglistikamerikanistik/zulassungsvoraussetzungen/ielts.html.

At the Language Centre you can attend preparation courses for this test at regular intervals. LINK zum Kursprogramm

The University of Applied Sciences Fulda is the nearest Hessian university that is accredited for TELC and TOEFL examinations.

TOEFL:

https://www.hs-fulda.de/sozial-kulturwissenschaften/studium/sprachenzentrum/toefl 

TELC

telc - Startseite

You can find more accredited facilities on the pages of the test providers:

https://www.ets.org/toefl 

https://www.telc.net/ 

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) was developed by the Council of Europe. Its purpose is to provide a comparable benchmark for learners' foreign language skills and learning achievements.

The basic levels of competence are:

A: Elementary language use
B: Independent language use
C: Competent language use

At each level, the CEFR identifies what proficiency a learner has in the foreign language.

More info: https://www.europaeischer-referenzrahmen.de/ 

UNIcert® is a seal of quality for the training, testing and certification of proficiency in foreign languages for prospective academics. It represents a training, accreditation and certification system specifically for foreign language education at universities and a network covering large parts of Europe.

The UNIcert® competence levels are aligned with the European Framework of Reference for Languages:

LINK: https://www.unicert-online.org/ueber-unicert/zertifikate/kompetenzstufen/