Gender Equality Concept for parity at the university 2023 - 2027

The University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS) has been certified as a family-friendly university since 2007. Since then, university-wide measures and programs have been regularly audited. The realization of equal participation of women and men in all areas of the university is a binding goal of the university and is anchored in its university development plans: "Promoting gender equality and diversity and taking into account new challenges of social and family lifestyles" is highlighted as an overarching strategic and university-wide goal in the current University Development Plan 2021-2025. The university is also obligated by the State Equal Opportunity Act of North Rhine-Westphalia to promote women, to reduce existing gender-related disadvantages and discrimination, and to promote the compatibility of work and family.

The university provides the Equal Opportunity Officer with personnel and financial resources to implement her tasks. In addition, decentralized equal opportunity officers have been appointed in the university's departments.

The university's Gender Equality Plan 2023-2027 takes stock of university-wide data, measures taken and results in the identified areas of action. For example, in 2021, the Executive Board made it a condition in the job profiles for filling professorships that newly appointed professors at H-BRS must be willing to reflect and implement gender and diversity aspects in teaching, research and transfer. The further goals and associated measures up to the year 2027 are formulated and presented below.

In addition, the Executive Board will continuously initiate further measures or further develop existing ones. These will be published within the university in a timely manner.

At the end of the Equal Opportunity Concept 2023-2027, a report will be submitted to the Senate of the university for the evaluation of the measures taken so far and for the adoption of resolutions on the continuation and updating of the Equal Opportunity Concept for the following years.

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Ihne

President

Preamble

The University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS), founded in 1995 with the aim of becoming a particularly "women-friendly university", intends to continue to promote the equal participation of women and men in all their diversity and at all levels of the university. First certified as a family-friendly university in 2007, it has since evolved into a family-friendly and diversity-sensitive university. Promoting gender equality and diversity and addressing new challenges of social and family lifestyles is one of three overarching strategic goals of the university. The current University Development Plan 2021 to 2025 highlights the importance of this issue. Equality is also directly the responsibility of the president.

Unequal starting conditions due to upbringing and socialization primarily due to gender, but also compounded by other forms of diversity, prevent people from reaching their full potential. At the university, these potentials are sometimes missing in order to use them in teaching, research and transfer in the way society would need them. Parity for the H-BRS is therefore relative and more than equality, but rather means "justice / fair participation" taking into account unequal starting conditions.

This Equality Concept 2023 to 2027 continues the previous Equality Concepts 2013 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2023, which were already positively reviewed in the Female Professors Program II and III. It takes stock of the data and realized results in the various fields of action and formulates the further goals and associated measures up to 2027. In addition, the Presidential Board continuously initiates further measures or further develops existing ones.

The concept was developed by the Equal Opportunity Office of the H-BRS in cooperation with the Equal Opportunity Commission, the decentralized Equal Opportunity Officers, Diversity Management, the Graduate Institute, the Centre for Science and Technology Transfer, and in close coordination with the Presidium.

Situation analysis

Statistical data  
In order to enable comparability of the women's quotas with the national and NRW statistics (available for 2020) and to assess the changes compared with the starting situation before the first equality concept (2013-2018) and the second equality concept (2018-2023), a period from 2013 to 2022 is considered below. Unless otherwise stated, the figures given refer to 1.12.2022 and, as provided for in LGG, to women and men. We are monitoring the effects of the Self-Determination Act and will present concepts in the future on how figures on non-binary persons can be mapped in consideration of data protection as well as the LGG.

Scientific staff
From 2013 to 2022, the percentage of female professors at H-BRS increased from 25% to 29%; the national average is 26.3% (GWK press release, Nov. 2, 2022). Since the last concept, it has increased by 1 percentage point, not including two professorships in computer science, which were filled by two female professors at the beginning of 2023. The trend in the percentage of female scientific employees has decreased between the years 2013 and 2017 from 50% to 47% (2020) and in the years of the pandemic to 43%.

Female employees in technology and administration
The percentage of women among other employees at the university has been above average since its inception and was most recently (end of 2022) 73%. An analysis by salary group showed that women and men are equally represented in the higher salary groups and no need for action is derived from this. Nevertheless, more women are working part-time, which may have been exacerbated by the pandemic and its aftermath. H-BRS will continue to monitor this trend.

