“TU Dresden is one of the most family-friendly universities in Germany.” This is how Dr. Elisabeth Mantl describes TUD, one of the auditors in the “family-friendly university audit ” who has monitored the university for many years. Today (September 29, 2023), re-auditing of TU Dresden was confirmed. We have been successfully certified for the sixth time. The award recognizes the many years of work TUD has invested in creating optimal conditions for both employees and students with children or care-giving responsibilities.

“A family-friendly university requires various individual components,” said Professor Roswitha Böhm, Vice-Rector University Culture. “These include flexible working hours and the ability to work remotely, which we have included in our service agreements; childcare outside of the regular daycare hours; and advisory services for university members who have care-giving responsibilities. It is also essential to us to raise awareness of family friendliness throughout the university in general and to embed it in our management culture.”

Balancing family life with work or studies is a particular challenge for universities, and one for which TUD is actively seeking solutions. For example, due to the very early summer vacation of the Saxon schools in 2024, there will be hardly any overlap of school and semester breaks, which poses major challenges for many families when it comes to planning vacations. Moreover, taking time off from work for parenting or care-giving responsibilities is still difficult to compensate for in an academic career. In addition, young fathers in particular often still encounter prejudices when they want to take on family duties on an equal footing. Strengthening them, and thus the entire family, is a focus of the activities in the new action program.

At TU Dresden, the family-friendly university initiatives are coordinated by the Vice-Rectorate University Culture and the Directorate University Culture. All activities on this topic are overseen by Franziska Schneider, Family Friendliness Coordinator. You can find all information, initiatives and offers at https://tu-dresden.de/chancengleichheit/familienfreundlichkeit

About the audit

© berufundfamilie Service GmbH

The audit family-friendly university is a tool for implementing and advancing family-friendly working and study conditions. Based on the particularities of university organization, the audit family-friendly university initiates and accompanies a process: The goal is to achieve an improved balance between work/study and family for all member groups from academia, research, education, technology and administration. TU Dresden received its first certification in 2007 and has been able to confirm it every three years since then. http://www.beruf-und-familie.de

Contact

Franziska Schneider
Unit Diversity Management
Family Friendliness Coordinator
Tel.: +49 351 463 39772