Student elections 2026

Please refer to the current time schedule for the exact deadlines. All deadlines end - unless otherwise stated - at 2 p.m. (according to § 5 Abs. 1 WahlO).

To make a valid nomination, you must specify:

• First name
• Surname
• Matriculation number (complete)
• Email address at the HWR Berlin 
  s_[username]@stud.hwr-berlin.de

Note

You must provide your complete email address at the HWR Berlin, including the domain (stud.hwr-berlin.de), so that we can process your data.

For lists: desired position on the list
Optional information: name with a maximum of 35 characters (including spaces) of the nomination (list candidacy).

Tip for list candidacies

Gather the information for all the persons you want to include on your list and enter it on the nomination portal.

Tip for the online nomination

Please fill out your nomination on a laptop or PC. While you can vote easily on a cell phone, the input fields for the nomination are very small. 
 

A list is submitted by one person. This person enters all the names on the nomination portal and then submits the list. The people on the list do not need to do anything on the nomination platform.  

Note

Please ensure that no more than one person submits the same list. This places a significant burden on the Election Board and will result in you being contacted with queries, as you may only stand as a candidate on one nomination form for a single body. There is therefore a risk that your candidacy may be deemed invalid.

No. As part of efforts to reduce bureaucracy, you are no longer required to collect supporting signatures.

Note

Please refrain from submitting additional signatures by email or on paper.
 

No. Once you have submitted your individual candidacy or a list via the nomination portal, this cannot be changed. This is similar to the situation when you used to submit a paper list. However, during the confirmation of your candidacy (see below), you do have the option to withdraw your candidacy.

No. We only accept nominations via the nomination portal. Nominations can only be submitted within the official timeframe (see time schedule).

No. We only accept nominations via the nomination portal. Nominations can only be submitted within the official timeframe (see time schedule).

The system is set to automatically log you out after 30 minutes. However, the session is automatically extended – if half the time has elapsed and the voter is actively using the voting booth (e.g. moving the mouse pointer), the timer is reset.

Once the timeout has expired, you can log in again, but you will then have to re-enter all your nominations.

Once the nomination portal has closed, the Central Election Board will receive a list of those who have declared their candidacy. The nominations will be reviewed. If a valid nomination is received, the Central Election Board will send an email to your email address at the HWR Berlin asking you to confirm your candidacy. 

Please refrain from making enquiries during the nomination process. During this time, the Central Election Board has no access to the incoming nominations. These are only made available to them after the nomination period has ended.

It is entirely up to you whether you wish to stand as a candidate. You do not need to consult anyone else – such as fellow students or teaching staff – or seek their approval. 

The nomination portal imposes different limits on the number of candidates per list. If you wish to submit a list with more candidates, please have a second person nominate the additional candidates (using the same list name) and continue the numbering sequence. Please inform the Central Election Board at wahlreferat(at)hwr-berlin.de that multiple nominations have been received for a single list, and ideally send the complete list for verification. 

You can submit a nomination as an individual. To do so, log in to the HWR Berlin website using your HWR Berlin login data and fill in the relevant fields for an individual nomination.

Following the reform of Berlin’s Higher Education Act, the Board of Trustees will be elected by the Extended Academic Senate (EAS) and no longer by all members of the university. During the election, members of the EAS will be shown the list of candidates for the Board of Trustees.

Note

Members of the AS and EAS are not allowed to be part of the Board of Trustees (Section 64 (6) of the Berlin Higher Education Act).
 

The responsibilities of the relatively new body, the Extended Academic Senate, are set out in Section 63 of the Berlin Higher Education Act. According to the HWR Berlin’s Fundamental Statute, it comprises six seats for the student body. As all members of the Academic Senate are also members of the Extended Academic Senate, only three seats are elected by the student body.

Yes. If you are elected to the Academic Senate, you automatically become a member of the Extended Academic Senate. You may also stand as a candidate on different nomination lists for each body. For example, you could stand as an individual candidate for the Extended Academic Senate and on a list for the Academic Senate.

Note

Only one nomination is permitted per committee (see section 14 (5) of the Election Regulations).

Yes. However, if you are elected, you will also become a member of the Extended Academic Senate in accordance with Section 5 (2), first sentence, of the HWR Berlin’s Fundamental Statute.

Yes, that is perfectly possible.

You will then be a member of the Academic Senate and the Extended Academic Senate. Your seat in the Extended Academic Senate will then derive from your status as a member of the Academic Senate, as Section 5 (2), first sentence, of the HWR Berlin’s Fundamental Statute stipulates that, as a member of the Academic Senate, you are automatically a member of the Extended Academic Senate. As you can only hold one mandate, the (additional) mandate for the Extended Academic Senate lapses. The mandate is awarded to another person/list.

Unfortunately, it is not yet technically possible for every person on a nomination list to confirm their candidacy in a clear and binding manner during the nomination process. For this reason, this intermediate step of personal confirmation is still required at present. 

If you are both a student and a student employee at HWR Berlin, please log in using your student ID. Please use s_[username].

In all other cases, please contact the Central Election Board at wahlreferat(at)hwr-berlin.de. 

No. In accordance with section 5 (3), first sentence, of the Higher Education Electoral Principles Ordinance, auditors are not eligible to vote.

No. If you are studying the Public Admnistration (Consular Secretary) programme in Department 4, you are an auditor and, in accordance with Section 5 (3), first sentence, of the Higher Education Electoral Principles Ordinance, you are not eligible to vote.

Yes, you can vote in the university elections. 

No. According to Section 59 (4) of the Berlin Higher Education Act, only women are eligible to vote and stand for election to the Women’s and Equal Opportunity Councils.

Yes. You are eligible to vote and stand for election within the student body.

Student employees (known as student assistants) are eligible to stand for election and to vote only for student representative bodies (Section 45 (2) sentence 2, (1) no. 3 of the Berlin Higher Education Act). Student employees are members only of the higher education institution at which they are enrolled (Section 43 (3) of the Berlin Higher Education Act). This means that if you are enrolled at the HWR Berlin and are also working as a student employee, you will take part in the election as a student. If, on the other hand, you are enrolled at another higher education institution, you may only exercise your right to vote there. You are not eligible to vote at HWR Berlin.

It depends. If you are on maternity leave or parental leave, you retain your right to vote and stand for election. If you are on leave for other reasons, you remain eligible to vote until the end of the semester in which your leave is granted. For example, if you are on leave from 1 January, 2026, you remain eligible to vote until 30 March, 2026.

In accordance with Section 59 (4) of the Berlin Higher Education Act, the Women’s and Equal Opportunity Councils are elected by female members of the university. This means that individuals identified as male or non-binary are not eligible to vote.

If you wish to stand as a candidate on a list or submit an individual candidacy:

• The following data is required: first name and surname, organisational unit, matriculation number and your email address at the HWR Berlin, in order to verify your eligibility to stand for election to the committee and to communicate with you.
• We store your data on the Central Election Board’s network drive on HWR Berlin’s servers.
• In accordance with Section 15 (3) of the Election Regulations, the Central Election Board is obliged to publish the nominations without delay. To this end, the following data will be published on the university election website: first name, surname and organisational unit.
• On the ballot papers, the candidacy will be published with the following details: first name, surname and organisational unit.
• In accordance with Section 29 (1), first sentence, of the Election Regulations, we retain all election documents, including the candidacies, until the end of the semester in which the election took place. Thereafter, they may be destroyed in accordance with Section 29 (1), second sentence, of the Election Regulations, provided they are not required for an election review procedure or pending legal proceedings.
• If you have been elected to a body, we will share your data with the relevant body – the retention periods are then subject to the respective rules for that body.