Final Transcript
After successful completion of your studies, you will receive your graduation documents from us. Here you can find out how, when, and from whom you will receive your transcript.
How Do We Create the Final Transcript?
After successful completion of your studies, you will receive your graduation documents from us. After the result of your last exam or assessment has been entered in RWTHonline, we wait one week to see if you submit any requests or applications. We then check whether all exam and assessment results have been correctly recorded and make corrections, if necessary. In some degree programs, there are extra so-called sorting sheets – Sortierungsbögen in German – for this purpose; in others, such data cleaning is usually not necessary.
The next step is to register you for graduation and print your graduation documents. These will be sent to and signed by the Dean and the head of the relevant Examination Board. This may take some time. As soon as we receive the signed documents, they are stamped and digitally archived. We will notify you as soon as your documents are ready for you to pick up.
According to the General Examination Regulations, this process may take up to two months. Most of the time, however, we manage to provide you with your graduation documents sooner than this.
What Do You Have to Do?
As soon as the result of your final assessment has been entered in RWTHonline, please check the following points immediately:
- Are your credits all correctly recorded and included in the overall grade calculation? You can check this most effectively using Curriculum Support in RWTHonline. Can you see a green P in the top line of the tree in the "Pos" column there? Does the column "Cre" contain the intended CP sum? Is your total grade shown in green? If your answer to one of these questions is "No", please contact your responsible ZPA contact person.
- Is the title of your final thesis entered correctly? If there has been a typo, please contact your responsible ZPA contact person. Please note: A subsequent change of the title is no longer possible.
- Are your personal details in RWTHonline correct? The system automatically accesses and uses these details when creating your degree certificate. If they are incorrect in the system, they will also appear incorrectly on your degree documents. The details must be the same as those shown on your ID card or passport. Please check these details very carefully. Pay particular attention to...
… whether the correct place of birth is entered and spelled correctly;
… whether your name is correct and complete (i.e. all first and last names);
… whether your date of birth is correct. - Please also check whether your address is still up-to-date. If you find any errors in your name, your date of birth, or your place of birth, please contact the Registrar’s Office directly. You can change your address yourself in RWTHonline. You can read how to do this in these instructions.
Collecting Your Graduation Documents
We will notify you by email as soon as your documents are ready. This email will provide you with information on how to pick up your documents and on the option to send transcripts in the mail.
If you want to pick up your transcript in person, please arrange an appointment for this via our appointment tool. Please note that you can only book an appointment after you have been notified by email that your final documents are ready for collection.
Graduation documents can be collected at the following times:
- Monday 9am to 12 noon
- Tuesday: 9am to 12 noon
- Wednesday: 9am to 12 noon and 2 to 3:30pm
- Friday 9am to 12 noon
Please be on time for your appointment and bring a photo ID.
If you are unable to pick up your graduation documents in person, you may authorize someone else to get them for you. They must then bring a letter of authorization signed by you, a copy of your BlueCard, and their own photo ID.
Graduation Documents in the Mail
If you expressly wish for us to do so, we can send your graduation documents to you by mail. In this case, please contact our Service Team. Please include your current mailing address in this email.
We will send the transcript via certified mail with a return receipt. At the time of delivery, Deutsche Post will record to whom, when, where, and under what circumstances the document was delivered. For further information about shipping by certified mail, please visit the Deutsche Post website.
Please note that you are responsible for ensuring that successful delivery to the address you provide is possible, and you also assume liability for any damages that occur while the transcript is in the mail. A further issue of the original documents is not possible.
Please note that it may take more time to send the graduation documents abroad. For international deliveries, the shipping company will furthermore need the phone number at your destination abroad. So please provide us with your telephone number there (not a German cell phone number) in your request.
Authentication of Documents
We at the Central Examination Office do not certify copies of your graduation documents. You can find out who to contact for this purpose on the Authentication of Your Documents (Apostilles) web page.
Apostille
An apostille confirms the authenticity of the signatures on a University document. Apostilles can only be issued by an administrative office of the German state. Apostilles for official documents issued by RWTH are provided by the District Government of Cologne – Bezirksregierung Köln.
At the Central Examination Office, we perform the necessary preliminary certification of original RWTH documents for the apostille on originals of RWTH degree documents. This is a prerequisite for obtaining an apostille from the District Government of Cologne.
Please note: Only the signatures of certain members of our department are on file with the district government. For this reason, contact us early on to arrange an appointment. Your contact is Nadja Mertens.
For further information, please visit: Authentication of Your Documents (Apostilles).
Duplicates
If your graduation documents are lost or destroyed, you may request a duplicate from us. Please get in touch with our Service Team.
The issuance of a duplicate is subject to a fee in accordance with § 1 para. 1 of the RWTH Aachen University Fee Statutes. Only one duplicate of each document can be created. We also require an unsworn declaration from you stating that you are no longer in possession of the original documents. You will receive this upon request. Depending on the amount of research required, it will take us about six weeks to create the duplicates for you.
Confirmation of Degree Completion
Companies and other institutions of higher education often require confirmation of degree completion by the degree-awarding institution. As a rule, the confirmation process is managed by companies specializing in this area, which first contact you for a power of attorney and then contact us for the actual confirmation. In other cases, you will need to contact us to have us send, for example, a transcript of records directly to the requesting individual or entity. If you have any questions regarding this topic, please contact the ZPA Service Team.
Important Guidelines for Agencies and Bodies Sending Verification Requests
To verify a degree certificate or graduation documents, you must submit the following documents or information about the former student to us:
- a handwritten signed declaration of consent (German or English)
- name and, if applicable, maiden name of the student
- student ID number
- course of study
- graduation date
- title/academic degree obtained
The following documents or information will also help us process your request:
- duration of studies
- copies/scans of the transcript of records
Please note that verification requests can take several weeks for us to process. Extensive searches are often necessary, especially for degrees that date back a long time. Therefore, please refrain from inquiring about the status of your request within the first three weeks.
Verification requests regarding doctorates and exchange semesters must be sent to the relevant faculty directly.
Verification requests regarding study times, matriculations, etc. must be sent to the Registrar's Office directly.
Verification of the course of your studies is carried out by the Registrar’s Office.
FAQ
Why is there no ECTS grading table in my graduation documents?
The ECTS grading table takes into account three graduation cohorts. Only when at least three cohorts have completed a newly established degree program, can we create an ECTS grading table and include it in the Diploma Supplement. Please get in touch with your contact if you have any questions.
What do I have to do to have an additional assessment listed on my certificate?
If you wish to have any additional assessments you have completed as part of your studies listed on your certificate, you must submit your request to the responsible ZPA contact no later than one week after the announcement of the examination result of your last exam or assessment. For more information on additional subjects, please visit our Additional Services page.
I found an error on my final transcript. What shall I do?
Of course, this should not happen. Please contact your ZPA contact in a timely manner. They will than look into the matter. If your graduation documents will have to be coorected, you will of course receive new documents. Please note that the deadline for an objection to the calculation of the overall grade is one month after receipt of the final transcript.