Students and graduates

Since the university's inception, the percentage of women graduates has consistently been higher than the percentage of women students. The dropout rate is significantly lower for female students than for male students. The proportion of female students and graduates has remained constant over the past 3 years at 40% female students (2013 = 35%, 2018 = 38%) and 48% female graduates (2013 = 41%; 2018 = 46%). Parity is as good as achieved here, although there are differences in the individual departments.

The University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences in comparison

In comparison of all 16 universities of applied sciences (HAW) in NRW (Gender report 2022: Gender-Report 2022 Geschlechter(un)gerechtigkeit an nordrhein-westfälischen Hochschulen, Studien Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung NRW Nr. 39, ed. by Beate Kortendiek, Lisa Mense, Sandra Beaufaÿs u.a., Essen 2022, pp. 164-165), the H-BRS has an average proportion of women among academic staff and professors. Between 2017 and 2022, the H-BRS has dropped from seventh to eighth place, especially in the status group of professors, it has moved down three positions to ninth place. In a nationwide comparison (University ranking according to equality aspects 2021: Löther, A. (2021). University ranking according to equality aspects 2021. cews.publik, 24). Cologne: GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-74765-6), the H-BRS is in the top group for the following factors: 1. "Full-time academic and artistic staff below tenure (HAW)" and 2. "Professorships (HAW)" as well as in the middle group for the factor "Increase in the proportion of women professors compared to 2014".

Career progression of women and men according to the cascade model 

The gap has closed slightly in the career progression of women and men between the years 2017 and 2022 at H-BRS.

Committees and university management

According to Section 11c of the Higher Education Act of North Rhine-Westphalia (2014), committees at universities in NRW must have equal gender representation. With a few exceptions, the university council and appointment committees at H-BRS have equal representation. The presidium and senate do not have equal representation. Female professors were encouraged to stand for election to the Senate, Presidential Board, and Departmental Council, but parity in professorships could not be achieved here.

With the exception of the Department of Social Policy and Social Security, the proportion of female professors in the departmental councils does not correspond to the basic population of female professors in the department. In the Senate, the proportion of female professors also does not correspond to the population of female professors in the university. Thus, H-BRS lags behind other HAW in NRW. The H-BRS has also published the female quotas of the student parliament and AStA since 2017.

Library and Institute for IT Service (ITS)

The library and ITS each have more than 20 employees and are therefore to be listed separately. At the end of 2022, the library had a total of 72% female and 28% male employees, and the Institute for IT Service had 19% female and 81% male employees. An analysis by salary group showed that women and men are equally represented in the higher salary groups and no need for action is derived from this. All employees can take advantage of all offers of the (family-friendly) university.

Family-friendly university 

The offers of the HELP counseling center have been increasingly used in recent years. During the 2020/2021 pandemic, there were fewer requests for advice from students, while employees increasingly sought contact. Most consultations took place on the topic of reconciling studies/career and children, but the topic of caring relatives is also becoming increasingly important for employees at the university. At the Rheinbach campus, as in Sankt Augustin, company kindergarten places are also available during the concept period. These are well received by employees and students. Currently, the university has 17 company kindergarten places in the daycare facilities of the Studierendenwerk Bonn. In the SiD (Student Survey in Germany 2021), 3% of respondents stated that they had children.

Scholarships

The percentage of women on college scholarships correlates with the percentage of female students overall in 2022. For DAAD scholarships, the percentage of women was 64%.

Promotions
In 2022, there were women earning doctorates in all five departments at University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences. Their share in 2022 was 45%, which is between the share of female students (40%) and graduates (48%).

Equality quota 
Section 37a of the Higher Education Act of North Rhine-Westphalia (2014) requires universities to calculate and promulgate an equality quota for departments. The goal is to achieve a ratio of female professors to male professors in the subject groups that corresponds to the equality quota. H-BRS has incorporated the equal opportunity ratio into the appointment regulations and appointment committees, departmental councils, and the president include it in the appointment process. The proportion of female honorary professors is 14%.

Structure and initial situation at University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

As of Dec. 1, 2022, the university had 1,445 employees, of which 780 were men and 655 were women (FTE = 491.2 men and 444.1 women). The university also had 9,069 students enrolled, of which 5,441 were men, 3,616 were women, and 12 were undeclared/diverse. 153 professors (151 regular professorships including 2 endowed professorships) teach in five departments and conduct research at 17 institutes at three locations in Sankt Augustin, Rheinbach and Hennef. In Bonn, the university operates a joint research institute with RWTH Aachen University, the University of Bonn and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Administrative services are offered to university members at various locations.

