University elections

FAU Elections Office

During the university elections, representatives are elected to the Senate, the five Faculty Councils, the Appointments Council for the School of Theology and the Student Council at FAU. They form the basis for the administration of academic affairs at the University. While the student representatives are elected each year, representatives of the full-time university lecturers, academic staff and doctoral candidates as well as non-academic staff are elected once every two years.

The results of the University election and the election of doctoral candidates’ representatives are now available.

Further details are available below and on the Student Representatives’ website. The doctoral candidates’ representatives are elected in parallel to the university elections, on an annual basis. Further information is available on the Doctoral Council website.

Please visit the English website for information and English versions of relevant documents.

Information

Legal basis

The committees at a glance

The Senate comprises six representatives of full-time university lecturers, one representative for members of academic staff, employees and doctoral candidates, one representative of non-academic staff as well as two students and the Officer for equal opportunities for women in science and the arts. The chairperson of the Doctoral Candidates’ Council is included in an advisory capacity. The tasks of the Senate include passing resolutions on University regulations (in particular degree program and examination regulations) and issuing statements on proposals for the appointment of professors. In addition, the elected members of the Senate belong to the University Council, which elects the members of the Executive Board and decides on changes to the FAU Constitution and on establishing new degree programs.

The Student Council (Studentischer Konvent) is made up of students from all faculties and has a total of 30 members. The Student Committees (Fachschaftsvertretungen) at each of the faculties appoint three members each (a total of 15), another 15 members are elected directly by students in the university election. The members of the Student Council work to promote the subject-related, economic and social interests of their fellow students at FAU. In addition, the Student Council elects student representatives to the Senate and the members of the General Student Committee (Sprat), which gives students a voice and a greater influence in external affairs.

The Faculty Councils (Fakultätsrat) consist of ex oficio members (dean, vice dean, dean of studies and the faculty women’s representatives) and group representatives elected directly during the university elections. These are twelve representatives of full-time university lecturers, four representatives of academic staff and doctoral candidates, two representatives of non-academic staff and four students. The Faculty Councils take decisions in all matters relating to the individual faculties. They are involved, for example, in establishing degree programs, approving examination regulations and appointing professors. Furthermore, the Faculty Council elects the members of the faculty board (deans, vice deans, deans of studies).

The Student Committees (Fachschaftsvertretung) represent students’ interests at a faculty level. They consist of the students with the most votes from the election for the Faculty Council, in other words the four representatives from the Faculty Council and the runners up. The number of members depends on the number of students at the faculties. The Student Committees support their fellow students in organizing their studies and provide students with study-related advice.

The Appointments Council for the School of Theology assumes the tasks of a Protestant faculty of theology pursuant to Section 3 (5) and (6) Bavarian Law on Academic Personnel of Higher Education Institutions at Bavarian Universities (HSchAbwV) in appointment procedures for professors of Protestant theology, Protestant religious education and teaching Protestant religious education at schools. Its members are elected in accordance with the provisions applicable to electing Faculty Councils.

Further information on electing student representatives is available on the Students’ Representatives’ website: https://stuve.fau.de/mitbestimmung/wahlen/.

Information on the election for the doctoral candidates’ representatives is available under “Election for the doctoral candidates’ representatives”.

General publications by Elections Office

In its meeting on June 28, 2023, the Election Committee declared the election of representatives of full-time university professors to the Senate of FAU invalid on the basis of an election audit and ordered a repeat election in this respect. The repeat election will be held from July 14, 2023, 9 am until July 21, 2023, 9 am. The repeat election is held pursuant to Section 22 (4) Sentence 3 Clause 2 Electoral Regulations with the same electoral register and the same candidates as the original election.

Individuals must be entered in the electoral register at the time when it is closed in order to exercise their right to vote and stand as a candidate. The electoral register shall be available for inspection from 9am to 4pm on May 17, 2023, from 9am to 12pm on May 19, 2023 and from 9am to 4pm on May 22, 2023 in Erlangen at the University Administration’s Elections Office, Schlossplatz 4, 2nd floor, room 2.027/2.029.

The electoral register will be closed at 9 am on May 23, 2023. Written notifications of missing or incorrect entries in the electoral register are permitted. However, these notifications may only be submitted by those who are eligible to vote and are entered or should be entered in the electoral register. A notification such as this must be submitted to the Elections Office or the Returning Officer at the latest by the first working day after the electoral register has been closed, i.e. by 4pm on May 24, 2023.

Elections Committee

In addition to the Returning Officer (Chancellor of FAU, Section 5 (2)(1) Electoral Regulations), an Elections Committee must be established each year for the university election (Section 5 (1) and (3) Electoral Regulations). The Committee has a managerial and steering role, carrying out the following tasks in particular:

  • Checking and approving the nominations (Section 9 (1) Electoral Regulations),
  • Drafting the ballot papers in consultation with the Returning Officer (section 10 (4) Electoral Regulations),
  • Checking the validity of votes in cases of doubt (Section 17 (3) Electoral Regulations),
  • Making decisions about any important reasons for rejecting the election by the person(s) elected (Section 20 (1)(3) Electoral Regulations),
  • Making decisions about any challenges to the results of the election (Section 22 (4)(1) Electoral Regulations).
  • Election Committee Members 2023

Nominations

The repeat election is held pursuant to Section 22 (4) Sentence 3 Clause 2 Electoral Regulations with the same electoral register and the same candidates as the original election.

Nominations for the university election can be submitted from April 27, 2023 until 4pm on May 10, 2023 to the Elections Office, Schlossplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen, rooms 2.027 and 2.029. Please observe the information on the Guidelines for Nominations. Information about submitted nominations will be available on this website at the beginning of June as well as on the Student Representatives’ website.

