The Dialogue-oriented Service Procedure (DoSV)

The dialogue-oriented service procedure (DoSV) is a decentralised application process. It includes the direct application at the HafenCity Universität (HCU) and the coordination for the allocation of university places via hochschulstart.de. By matching applications and admission options at several universities, places can be allocated faster and in a more targeted way.

Your way towards higher education in 5 steps

 

Your way towards higher education starts with the registration at hochschulstart.de. There you need to enter your personal information and contact details. After the successful registration, an applicant ID (BID) and applicant authentication number (BAN) will be assigned to you. These numbers are required for the further application process.

After the successful registration at Hochschulstart, you need to create an applicant account in the HCU ahoi portal. Then you can apply via the menu item ‘Application’. After selecting the study programme of your choice, you are asked to enter your applicant ID and BAN which were previously assigned to you by Hochschulstart. Without entering these two numbers in the provided fields you will not be able to continue or to electronically submit your online application.

The allocation of admissions by Hochschulstart is primarily based on your requests. In order to meet those, it is necessary that you prioritise your applications in accordance with your personal expectations and preferences. Only this prioritisation allows Hochschulstart to offer you an admission that best matches your requests.

Due to the release of ranking lists and the drop out of other applicants, you can receive an offer of admission for one of your applications anytime during the phase of coordination. If you receive more than one offer, the coordination rules will apply immediately and can have crucial effects.

In case of two offers of admission, the offer for the lower prioritised application will be deleted immediately and irrevocably during the procedure (whereas applications without a respective offer are still considered). Within a short period of time, consecutive offers of admission can result in only one remaining application that is immediately turned into an admission, if it was marked with the highest priority among your 12 possible applications.

You should prioritise your applications by 22nd July (for the winter semester).

 

During the phase of coordination, the universities create the ranking lists. As soon as these have been transmitted to Hochschulstart, your account at hochschulstart.de will offer you the opportunity to view your position in the ranking list of each study programme that you applied for. Offers of admission as well as an admission can happen any time after the ranking lists have been released. During this process, the following coordination rules apply:

1st Coordination rule

Conditions:

  • The applicant has only one active application during the procedure
  • This application is in a range of a ranking list that qualifies for admission

Outcome:

  • The system of DoSV will turn the application immediately into an admission

2nd Coordination rule

Conditions:

  • The applicant has several active applications during the procedure
  • All applications receive an offer of admission

Outcome:

  • The application with the highest priority will be turned into an admission by the DoSV syste

3rd Coordination rule

Conditions:

  • The applicant has several active applications during the procedure
  • There are offers of admission for more than one application
  • At least one application has not yet received an offer of admission

Outcome:

  • Lower prioritised offers will drop out. The offer of admission with the highest priority will remain.

Note

  • ‘Withdrawn’ and/or ‘dropped out’ applications are not considered as active applications.
  • The coordination rules are valid for all applications in the DoSV portal at hochschulstart.de, regardless of which university you applied for

Letter of admission

You will receive an admission letter if the offer of admission was bindingly accepted. An offer can be actively accepted via your user account in the DoSV application portal. An offer is only accepted automatically if you have only one active application with an offer during the phase of coordination or if you received an offer for one of your lower prioritised applications after the end of the coordination phase. The letter of admission will be available in your HCU ahoi account on the next working day after the offer of admission was accepted.

Letter of deferment

You will receive a deferment letter if you requested a deferred admission or offer of admission, respectively. Please note that you will not be entitled to enrolment in the current allocation procedure of university places if you requested a deferral; accordingly the letter of admission is revoked. Hochschulstart will inform the HCU immediately about the deferment and the process is then considered as finished. The respective notification will be available in the Hochschulstart portal.

Letter of rejection

If it is not possible to offer you an admission due to the reached maximum capacity of admissions for more qualified candidates, a rejection letter will be generated. Generally, these notifications are issued by Hochschulstart and will be available at the end of the procedure. You will receive one or more rejection letters under the following conditions:

  • If you could not be selected for any of your requested study programmes by the end of the coordination phase, you will receive a rejection letter for all of your chosen courses.
  • If you are selected for only one of your lower prioritised study programmes and could be automatically admitted to it by the end of the coordination phase, you will receive a rejection letter for all of your higher prioritised courses.

Should you actively accept an offer of admission, you will receive a letter of admission only for this chosen study programme. All of your remaining requests will drop out of the procedure and no rejection letters are issued.

Letter of exclusion

You will receive an exclusion letter if your application for a study programme of your choice lacks major requirements (e.g. missing or wrong information) to such an extent that it cannot be considered for the procedure. Exclusion notifications are issued by Hochschulstart.