Practical Year

The Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum has been using the PJ Portal to allocate Practical Year placements since spring 2017.

Step 1: Registration & Validation

To be considered during the main allocation round, you must register before the application deadline.

• Register at www.pj-portal.de.
• You must use your personal RUB email address.
• Activate your account by clicking the link in the confirmation email.
• Validation: Your home university will be notified and must validate your registration. Once this has been completed, your account will be activated.

Step 2: Preference List & Booking Time

• Create your preferred rotations in your preference list (all three rotations must be selected).
• You will receive your personal booking time by email.
• Log in when your booking time begins to activate the booking process.

Step 3: Booking (3-Minute Rule)

• The system checks the availability of your preferred rotations.
• Available placements are reserved for you for three minutes.
• Important: Confirm your selection within this time to secure your placements.

Having trouble registering? Solutions to common technical issues can be found in the FAQs 

Many students apply for Practical Year rotations abroad or at other universities at the same time. To ensure that you have a placement in any case, we recommend the following strategy:

• Secure your placement: If you have not yet received a final confirmation from the external institution, book all three rotations at RUB hospitals first.
• Release your placement: As soon as you receive confirmation from the external institution, immediately release your booked placement at the RUB hospital by changing its status to 'Domestic' or 'Abroad'.
• Confirm your changes: After updating the status, make sure to click the booking button again to confirm your changes.

The General Medicine elective is completed in our large number of exclusively accredited teaching practices. As placement allocation is organised individually in this case, the booking process differs from the standard procedure.

How to book your rotation in General Medicine:

• Selecting a practice: Check the 'List of Contract Practices' on our Notice Board and choose your preferred practice.
• Contacting the practice: Contact the practice directly and arrange your placement. (Please note: placements in practices where family members are employed are not permitted.)
• Informing the Department of General Medicine: Finally, inform the Department of General Medicine about your booking.
• Notification to the Office of the Vice Dean for Education: Please also cc the Practical Year Coordinators so that we can block the practice internally in the system.
• Booking in the PJ Portal: Enter 'General Medicine' for the respective rotation when registering in the PJ Portal. This is mandatory, even if you have already arranged your placement personally.
• Please note: Splitting the General Medicine elective is not possible.

The Department of General Medicine has set up a Moodle course ('PJ and Continuing Medical Education in General Medicine RUB') where you can find all relevant information.

List of Contract Practices (Notice Board) 

Department of General Medicine / Contact details

The State Examination Office in Düsseldorf maintains a Practical Year (PJ) list of recognised hospitals worldwide where Practical Year rotations have already been completed.

Important: Please make sure to check before planning whether your preferred hospital is included in this list.

List of recognised hospitals (LPA website)

Information on studying abroad / splitting (Notice Board)

If your preferred hospital abroad is not included in the LPA list, you must take action yourself to obtain an individual approval decision.

• Deadline: Submit your application to the State Examination Office (LPA) in good time (at least 2–4 months before starting your placement).
• Required documents: You will need an equivalence certificate, completed and signed by a professor at a RUB hospital.
• Procedure: Send this certificate together with supporting material (e.g. brochures or online information about the hospital) as well as the signature from the Office of the Vice Dean for Education to the LPA, and request recognition of your chosen hospital.

When you return from abroad, you must submit two original certificates to the State Examination Office (LPA) when registering for the M3 examination:

• The standard hospital rotation certificate (including the departmental stamp of the completed subject).
• The certificate of so-called “secondary enrolment” ('Zweithörerschaft') from the responsible foreign university.
  Note: The relevant templates (certificate of practical training in a hospital abroad – also available in English) can be found on the LPA website.

Since spring 2017, the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum has been part of the nationwide PJ Portal. Participation in the allocation process is therefore only possible via online registration at www.pj-portal.de.

Your home university is automatically informed of your registration via the PJ Portal and must validate you as a student within the specified deadline. Once the validation by your home university has been completed, you will be granted access to participate in the allocation process.

There may be two reasons for this:

1. You registered too late and have not yet been validated or confirmed as a student by your home faculty.
2. Alternatively, you did not confirm your account within three days of registration.

To securely book the placements you have already selected and saved in your preference list, you will be assigned a booking time for the booking period.

The time at which your booking time is sent by email can be found in the schedule list in the PJ Portal. Only once you have received your booking time will you know exactly when you can confirm your placements.

No, you can book at any time until the end of the booking phase. Your assigned time simply marks the start of your personal booking period. However, please note that the availability of placements naturally decreases as the booking phase progresses.

A booked preference can only be changed in the next allocation phase.

You may swap your previously booked hospitals/subjects for each rotation up to five weeks before the start of the rotation. After this deadline, changes are no longer possible.

Important: If you have made any changes, you must click the booking button again to confirm your updated selection.

During the period in which it is possible to submit a hardship application, a dedicated button will appear next to your three selected rotations in the booking window (see schedule list for the relevant period).

Please submit the relevant supporting documents for your application (e.g. birth certificate of a child, disability ID, etc.) to the Office of the Vice Dean for Education. A scanned copy is sufficient.

Once a hardship application has been approved, swaps or subsequent changes are generally no longer possible. However, if you are still waiting for a later confirmation from an external university, please contact the Practical Year Coordinators at the Office of the Vice Dean for Education.
 

After completing your booking, you will receive a booking confirmation. Your placements are then secured. All further information will be sent to you by email in due course. You do not need to take any further action immediately after booking.

