Campus operations social

One of the core tasks of equal opportunities work is to support staff recruitment and appointment procedures with the aim of increasing the proportion of women in underrepresented areas. Their proportion is still low, particularly in the group of professorships at 38 per cent in 2023 (36 per cent female W2/W3 professors). The target is therefore also included in the target agreements with the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) and in the sustainability programme.

DATA: Women 2021 - 2023 (pdf)

The career development of female and non-binary academics during the qualification period is a central goal of gender equality work. Since 2001, the Equal Opportunities Office has been offering mentoring programmes to support female and non-binary academics on their way to professorships and management positions outside of universities:

• The ProScience mentoring programme supports female and non-binary postdocs, habilitation candidates and junior professors with the career goal of a professorship.
• The ProViae mentoring programme supports advanced female and non-binary doctoral candidates who are pursuing careers in or outside academia. A total of around 60 mentees took part in the programme between 2020 and 2023. The last round of ProViae (2023-2024) was conducted in English for the first time.
• Competence days for young female and non-binary scientists: Since 2021, the training format has been continued as part of a Summer School and in cooperation with the Graduate School. Up to 70 female and non-binary researchers in the qualification phase took part. In 2023, the Summer School addressed explicitly both female and non-binary doctoral candidates and postdocs at Leuphana for the first time. International doctoral candidates and postdocs were offered workshops in English.
• The Open Programme offers workshops and individual coachings for female and non-binary scientists in the qualification phase. Around 175 participants have taken part since 2019. Workshop topics included ‘Strategic career planning’, ‘Decision-making’ and ‘Career path: female professor at universities of applied sciences’.
• Programme to promote the internationalisation of female and non-binary scientists: Since 2021, excellent female and non-binary scientists have received scholarships or travel grants. This enables them to expand their international research and publication activities as well as establish or expand networking activities that are important for professorial appointments. In addition to achieve the gender equality mandate in accordance with Section 3 (3) NHG, the programme also contributes to Leuphana's internationalisation strategy. The aim is to increase international visibility in research and teaching contexts and the systematic integration of female and non-binary international scientists.

Another focus of the work to promote gender equality at Leuphana was drafting a diversity concept that includes measures in the areas of anti-discrimination, equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion. Since the Executive Board passed the diversity concept at the end of 2022, its implementation has been ongoing. This includes integrating offers to promote diversity-oriented and anti-discriminatory behaviour into internal training, introducing diversity-related monitoring and promoting equal opportunities through (partially) anonymised application procedures and raising awareness of unconscious bias in administration and academia.

• Anti-discrimination consultation: A cooperation with the independent anti-discrimination consultation centre diversu e. V. has been offering consultations for members of the university since summer 2022. Incidents of discrimination can also be reported anonymously via an online reporting portal. This cooperation provides Leuphana members with a low-threshold consultation service.
• Students with disabilities or chronic illnesses: Advice on compensation for disadvantages, relevant contact persons, study funding and legal principles. Events such as Diversity Day 2023 focused on ‘Disability and accessibility’ with interactive offers on visual impairment and a campus tour on barrier-free accessibility.
• The proportion of employees with severe disabilities rose to 4.2 per cent in 2023 (2021: 3.3 per cent); the legal requirement is 5 per cent.

• Since 2018, Facility Management has been cooperating with the LOEWE Foundation, which offers disabled people places to live, work, train or receive care. Designs for outdoor campus furniture were developed together. LOEWE carpentry department staff have already built 56 garden chairs and 42 picnic tables for the campus, as well as customised play equipment and nesting boxes.

Leuphana's family service supports the reconciliation of family and career or studying. Family includes any cohabitation in which long-term social responsibility is assumed for other people (such as relatives in need of care). Since 2011, the Leuphana University of Luneburg has been awarded the FaMi seal for family-friendly companies in the region of north-east Lower Saxony.

• Consultation on questions relating to childcare options, financing studies and balancing studies/work and caring for relatives.

• Childcare: In addition to the Villa Milchzahn with 8 childcare spots for children of employees and students, the Lille Hus offers 5 childcare spots for children under the age of three. A childcare service helps to find students with pedagogical training as private babysitters.

• Events: Annual information and networking events for students with children and online formats on reconciliation topics are offered. Since 2023, an online event series ‘Care in Focus’ in cooperation with the network of family (service) offices at universities in Lower Saxony and Bremen is also offered.

• Pre-selection right: Part-time students and students with time restrictions due to childcare, pregnancy, caring for a close relative in need of care, severe disability or serious illness have a pre-selection right for courses as a form of compensation for disadvantages. In summer semester 2023, 334 students made use of the right of pre-selection, in winter semester 2023/24 it were 350 students.

