General
According to German law, the habilitation committee is part of the official habilitation procedure. If a commission is appointed (by the faculty council), the departmen council must appoint a student representative for this commission. The student member has only an advisory function. The basis for the habilitation is the valid habilitation regulations (pdf).
Sequence
The commission first meets in the constitutive session, where an overview of the work of the habilitant (hereinafter referred to as candidate) is given and the commission can already agree on experts for the habilitation thesis. Working meetings are convened by the chairperson. In it, the commission must decide on experts, discuss and evaluate topics for the public lecture and set dates.
Since the candidate wants to acquire the teaching qualification in a university subject, he/she must undergo a teaching test. This is usually a lecture from a basic course. The student member should definitely be present at this event, since the lecture will be followed by an expert opinion, which also depends on the opinion of the student.
The candidate presents the committee with 3 topics for the public presentation to choose from. These topics should be clearly distinguishable from the candidate's field of work. The Commission can request clarifications or reject topics. The student member has an advisory function here.
In a follow-up meeting, the performance of the candidate in the presentation and in the trial lecture will be discussed. In addition, there is a formal recommendation as to whether the teaching qualification is recognized or not.