Corona: compulsory insurance for international students
Students from third countries who participate in purely virtual courses of study and cannot enter the country due to a pandemic are exempt from the obligation to be insured by the statutory health insurance scheme.
They can be enrolled as regular students with the status "not subject to compulsory insurance". Please note that according to current information, the obligation to have health insurance will apply upon the student's later entry into Germany. If the student enters Germany during the current semester, the obligation to have health insurance takes effect retroactively to the beginning of the semester. The contributions must then be paid retroactively. The Rectors' Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz - HRK) is currently clarifying the retroactive entry of the health insurance obligation with the central association of the statutory health insurance funds.
Statutory accident insurance
Students are protected by statutory accident insurance during the period of their university education. This insurance protection does not have full application but is subject to specific requirements:
The student must attend the university with serious intent to participate in education. Matriculation alone or occasional attendance at individual lectures is not adequate.
In the judgement of this matter it is likewise decisive whether the activities can be attributed to the organisational field of responsibility of the university. There must exist, so to speak, an essential internal coherence between the university curriculum and the activities of the student.
Participation in semesters abroad is covered by statutory accident insurance if this is a component of the domestic university degree and attributable formally, organisationally and in content to the course. The precondition for this is that the university in Germany must in practical terms have the right of instruction or control to some extent. This can for example be exercised by the university’s own staff at a partner university or through the appointment of a person at the foreign university.
Examples of insured activities are attendance of lectures and events in the organisational field of responsibility of the university, activities in student self-administration and journeys immediately related to attending the university.
Non-insured activities are, for example, studying at home, private study trips, private activities on campus or private activities such as eating or drinking.
Students in Baden-Württemberg are insured with the accident insurance firm Unfallkasse Baden-Württemberg. The respective university is responsible for the insurance.
Statutory accident insurance for internships
The statutory accident insurance for internships is regulated differently, irrespective of whether the internship is compulsory for your studies or examination regulations or voluntarily.
In the case of an internship, there is usually no direct influence of the university on the way in which it is carried out and on the course of the internship. Responsible for the statutory accident insurance of the student is therefore the professional association or accident insurance in which the internship company is a member. The company pays the cost of the insurance protection with its contribution to the accident insurance.