Research

At Leuphana, gender and diversity-sensitive research is conducted in a decentralised manner by various professorships in the Schools. A cross-school network ‘Gender and Diversity Research’ promotes the integration and visibility of these topics.

• Funding Programme for Visiting Scholars with a Focus on Intersectional Gender Research: In 2023, a programme for the promotion of visiting professorships with a focus on intersectional gender research was launched with funds from the Women Professors Programme III and will run until February 2026 in order to attract excellent national and, in particular, international academics for a research and teaching residency at Leuphana.

Various events in teaching and study programmes open spaces for participants to reflect on ways of thinking, new perspectives on topics and methodological approaches as well as diversity-sensitive work processes. A digital reflection workshop for lecturers on ‘Racism in university teaching’ took place as part of Diversity Day 2022. In winter semester 2023/24, there was a ‘Diversity and inclusion training’ course in the series ‘The good scientist – a seminar on research integrity’. Another example is the Writing Centre's event series ‘Decolonising and diversifying the curriculum’, which was aimed at lecturers who want to integrate greater diversity into their curriculum that lies outside the white, male Western European norm and promotes decolonisation and diversification in teaching. In addition, information on the topic of ‘barrier-free teaching’ has been made available on the homepage of Leuphana.

• Gender diversity certificates: Since 2012 for Bachelor's students and since 2020 for Master's students to encourage reflection and critical analysis of societal gender relations, access opportunities, social inequality and societal heterogeneity.

• STEM promotion: STEM promotion programmes for young women are carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Production Technology and Systems (IPTS). These include mentoring offers, ‘STEM Summer School Technology’, offers as part of the Future Day, ‘Jugend forscht’ and the BMBF project ‘Hybrid STEM study choice orientation programme for women in the context of digital transformation - PROMINT’ (2022-2025), which aims to provide evidence-based findings on STEM study choice orientation for women.

Personel development supports employees throughout their entire career cycle at Leuphana: from aptitude testing and personnel selection to onboarding, further training opportunities and departure, measures are implemented individually and in teams as well as holistically as part of cultural development.
Our cultural development offerings are our administrative network, which serves to promote exchange, information transfer and networking. During the reporting period, these took place online every two weeks with 80 to 140 employees participating.
Idea management and health management also support cultural development. With the launch of the first module of the management dialogue in November 2023, we are focusing on a key role that is important for shaping culture. The management dialogue will continue with four modules for a group of approximately 50 managers in 2024.
 

More:

• Continuing education opportunities for personal and professional development in languages, media and information technology, management and work organisation, and communication
• Personal coaching and development consulting processes
• Team development and change management
• Flexible working hours and flexible work location

Employee survey (GBU Psych)

As part of the legally required risk assessment of psychosocial stress (GBU Psych), Leuphana conducted its second employee survey from 10 January to 11 February 2022 (the first survey took place in 2016). The COPSOQ questionnaire (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire) was used as an online tool. The independent institute FFAW (Freiburg Research Centre for Occupational Science) was commissioned to conduct and evaluate the survey.

A total of 502 people took part, corresponding to a participation rate of 46%. The results were presented at an employee meeting on 21 June 2022 together with the full-time Vice President, the occupational psychologist (regomed Arbeitsmedizin), the Human Resources and Organisational Development department and representatives of the Staff Council. The results were then further analysed in interviews and group workshops for various status groups from September to November 2022, possible causes were identified and concrete measures were derived.

Health

In 2023, we conducted the ‘Healthy University’ reflection and development tool from the HIS Institute for Higher Education Development (HIS HE) and the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) health insurance fund for the second time (last conducted in 2018).

The tool is a structured compilation of quality criteria that universities can use to systematically determine their current status in terms of health management and identify potential for development. The tool was developed independently by the Health Working Group with the help of two workshops and individual discussions with other stakeholders. An experienced health management mentor from the university network provided support during the implementation and evaluation.

Sport

• Employee sports: Since 2000, all employees have been able to participate in one hour of health-related sports per week during working hours. The courses range from mindfulness and back fitness to danzaMANIA and yoga.
• Mobilisation Break (MoBe) – a guided exercise break during lectures, at the workplace or in teams.

Occupational psychology counselling by an external occupational psychologist. Topics in 2023 mainly included teamwork (employees – managers), burnout prevention and overload.

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• Company integration management (BEM)
• 5 defibrillators, breastfeeding and relaxation rooms
• Ergonomic advice at work or in the home office
• ‘Outdoors – recharge your batteries’ from 5 to 9 June 2023: During the health week, there were 14 offers in the three pillars of health promotion: exercise (e.g. paddleboarding, bike fitting, spinal screening), nutrition (e.g. healthy lunch box) and resilience (e.g. anti-stress training in the forest, mindful breaks on campus) with a total of 205 bookable places and 143 actual participants. This corresponds to a utilisation rate of 70%.