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Influence of COVID-19 on the University Examination Situation of Students with Impairments

In Germany, 11% of students are handicapped with a disability or chronic illness, which negatively affects their studies. In pre-pandemic times, universities worldwide already worked hard to give handicapped students a chance to graduate. In the COVID-19 pandemic, examination boards had to be creative in finding individual solutions to ensure equal examination opportunities for students with impairments. To ensure equal examination opportunities in pre-pandemic times, universities offered compensation of disadvantages for disabled or chronic ill students. While the COVID-19 pandemic, support of disadvantaged students become more important but also demanding for universities. Universities switched to online teaching and replaced classical testing types by distance and/or online examinations. Therefore, the question arose if current examination regulations and established case law relating to compensation of disadvantages in university examinations still are applicable in the pandemic situation. For the research results, literature review of examination regulations and of established German case law was combined with an analysis of the authors’ experience gained in the last 1.5 years. In the first part of the paper, the authors inform about the principles of compensation of disadvantages in university examinations for impaired students. Furthermore, they analyze current examination regulations and established case law in Germany. The paper informs about pandemic-related adaptions in teaching and testing at German universities and the influence on disabled or chronic ill students. Even in pandemics, compliance of examination procedures with university examination regulations and other relevant law is mandatory for a fair examination procedure. After a successful overcome of the pandemic, universities will continue to use the innovative examinations types. The authors conclude that most of the existing examination regulations and relevant case law are applicable to innovative examination types and conditions. Nevertheless, for selected impairments, compensation of disadvantages is no longer necessary, or at least not in the usual extent.