Unit 1: Help and support in your studies

Who do I get in touch with if I have concerns that also affect others?

The student councils (German: Fachschaftsräte, FSRe) consist of students from individual areas of study. You can find out what they do here.
An overview of the contact details of all student councils can be found here: www.stura.uni-jena.de/fsr.php (German only) 

An interview with the Student Council of Political Science 

What can students get in touch with the FSR for?

Actually, pretty much everything. The question of whether we can really help depends on the problem, of course. But of course we try to give an answer to everything and help as much as we can. And of course we are always the initial point of contact. At the beginning of the semester, we often receive questions about schedules or questions about modules or courses. As a rule, Student Orientation Days can cover a lot of these topics. This year, we also had our own technology consultation hour for the second time, where we presented the university's systems and helped students set up WLAN, VPN, Office, etc.
But students who have problems with other university authorities also come to us, for example, if a lecturer enters a grade incorrectly and the student does not receive any answers to his or her emails and queries. However, this is very rare. The question of old exams is also a perennial issue at the beginning of each exam period, but we as the FSR can't really help here because we don't collect old exams and we don't have any sample exams.

To what extent are FSRe an alternative to other offers at the university?

We as the FSR cannot be an alternative for most positions (e.g. ASPA or ZSB). But we can, of course, act as the first point of contact for students or draw their attention to offers. For example, as the Political Science FSR, we have an additional mailbox for our anti-discrimination office, the mails that arrive there are treated confidentially by our awareness team and if the people affected wish, we can then also offer to meet having a conversation or involve the Equal Opportunities Office.

How does an FSR work together with the lecturers when it comes to disciplinary problems students may have?

In this case, we are also a first point of contact. Whether it is about questions related to studying, tips on organizing your studies or which seminar might be of interest, etc. However, if students have problems with certain courses or are bothered by various aspects of the teaching structure, we naturally ask them to contact the instructor first. If necessary, the FSR board also meets with the head of the department, Prof. Reiser, if there are issues that also affect the institute. In addition, we have delegates in the Institute Council, in which that kind of topics are also addressed that have been brought to us by students.

Are there any other student organizations apart from the FSR that you can contact as a student?

There are student representatives at different (university policy) levels, from the institute and faculty to the university and the state of Thuringia, who represent the interests of students at the appropriate level and deal with specific issues. Students can turn to these student representatives if they experience (systematic or serious) problems in the respective area. Such problems could be, for example, the working conditions of student employees, conflicts with the Thuringian Higher Education Act or university institutions such as the general study and examination office. In most cases, the student body of the university (German: Studierendenrat, StuRa) is a good place to start, as all the threads of university policy come together there. The StuRa board has an email address as a contact option as well as office hours where you can go and get advice on the right contact person.