Voting and postal votes

The repeat election shall be held entirely online from 9am on July 14, 2023 until 9am on July 21, 2023. Access to the electronic polling station is provided via the electronic election portal online-wahlen.fau.de.

The votes will be counted on July 21, 2023 in room 2.048 in Halbmondstrasse 6-8, Erlangen.

Those who are eligible to vote can access their polling card as an electronic document via the online portal online-wahlen.fau.de.

Those who are eligible to vote and who have an activated IdM account can also cast their votes on an election terminal in the Elections Office in Erlangen, Schlossplatz 4, room 2.027 on the second floor. The election terminal is available for use during the election period from Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 4 pm and on Friday from 9 am to 12 pm.

Instructions for casting votes electronically

In order to ensure that the electronic election remains secure and confidential, it is essential that you vote using a secure end device.

You should use an operating system the manufacturer has approved for accessing the internet and for which the manufacturer provides updates at short notice to remedy any security risks which should arise. System settings should follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and guidelines issued by the Erlangen Regional Computing Center (RRZE). In addition, if it is technically possible, the system should be protected by an anti-virus program and data traffic managed using a firewall program. You are responsible for ensuring that the operating system, programs which allow you to access the Internet (e.g. browsers, a browser suited to many different operating systems is available free of charge at https://www.mozilla.org) and installed protective programs are always kept up to date in accordance with the recommendations from the relevant manufacturer.

Further information on protecting time-sharing systems is available in the security guidelines issued by RRZE with respect to supported operating systems at https://www.anleitungen.rrze.fau.de/betriebssysteme/, which are published and kept up to date on the RRZE website.

If the device is shared, we recommend using the incognito mode. The Internet should only be used without administration rights on such devices.

You must refrain from changing the operating system of the mobile end device by using jailbreaking, rooting or similar methods contrary to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Additional software may only be downloaded and installed from secure sources.

The use of the IdM system must be protected by setting a secure password. If you have the slightest suspicion that third parties have gained access to your IdM password, you must change it immediately and inform the office responsible for computer security at FAU accordingly. (see https://www.rrze.fau.de/person/abuse/)

The log-in credentials required for the electronic election must be kept confidential and must not be passed on to third parties. They should not be stored in the web browser.

Please do not refresh the page or press F5 whilst in the process of voting. Otherwise the votes you have entered will be discarded and you will have to register and enter everything again.

After you have finished voting, we recommend logging off the election portal and closing the web browser.

Voting is carried out over encrypted websites. If you would like to check the trustworthiness of the server you are redirected to after clicking on the link below, you can compare the electronic fingerprints with the following information:

Fingerprints for www.sso.uni-erlangen.de

  • SHA-256: AC:D8:E4:37:EE:6C:4A:FE:79:48:A3:32:0C:EB:68:E2:FA:BF:C2:52:33:25:4F:D8:95:8B:D5:14:EF:6F:35:00
  • SHA-1: EA:B3:45:86:41:06:C2:8C:29:4A:EF:25:5C:BD:7F:3F:88:11:DB:38

Fingerprints for online-wahlen.fau.de

  • SHA-256: 49:31:69:82:88:1C:2E:02:83:42:65:C2:11:C9:B5:2A:35:6C:AF:54:07:CD:18:1B:8F:20:4F:ED:91:1D:46:1E
  • SHA-1: 6A:31:85:BD:A8:34:01:1D:FF:33:C2:D5:63:5E:BE:EB:0C:DD:D0:1A

Fingerprints for voting.polyas.com

  • SHA-256: 8A:72:DB:F3:42:F2:0D:C8:10:5D:9C:98:4F:91:A7:E4:CA:88:D3:57:D1:E3:AB:00:F6:1D:5F:95:43:C8:AE:C8
  • SHA-1: A5:2E:2D:05:C3:58:DF:9A:14:3B:58:BF:BC:D4:44:10:3B:D0:B9:8A

Election turnout and results from previous years

Election for doctoral candidates’ representatives

The doctoral candidates’ representatives represent the interests of doctoral candidates. They have an advisory function within FAU’s committees and offer individual support for doctoral degree candidates. Two doctoral candidates are elected at each faculty. The persons from each faculty who are elected in this manner form the Doctoral Candidates’ Council. More information about the Doctoral Candidates’ Council is available on its blog at blogs.fau.de/proko/.

The Doctoral Candidates’ Council is elected annually at the same time as the general university election and is conducted exclusively as an electronic election. Doctoral candidates registered in docDaten receive a polling card with the log-in credentials required to log in to the electronic polling station (election portal). The Elections Office will provide the polling cards automatically via an Internet portal as an electronic document. More detailed information will be published here in good time.

Nominations can be submitted from April 27, 2023 to 4pm on May 10, 2023 to the Elections Office, Schlossplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen, rooms 2.027 and 2.029. Please observe the information on the form for submitting election nominations. Information about submitted nominations will be available on this website at the beginning of June as well as on the blog of the Doctoral Candidates’ Council.

You can cast your vote from 9 am on June 20, 2023 until 9 am on June 27, 2023 (election period for university election).

Confirmation from Elections Office of membership in committees

The Elections Office can issue you with confirmation that you have served in an FAU committee.

To request confirmation, please send an e-mail to hochschulwahlen@fau.de with the period of service and which offices you worked in as well as the address to which the confirmation should be sent.

Contact

Wahlamt der FAU

Christian Bartels +49 9131 85-24500 oder +49 174 4814940 Carolin Bautz +49 9131 85-25805 oder +49 162 2037183 Sonja Vaask +49 9131 85-25826 oder +49 174 5808781