Students are generally covered by statutory accident insurance and the insurance cover is non-contributory. The accident insurance funds of the federal states pay for accidents to students at state and state-recognised universities. The federal government and federal states bear the insurance costs.

All student activities organised by the university are covered under the insurance. This applies to all "components of studies", such as

• lectures, seminars
• revision courses of the university, mandatory or voluntary internships
• excursions as well as study trips within Germany or abroad
• travel to the university and back (except for detours for private reasons)
• visit to the university library
• participation in exams
• participation in university sports
• participation in student self-administration activities.

Only registered students are covered by statutory accident insurance. However, the insurance cover also applies for the way to registration or the way home after de-registration.

If a student suffers an accident in this context, the accident insurance fund pays for medical expenses and, if necessary, also for rehabilitation services. In order to check its duty to indemnify (for claimed costs by the attending physician), the accident insurance fund requires an accident report as prescribed by § 193 SGB (Social Security Code) VII.
The form is available on the HTW homepage in the internal area (login with S number). This accident report must be submitted to the HTW (Student Secretariat).

Private activities, such as research projects at home, revision courses from private providers or privately undertaken study trips, are not insured by the accident insurance fund. This also applies if a student uses a stay abroad to carry out examinations for a research project.
If a trip is organised and carried out privately, it is no longer automatically subject to statutory accident insurance cover.

Research projects (in connection with diploma, bachelor, master theses) outside the university area, usually in companies, are not covered by the accident insurance fund.

In the case of an external diploma thesis, the student is not covered by accident insurance at the university because he/she is not in the sphere of influence of the university, cf. § 2 Para. 1 No. 8 c) SGB VII.

In a company as well, the student is not automatically covered by statutory accident insurance because § 2 Para. 1 No. 2 SGB VII does not apply to external diploma students. Statutory accident insurance for an external diploma thesis exists only if the diploma student is in an employment relationship with the company or is considered to be an employee of the company. In that case, § 2 Para. 1 No. 1 SGB VII applies for employees.

It is therefore recommended to agree on an accident insurance cover through the company accident insurance of the training company in the diploma contract for diploma theses. As a further option, the diploma student could enter into an employment relationship with the company, resulting in full integration under social law and accident insurance cover in accordance with § 2 Para. 1 No. 1 SGB VII.

As a third option, the student could take out private accident insurance.

The latter is recommended at least for internships abroad that are not organised by the university, as there is no accident insurance cover according to SGB VII and statutory insurance cover can only exist in accordance with the regulations of the host country.