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09/19/2016 | Pressemitteilung

University of Kassel signs charter "Family in Higher Education

The President of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey, signed the charter "Family in Higher Education" yesterday evening (September 19, 2016) in Frankfurt am Main. With this, the university commits itself to respond even more to the needs of families in the context of science.

Image: University of Kassel
At the signing of the charter "Family in Higher Education" on September 19 in Berlin - from left: Dr. Sylke Ernst, Women's Representative of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey, President of the University of Kassel, Yvonne Weber, Coordinator Family Welcome & Dual Career at the University of Kassel.

The University of Kassel has been certified as a "family-friendly university" since 2006 and has since created many structures to make it easier to combine studying or working with family responsibilities. Examples of such support services include flexible childcare, vacation care, and telecommuting. Through the charter "Family in Higher Education", these general offers are now supplemented by specific offers for families in the university context.

Dr. Sylke Ernst, Women's Officer at the University of Kassel, explains: "The task now is to drive forward the cultural change within the university and, in doing so, to focus even more strongly on the special situation of families in the context of science. For example, a life-phase-oriented personnel policy, a family-friendly leadership culture and the further development of a family-friendly, gender- and diversity-sensitive organizational and academic culture play an important role here."

For the university, according to Ernst, a family-friendly environment and gender equality are supporting pillars for successful, future-oriented development. She explains, "Through various measures around the overarching theme of family equity, the university continuously and systematically supports students, researchers and employees throughout their various life phases." Among the services the university already offers in this context are preferential dial-in for parents (and other students with limited time flexibility) in courses, a newsletter for parents, and a large parent-child room in the Campus Center. The Family Service of the University of Kassel has also been coordinating a Family Round Table since May 2016, which ensures the further development of the topic at the university.

The "Family in Higher Education" charter is a certification procedure and at the same time a steering instrument that was initiated by CHE and the Robert Bosch Foundation in 2014. Its goal is to integrate the topic of compatibility into the profile development of the universities. In working groups with different focal points, the topic "Compatibility of family and work/study" is continuously developed.

 

 

Photo (Photo: Uni Kassel) for download at: http://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/fileadmin/datas/uni/presse/anhaenge/2016/Unterzeichnung_Charta_Familie_in_der_Hochschule.jpg
Caption: At the signing of the charter "Family in Higher Education" on September 19 in Berlin - from left: Dr. Sylke Ernst, Women's Representative of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey, President of the University of Kassel, Yvonne Weber, Coordinator Family Welcome & Dual Career at the University of Kassel.

 

Contact:

University of Kassel
Yvonne Weber
Coordinator Family Welcome & Dual Career
Email: Yvonne.Weber@uni-kassel.de
www.uni-kassel.de