The majority of prospective students come from the local area. The regional applicants acquire their university entrance qualifications primarily at vocational colleges and high schools in the region. However, the university has also seen an increase in students from the rest of Germany, and the proportion of foreign students is relatively high for a state HAW at 16%. The deliberately chosen strong focus on the STEM field causes the lower proportion of female students at the university compared to the national average. The university is very well networked in the Bonn science region and has numerous cooperation partners both in the region and worldwide, especially through internationalization activities of the departments and the International Office. With almost 90 partner universities worldwide, we take advantage of the opportunity to address the issue of gender equality and parity at universities in an international context as well.

Organizational anchoring of equality at the university

In the performance of its duties, the H-BRS promotes the actual implementation of equal rights for people of different genders. In the implementation of the State Equal Opportunity Act (LGG), the Equal Opportunity Officer and her representatives play a key role in particular. They are to be involved comprehensively and at an early stage, in particular in all regulations and measures of a personnel, social and organizational nature that have or may have an impact on equality. The Equal Opportunity Officer has an important support and participation function. In the administrative structure, she has a special role, which is expressed in the direct right of presentation to the head of department, the freedom to issue instructions and the right of objection. Since the founding phase of the university, the Equal Opportunity Officer has regularly participated in an advisory capacity in the weekly meetings of the university's presidium.

The central Equal Opportunity Officer of the H-BRS is released from other official duties at 100%. Two deputies of the Equal Opportunities Officer are elected from among the members of the Equal Opportunities Commission on a rotational basis, and there are two decentralized Equal Opportunities Officers in each department. Apart from the central Equal Opportunities Officer, the deputies and the decentralized Equal Opportunities Officers currently neither receive a reduction in their duties nor are they released (even in part) from other official duties.

In view of the broad range of tasks, the H-BRS provides the Central Equal Opportunity Officer with personnel and material resources. The university spends €32,800 on materials for the Equal Opportunity Office and the projects "Family-friendly university" and "Komm mach MINT". The Equal Opportunity Office is also staffed with 2.6 FTEs. The positions are temporary and permanently anchored in the staffing plan. The services offered by the Equal Opportunity Office are regularly taken advantage of and appreciated by members of the university. An expression of this is the repeated award of the H-BRS with the certificate "family-friendly university" - in 2022 for the sixth time in a row since 2007. The Equal Opportunity Officer is also supported by an Equal Opportunity Commission with equal gender representation. The discourse on strategies, goals and measures relevant to gender equality is to be intensified between the Presidential Board and the Equal Opportunity Commission.

Enchoring the content of equality at the university

Anchoring the content of equality at the university

In addition to the organizational anchoring of gender equality at the university, there are content-related interfaces with diversity management, which is anchored in the department of the Vice President for Internationalization and Diversity. In accordance with Article 3 of the German Basic Law and the State Equality Act, as well as due to the historical dimension of discrimination against women on the basis of their gender - particularly in the academic structure - equality and diversity management are organizationally separate and operate cooperatively, each with its own focus. In 2021, the university adopted the diversity strategy and in the same year received the "Shaping Diversity" certificate for the first time for a successful audit from the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. The stated goals of the diversity strategy are to strive for academic success, to increase diversity competence, to shape cooperation in a spirit of partnership, to enable participation and to ensure equality. Taking intersectionality into account and picking up on impulses from diversity management are part of the everyday practice of equality work.

In the coming years, the Equal Opportunity Office itself will continue the successful formats of the two focal points "family-friendly university" and "career guidance": Children's holiday program "Try it" for children of university employees; parent-child workroom; breastfeeding, nappy-changing and quiet rooms; kids' boxes to borrow; HELP advice center. Career guidance: Komm mach MINT courses; Girls Explore Technics together (GET together); scholarships for female doctoral students; "Green light for female professors" - preparation for a HAW professorship; "I can do it" coaching program for women in leadership positions.

