Information Portals

The Student Portal serves as the primary source of information for students. It contains information about all services, regulations and policies of the university. You can log in to the Student Portal with your personal account.

When you log in, you will automatically arrive on the ‘Today’ tab, which students often refer to as ‘Brightspace’. Please also visit the ‘Study Info’ tab: it provides detailed information about your degree programme and the tracks/ specializations therein, course units in the programme, etc. We expect all students in the programme to know the contents of this information.

Assignment

Today tab

This is the starting tab. In the middle of the screen you will find ‘Need to Know’ messages. These are generally important messages from your degree programme, faculty and university. It is essential that you regularly read these messages, to stay updated about important issues regarding your studies. A message is colored red if you haven’t read the contents before, and turns grey after reading it. Click on one or more of the current messages to find out what kind of information is published here.

On the right side of the screen, you will find ‘Nice to Know’ messages. These messages are less essential to read: examples are announcements for symposia and summer courses, or calls for participation in study support workshops or interviews. Skipping these messages will not put you at a disadvantage with regard to your studies, but reading them every once in a while will keep you informed about interesting study-related activities.

Study Info tab

This tab is divided into different subcategories, including Quick links, Bachelors and Masters. Under Quick links you can find information about general aspects of the FSE or facilities that are shared by several programmes. Under Bachelors and Masters you can find specific information about your degree programme. Click on your degree programme and have a thorough look around.

Career tab

This tab is dedicated to all kinds of information that may help you to develop a clearer view of your future options for employment, and to prepare yourself for the job market. You can find a calendar with upcoming career events as well as vacancy postings, including student assistant positions in our faculty.

UG tools

Here you can find widgets and systems useful during your studies at the University of Groningen.

Brightspace is the electronic learning environment of the University of Groningen, integrated in the Student Portal. Lecturers use Brightspace to provide information about their course units, to exchange documents with their students, and to give online education or exams. Students use Brightspace to find course-unit related information, to read announcements, to cooperate with fellow students, and to hand in assignments.

After logging in to the Student Portal, you arrive on the ‘Today’ tab. On the left side of your screen you will see ‘My Courses’, which lists all the course units you have enrolled in via Ocasys. The courses are sorted by year and semester/block. If you have enrolled in a course unit, but it is not visible here, the lecturer has probably not made the course page available yet. Clicking on a course link directs you to the course information page, which contains the latest updates on the course unit. Some lecturers upload a lot of material before the course unit starts, while others publish their course information simultaneously with the course lectures.

On the widget ‘My Courses’, you will also find a ‘Communities’ tab. Some degree programmes, associations, or committees publish their information via these communities. You will probably not be enrolled in many of these at the start of your programme.

• To enrol in a course, log into Ocasys using your university student number, either directly at ocasys.rug.nl or via the Student Portal/Brightspace. 

• Once logged in, you can search for courses using the "Search" tab or by navigating to your program page. If you meet the enrolment requirements, you can click the "Enrol" button to register. 

Please note that enrolling in Ocasys will not immediately grant access to the corresponding Brightspace course, as the systems may take some time to synchronise. If you encounter any issues, please contact EDU Support at edusupport@rug.nl.

Some courses may have waiting lists. If available, you can enrol in the waiting list by clicking the "Enrol (Waiting list)" button. After enrolling, you can view and manage your current enrolments under the "My Ocasys" tab. If you wish to un-enrol from a course, you can do so from this section as well. 

For a more detailed instruction see EDU Support.

• You must enroll for FSE course units at least four weeks before the start of a period. Don't worry though, the first year courses of a Bachelor or Master's degree in the first block of year 1 are an exception to this rule! You can still enroll in those courses up until the end of the first week of the academic year.

• There is no separate examination enrollment procedure for course units that are organized by the Faculty of Science and Engineering: being enrolled for a course unit is sufficient to participate in the exam as well. Other regulations and enrollment deadlines may apply for course units organized by other faculties.

Always make sure that you are present at the mandatory activities, as stated on the course unit's Ocasys page. Not showing up without notification to the course coordinator may result in de-enrollment for the course unit.

Your final grades for course units are registered in Progress. The grades may be available earlier on the Brightspace page of the course, but once your grade is in Progress it is officially registered.