Accommodations for disadvantages

1. General

The aim of disadvantage compensation is to compensate for disadvantages through certain measures in such a way that equal opportunities (compared to fellow students) prevail for everyone. This means that students must experience neither disadvantages nor advantages.

For example, staff, people who have a physical or mental impairment or who make use of maternity protection provisions are eligible.

The right to NTA is enshrined in law in various places:

• UN CRPD = UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Art. 5 para. 2, Art. 24 para. 1+5
• GG = Basic Law: Principle of equality (Art. 3 para. 1+3) and freedom of choice of profession (Art. 12 para. 1) 
• HRG = Higher Education Framework Act: §2 para. 4, §16 sentence 4 These principles can also be found in state higher education acts (LHG)
• Individual legal entitlement arises only from the examination regulations of the universities, not from the LHG.
• Approval of disadvantage compensation(s) can be long-term (e.g. several years, the entire degree programme) or short-term (e.g. one semester).

A study by Jana Bauer (2021) shows that although teaching staff, instructors, lectures fear the additional work involved in NTA, those who have already had experience with it are largely positive.

Further information can be found, for example, at the University of Potsdam.