Please check the following points:

• Have all three rotations been selected? Even if you only intend to book one rotation via the PJ Portal, you must formally select all three rotations (if necessary using placeholders such as “Domestic” or “Abroad”).
• Do your selections include both compulsory subjects (Internal Medicine and Surgery)?
• Is the placement still available? It is possible that one of your selected placements has already been taken. In this case, it is unfortunately no longer possible to book this combination, and you will need to choose alternative placements.

Hospitals from other faculties are only displayed to you during the national allocation phase.

• With confirmation: If you already have a confirmation from an external university, you can immediately book the corresponding rotation using the placeholder “Domestic/Abroad”.
• Without final confirmation: First, book all three rotations at RUB hospitals so that you have a secured placement for each rotation.

If you receive confirmation from an external university in Germany or abroad, you must release your previously booked placement in the PJ Portal so that other students on the waiting list can move into the freed-up place.

To do this, please add “Domestic” or “Abroad” to the respective subject in the relevant rotation.

Important: After making the change, you must click the booking button again to confirm your update.

Yes. If you wish to complete rotations at another German university that does not participate in the PJ Portal, and you do not intend to enrol at that university, you must still register as a RUB student in the PJ Portal.

In this case, please book all three rotations using the placeholder “Domestic”.

If you are not registered in the PJ Portal as a RUB student, we cannot verify that you are completing a Practical Year and would therefore not be able to schedule you for the M3 examination.

Note: Practical Year placements are always allocated by universities, not by individual hospitals. You therefore require confirmation from the respective university.

If you wish to book a placement at a hospital of a participating university, please refer to the PJ Portal schedule overview. Students from participating faculties who are already taking part in the (internal) allocation process can change their Practical Year placements directly via the portal and do not need to register separately.

A change during the Practical Year is generally possible from our side. We also support a transfer to another university if you do not intend to complete any rotations at RUB hospitals. We would be very grateful if you inform us of your intention to change at an early stage.

A total of 30 absence days are available for the entire Practical Year.

• Use: These may be used flexibly, e.g. as sick leave, vacation days, or additional study time before the state examination.
• Maximum (standard rotation): In a standard rotation (16 weeks), a maximum of 20 absence days may be taken in total.
• Maximum (splitting): In a split rotation (8 weeks), a maximum of 10 absence days may be taken.

As semester dates and hospital schedules abroad often do not align with the German rotation periods, gaps may occur. These missing days (e.g. if your rotation starts 5 days later) must be covered using your allocated absence days.

No. Splitting within Germany is not possible. This also applies to the elective subject General Medicine.

If you split a rotation, you must complete the other 8 weeks at a RUB hospital.

First, enter the RUB hospital in the PJ Portal. Then, in the “Splitting” column, select either “first half abroad” or “second half abroad” accordingly.

Please note that if you plan to split a rotation, you must submit the Declaration of Inclusion A to us before starting your rotation. The form can be found on the website of the State Examination Office (LPA) in the ‘Information Sheet on Practical Training’.

For each split rotation of 8 weeks, a maximum of 10 absence days may be taken.

Yes. Before starting the Practical Year, a current occupational health examination (G42) is mandatory. Process for RUB students: You do not need to arrange this in advance yourself. You will receive an information email in due time with instructions on how to book an appointment via Moodle with the RUB occupational physician.

Completing the Practical Year on a part-time basis is generally possible. However, as this requires individual planning and coordination, please contact the PJ coordinators at the Office of the Vice Dean for Education directly.

For detailed information on BAföG eligibility, part-time jobs, or similar matters, please contact the human resources departments of the respective hospitals or the responsible BAföG office directly. The Office of the Vice Dean for Education cannot provide binding information on these matters.

Congratulations! Yes, please contact the Student Administration Office to formally deregister (exmatriculate). You will also receive a certificate confirming your periods of study, which may be relevant later for pension insurance purposes. Please keep this document in a safe place.

Students whose home faculty does not participate in the PJ Portal can only register during the national allocation phase.

• Register at www.pj-portal.de.
• Confirm the link in the email you receive immediately afterwards. (If you do not receive an email, please check your spam folder or register again.)
• Your home university will be informed automatically and must validate your registration. Only after this validation will you receive your start time.

If you have booked a Practical Year placement at RUB, we require the following documents without being requested to do so no later than one week before the start of your Practical Year, or – if you book your placement later – no later than five weeks before the start of the rotation:

• Copy of your M2 examination certificate
• Copy of the G42 occupational health examination from your home university (without medical results)
• Copy of your current certificate of enrolment
• Note: If these documents are not submitted on time, we reserve the right to cancel your placement.

No. Booking half rotations or deviating time periods is not possible for external applicants. We only allocate placements for full rotations.

No, hardship applications cannot be submitted by external applicants.

A transfer to RUB is possible after successfully passing the M2 examination, provided that you have booked at least two rotations at RUB hospitals.

• Contact: Please first get in touch with the PJ coordinators.
• Review & information: We will review your documents. If your M2 certificate is available and all other requirements are met, you will receive the necessary information for enrolment at the Student Administration Office.
• Enrolment: Complete your enrolment at RUB.
• PJ Portal: Only after you have been officially enrolled as a RUB student, you can request the transfer in the PJ Portal under “My profile > University transfer” and enter your new matriculation number.