University elections

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 30 (5) and (6) AVBayHIG 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.Information on the election for the doctoral candidates’ representatives is available under “Election for the doctoral candidates’ representatives”.

Nominations for the university election can be submitted from April 23, 2025 until 4 pm on May 6, 2025 to the Elections Office, Freyeslebenstraße 1, 91058 Erlangen, room 03.5234 on the third floor. Please observe the information on the Guidelines for Nominations. Information about submitted nominations will be available on this website from mid May as well as on the Student Representatives’ website.

• Nominations form
• Declaration of consent for nomination
• Information sheet for nominations (German)
• Information sheet for nominations (English)
• Announcement of candidates standing for election and the nominations received (will be updated at the end of May for 2025)

• Instructions for casting votes electronically using the POLYAS election software
• Instructions for casting votes electronically using the POLYAS election software (English version)

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 sso.uni-erlangen.de

• SHA-256: 32:70:7F:A1:12:33:3C:B1:EF:0C:8A:BB:15:2C:DE:AE:BB:76:B4:14:AD:44:A5:48:C6:19:58:08:F3:BC:70:1C
• SHA-1: 97:A9:56:E5:82:5A:FB:7D:47:1B:73:BB:C2:81:85:5C:29:0B:DC:AE

Fingerprints for online-wahlen.fau.de

• SHA-256: EF:D0:C9:BE:72:30:BC:97:F2:72:7A:25:F2:54:6E:86:CA:08:C8:C0:41:F1:76:48:14:E9:D9:B4:D2:81:5D:11
• SHA-1: 41:66:C3:75:B0:93:15:0A:BD:34:F2:A0:FD:3B:9A:CB:E8:96:AA:7A

Fingerprints for election.polyas.com

• SHA-256: CB:07:A7:9D:42:10:D5:25:AD:7C:6A:BC:F8:24:E3:6F:F3:E5:5C:19:E6:2A:27:B0:0B:42:D4:91:FC:2D:0A:11
• SHA-1: DA:24:4F:2B:88:02:CF:D1:2E:81:3A:BA:CE:B5:40:6D:6E:5F:B9:2A