Equality successes are increasingly visible at the H-BRS not only vertically in the form of quotas, but also horizontally. The Equal Opportunities Officer sensitizes members of the H-BRS to whether and how measures in teaching, research and transfer can affect women and men in all their diversity. The focus here is on empowering members of the university and their reflection on the topic of gender bias. Equality is a task for society as a whole in the context of the socio-ecological transformation, and it is therefore important to inspire teachers and researchers for the topic, to bring them along and to point out opportunities for each and every individual personally, but also in particular for the university through access to third-party funding. In addition to a gender consultant position in the project "PeP@H-BRS" (FH-Personal), the Equality Office will independently implement an additional three-year project with an additional gender consulting position to support researchers for gender equality topics in third-party funding applications. In this way, the university signals that gender equality is a cross-cutting task for which people should be empowered. The Equal Opportunity Officer regularly exchanges information with the Center for Science and Technology Transfer (ZWT). The Equal Opportunities Officer has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Ethics and Responsibility since 2018. Her expertise on topics relevant to gender equality is selectively incorporated into events of the "Forum Responsibility" as well as the "Study Responsibility". H-BRS is particularly committed to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is equality itself. As a member of the Bonn Alliance for Sustainability Research founded in 2017 and with a sustainability strategy adopted in 2022, the university is oriented towards the interplay of social, ecological, economic and technological sustainability in teaching, research and transfer.

Parity in the sense of "justice/fair participation" presupposes the willingness to change culture and, along with this, the admission that people in all their diversity behave in a gender-stereotyped manner. The willingness to reflect and consider issues of sustainability as well as gender and diversity aspects in teaching, research and transfer was defined by the H-BRS presidium at the end of 2021 as a standard must criteria for advertised professorships. Thus, in a time of demographic change - in the coming decade, about one third of the professorships will be filled - the H-BRS is aware of the close link between recruiting and equality. The willingness to reflect and consider gender and diversity aspects has also been anchored for the first time in the research institutes' target and performance agreements in 2021. Gender equality aspects will also be included in the H-BRS management report under "Personnel" from 2023. In principle, 10 % of all course credits at the H-BRS are to be in interdisciplinary competencies and topics related to sustainability, digitalization, ethics and responsibility in the future.

Strengths and weakness analysis (2022)

The following strengths and weakness analysis is derived from the previous surveys:

Personnel and junior faculty:

Strengths: Above average proportion of women in full-time academic staff below professorship level nationally (HAW); Above average proportion of female professors nationally (HAW); Slight increase in proportion of female professors overall; Achievement of gender equality quota in engineering and computer science; Increase in proportion of female doctoral students to 45%.

Weaknesses: Failure to achieve gender equality quota in three out of five departments; lack of systematic processes for dealing with honorary professorships and, to date, no early involvement of gender equality in identifying potentially suitable female honorary professors.

Committees:

Strengths: Equal representation on the university council and usually on the appointment committees; equal representation on the university board.

Weaknesses: Underrepresentation of women in dean's offices and in the senate; no equal representation in the presidium.

Female students:

Strengths: Percentage of female students increasing; percentage of female graduates close to parity; attempt to integrate gender aspects into studies and teaching.

Weaknesses: Underrepresentation of female students in computer science/engineering in national comparison (HAW).

Structure:

Strengths: Graduate institute, with cooperative doctorates and connection to the NRW doctoral college; professionalization of appointment procedures in the past ten years.

Weaknesses: Lack of time off for equal opportunity officers in departments; no budget for equal opportunity officers in departments.

Gender controlling:

Strengths: Opposite gender student and staff data not statistically reported for privacy reasons.

Weaknesses: Further issues concerning gender controlling may need to be identified.

Work-life balance:

Strengths: Since 2007, consistently successful (re-)audits of family-friendly university; high acceptance and adoption of HELP counseling center; "Healthy University".

Weaknesses: Senate meeting times outside of childcare hours.

Goals of the Equal Opportunity Concept 2023 - 2027

In order to achieve the strategic goal of equal opportunity at all levels of the university, the following operational goals are defined and prioritized in order of priority, derived from the strengths/weakness analysis. The goal is to reduce weaknesses and further develop strengths.

1. achievement of the gender equality quota, especially in the departments of economics and applied natural sciences

2. increase in the proportion of female scientific employees

3. anchoring of gender equality in the departments

4. increase in the proportion of female professors in committees

5. increase in the proportion of female students and graduates in engineering sciences and computer science

6. expansion of gender controlling

7. expansion of gender research

8. maintaining a good work-life balance

Measures

IIn the following, the measures of the past years are reviewed to determine whether they were suitable for achieving the operational goals. From the point of view of the operational goals for the equality concept 2023 - 2027, it is determined which measures will be continued, modified or terminated and which new measures will be added.

