heiCO VLM Updates

In heiCO, each lecture and seminar, with a few exceptions, is assigned its own registration procedure ("Anmeldeverfahren"). Each lecturer should be able to access their own registration procedures and view the settings in heiCO via the tile/function "My Registration Procedures" ("Meine Anmeldeverfahren").

This registration procedure also controls which students receive a place in the respective course. This process works in such a way that either EVERY student who registers receives a place, the allocation of places is controlled via ranking options, or the lecturer allocates the places themselves.

If a student has received a place in a course in these three ways, they are listed with a so-called "Confirmed place" ("Fixplatz") in the list of students registered for a course, which is also accessible via the registration procedure.

The organization of exercise groups and the awarding of grades are handled via the exercise group management system PhÜ. For this purpose, PhÜ imports only those students who are listed in heiCO with the status "Confirmed place".

Students who have not been assigned a "Confirmed place" through one of the above methods will remain in status "Requirements met" ("Voraussetzungen erfüllt") and will not be imported by PhÜ for further administration. Lecturers are therefore asked to check the status of students registered for their course in a timely and regular manner before the start of the lecture period to ensure proper impüort by PhÜ.

Dear lecturers,
On behalf of our faculty's VLM team, I would like to inform you that we have largely completed the preparation of the lecture program for the upcoming winter term 25/26. As with the last two semesters, we have again discovered new "specials" of the system. However, we expect that the preparation of the lecture program will run more smoothly from semester to semester and that we will learn to live with heiCO. After all, we have no choice ;-). As last time, it is now up to you to review your courses/lectures/seminars and inform us (only) if you discover errors or if we - the VLM team - have forgotten something.

What you should do:
Please have a look at your individual personal lecture and teaching activities for the coming winter semester in heiCO:

• Login to heiCO with your UniID and have a look at the application "Meine Lehrerhebung/My Course Administration" on your starter screen (you can toggle between German and English, see top right of heiCO window). Whenever you were assigned as lecturer a respective course it should then be listed.
• Please check whether all of the events you have planned for winter term 25/26 (lectures, seminars, practicals) are listed. If not - please inform your local VLM-representative (see below for contacts).
• Please check whether the dates and locations are o.k. for you. To do so please click on the "W" right next of the lecture ID. A list of all respective dates should then open. If anything seems to be wrong - please inform your local LM-representative. Please note that the dates of your internal research group meetings - called "Oberseminar (OberSem)" - are formally supposed to be scheduled from Oct. 1 until March 31.
• Please check whether the teaching load (SWS = "SemesterWochenStunden") assigned to your teaching activities  are correct. See HERE for additional information on the calculation of your teaching load (faculty internal pages).#
• Have a look at your course specific registration procedures ("Anmeldeverfahren"). These define, for example, how many students are allowed to register for your lecture/seminar etc. and according to which criteria. You can see a list of all your registration procedures via the application "My Course Administration/Meine Anmeldeverfahren"). Further remarks on this To Do is given below.
• If you are fine with what you find you don't need to respond and your lecture(-s) will be made public next week. Otherwise, please let us know of any changes you would like to make by Tuesday, July 18th.
   

Remarks regarding registration procedures ("Anmeldeverfahren"):
Registration procedures define how students can register for your courses and according to which preferences.

• Each of your courses – with the exception of your internal group meetings (OberSem)  – should have its own individual registration procedure. This provides you with the opportunity to individually configure or control student admission.
  This wasn't the case last semester, when we used e.g. a single, collective procedure for similar courses. However, this approach proved to be disadvantageous because we couldn't accommodate individual requests from the lecturers. One example was the registration deadline for compulsory master's seminars (MVSem). They formally should have started on April 1st to avoid problems during a students transition from the bachelor's to the master's program, though an earlier deadline was partly requested to allow more time for planning.
• You can find the procedures assigned to your course by clicking on the corresponding cell in the "Part/Groups/maxPart" column in your course overview (Fig.1).
• Then click on the name of the respective registration procedure to see its details (Fig. 2).

You will then see your registration procedure with e.g. a pre-defined registration period and maximum number of participants as well as other parameters which define how students are allocated to your lecture.

• There are two principle ways to allocate students: via a continuous allocation ("Kontinuierliches Anmeldeverfahren"= every student who registers will immediately be accepted) or via a ranking options ("Anmeldeverfahren mit Reihungskriterien" = student registrations are prioritised according to e.g. 1) the day of registration, 2)  number of semester in the study program 3) random selection etc. - unfortunately, in heiCO  selectable criteria are spelled in German, see cutout of registration procedure below).
• If you want to achieve a deeper understanding how these registration procedures work - have a look at these heiCO manuals (unfortunately only in German):
  -Kontinuierliches Anmeldeverfahren anlegen: these procedures apply to large lectures like PEP1
  - Anmeldeverfahren mit Reihungskriterien anlegen: such criteria have been pre-defined e.g. for your seminars
• Please check important parameters of your registration procedure(-s): the dates of the registration deadline you prefer, the end of the deregistration period, and the maximum number of students you would like to accept. This max number of participants cannot be changed for lectures without no upper limit like PEP1. If you want sucher number to be changed please address your local VLM coordinator (see Fig. 3).
• If a successful registration to your lecture is subject to certain criteria, we could activate a batch which will on a daily basis 1) check if the max number of particiant has been reached and 2) allocated students according to the criteria. Please inform your local VLM representative if you want to make use of this option. Otherwise, student allocation will take place on the day the registration period ends.
• If you want to inform students e.g. about certain requirements concerning registration to your lecture you can alos add this to your registration procedure(-s).

Whom to contact in case of necessary corrections:
If you think something needs to be changed/corrected/added we ask you to contact your local heiCO coordinator. These coordinators  are:

1. Astronomy: Guido Thimm (thimm@uni-heidelberg.de)
2. Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics: Gerhard Zürn (zuern@physi.uni-heidelberg.de)
3. Biophysics: Tristan Kuder (t.kuder@dkfz-heidelberg.de)
4. Environmental Physics: Udo Frieß (Udo.Friess@iup.uni-heidelberg.de)
5. Particle Physics: Aina Hedström (hedstroem@physi.uni-heidelberg.de)
6. Theoretical Physics: Eduard Thommes (e.thommes@thphys.uni-heidelberg.de)
7. Computer Physics: Barabara Quintel (computational-physics(at)uni-heidelberg.de)

For general questions you can also contact me (thimm(at)uni-heidelberg.de). 

Scheduling exams:
The last week of a lecture period is planned as an exam week. No classes should take place during this week. For the winter term this is the week Feb. 2-7, 2026. Regarding the scheduling of exams: same procedure as for summer term 25: You will receive an E-Mail from Kees Dullemond with a link to an online form to specify your exam preferences.

Deadline for your feedback:
We ask that you let us know of any changes you would like to make by Friday, July 18th. It is planned that the faculty's course catalogue will then go live on Monday, July 21st.