Personal status and name change

Personal status and name change at the University of Wuppertal before the official registration

The gender identity and name of students or employees might not comply with the registration in our electronic systems, which may lead to discrimination. An official personal status and name change is a tedious process and the persons affected have to overcome many obstacles. The University of Wuppertal makes it possible for students and employees whose identity is not (yet) aligned with their legal gender to change their civil status even before the official registration.

The application procedure of employees is different to the application procedure of students because of separate responsibilities with regard to data administration. Persons who are students but also employed at the University of Wuppertal, are asked to send both applications.

Application procedure for students

Students enrolled at the University of Wuppertal can apply for a change of their registered gender and (first) name using the campus management system even before their personal status and name change is officially registered. In some languages, the first and family names of people differ in writing with regard to their gender. Using the application form, students and employees can change their first and – if they wish – their family name or parts of it. It should be noted that the person applying for registration must ensure that adjustments are made to their own letterbox to receive mail, if necessary.

The student ticket is usually valid for one semester. Name and gender changes in the campus management system are taken into account accordingly. The student ticket with your new name will be send to your university email account the next day by email (sender: ride-ticketing). Your former ticket will become invalid automatically. A second email (sender: ride-ticketing) will contain the link to activate the ticket. Please double-click on this link to activate and download the ticket with the new name. Your former ticket with your given name will be shown as well for transparency reasons. This ticket cannot be used anymore after your name change. You need a supplementary card by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Transidentität und Intersexualität e. V. (dgti) (German Society for Transgender identity and Intersexuality). In order to avoid problems when the ticket is checked by the local transport company, we recommend to carry the dgti supplementary card with you at any time. The dgti supplementary card is a supplementary document including all new personal data you chose yourself and a current passport photo. The number of your id card is interlinked with the number of the dgti supplementary card. Every Ministry of the Interior at state level, the Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as other official authorities accept the dgti supplementary card.

Documents that have already been issued can be reissued after an informal application to the responsible offices, e.g., the amendment of a bachelor degree certificate can be reissued at the Central Examinations Office (ZPA). The informal request for change with respect to documents already issued by the school is to be addressed to the respective school.

The Centre for Information and Media Processing (ZIM) has compiled all relevant information on the workflows of its services for civil status and name changes. Here you can check which data can or must be changed by yourself, if necessary.

Application procedure for employees

Employees who are in the transition phase can already contact the personnel department with an informal application before the official registration and inform them of their future civil status and the desired first names (if applicable, also family names).

The personnel department is obliged to work with the official first and family names of the university’s employees. For that reason, a self-chosen personal status and name cannot replace the personal master data before the name is officially changed with an official amendment notice. In the personnel administration software system the new names are registered in a supplementary field to ensure that for future correspondence between the personnel department and the employee but also between the Centre for Media Processing (ZIM) and the employee, only the new identity of the employee is used. Furthermore, the staff of the personnel department is also personally available to employees as contact persons during the transition phase.

The Centre for Media Processing (ZIM) requires a message sent to zimber[at]uni-wuppertal.de by the employee with regard to the changes because the new (not yet officially registered) names cannot be transferred to the Centre for Media Processing (ZIM) automatically. Based on this message, the Centre for Media Processing (ZIM) can change the respective data in their user database. Attention: In all cases of amendments to the employment contract (new appointment, continued employment), the Centre for Media Processing (ZIM) needs a new message.

The Centre for Information and Media Processing (ZIM) compiled all relevant information on the workflows of the ZIM services for civil status and name changes. Here you can check which data can/must be changed by yourself, if necessary.

Information on personal status and name change after the official registration can be found here.

If you have any questions, please contact the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Unit.