Achievement of the gender equality quota in all departments.

Target group: female lecturers, female scientists with doctorates

Responsible parties: Department of Human Resources and Legal Affairs, Equal Opportunity Officer

Structural anchoring: University management

Key figure/indicator: Applications by women for professorships, proportion of female professors, equality quota, consultations by the Equal Opportunity Officer.

Successful measures that will be continued

"Green light for female professors"

In this series of seminars, women who are interested in a professorship receive support on the topics of "appointment procedure, trial lecture, status communication and appointment interview". The program is also advertised in Lakof and Bukof networks and, in particular, at partner universities (see Chapter 5).

Targeted advice offered by the equal opportunities officer in calls for applications

In the advertisement texts for a professorship, it is pointed out that the Equal Opportunity Officer advises interested women on the compatibility of career and family at the H-BRS. Regular use is made of this.

Active research by the dean's office and the chairwoman of the appointment committee in databases and networks for women scientists

Chairpersons of the appointment committee and department heads actively supported the search for female applicants for professorships. According to the appointment regulations, this must be documented in writing.

Standardization of gender-appropriate elements in appointment procedures

A new set of appointment regulations and an appointment guideline were drawn up, which include gender-equitable aspects. The decentralized equal opportunity officers receive a handout for appointment procedures.

"Female professors - Where are you?“

Inspired by the working paper "Professorinnen-ubi estis- wo seid Ihr?" (Starke. S./Kiendl. A.: Professorinnen-ubi estis- wo seid Ihr? Ed. Bochum University of Applied Sciences, 2013) the equal opportunity officers of Bochum University of Applied Sciences and the University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences had founded a project team in 2014 to produce an image film on the HAW professors, the target group of which was, on the one hand, young women with doctorates at universities and HAWs, and on the other hand doctoral women from the business world. Since then, the film can be found on the Equality pages.

Measures to be modified

Cooperations with non-university research institutions

Newly appointed female professors from non-university research institutions stated that they had been personal approach to have been made aware of the professorship.

The measure is to be modified by asking these same female professors to contact suitable female colleagues in the research institutes when new professorships are advertised. The university's alumni network should also be involved.

New measures

Further training for appointment committees an appointment officers

The presidium, in cooperation with the Human Resources Department and the Equal Opportunity Officer, will offer training events on appointment procedures.

Expansion of professorship announcements to the international arena

The Vice President for Internationalization and Diversity will support the departments by covering the costs of invitations to tender abroad.

Increase the proportion of female academic staff

Target group: female doctoral candidates, female research assistants, female graduates

Responsible persons: Heads of departments and projects, equal opportunity officers

Structural anchoring: University management

Key figure/indicator: Number of female doctoral candidates, number of continuing education measures for female scientific employees

Successful measures that will be continued

Continuing education programs at the university's Graduate Institute

The Graduate Institute of the H-BRS has established itself and offers continuing education courses in German and English for all doctoral candidates of the university. Furthermore, information is provided about funding opportunities, including the integration into the Doctoral College NRW.

Awarding of doctoral scholarships

Every year, several doctoral scholarships are awarded to employees and graduates of the university. In principle, one scholarship is also awarded to women by the Equal Opportunity Office. Overall, gender parity is taken into account in the awarding process.

Personnel development of female academic staff

In the departments, doctorates and further education in the form of advanced master's degree courses are supported by allowing flexible working hours or even granting partial release from work. The university's research institutes support doctorates in particular through their involvement in the research commission and continuously award a doctoral scholarship.

Support services for female junior researchers with family obligations

Female employees who have to interrupt their doctoral project due to pregnancy or parental leave and whose continued funding after restarting is endangered by limited third-party funding can apply for additional funding from the departments or the Equal Opportunity Office. In all questions of compatibility, female junior scientists are advised by the family counseling center HELP and the Equal Opportunity Officer of the H-BRS.

Teaching experience for master students

Master's students are given the opportunity to gain teaching experience in the form of teaching assignments or half-time academic positions.

Measures to be modified

Increase the proportion of female doctoral students

In a "road show", representatives of the Graduate Institute and the Doctoral College NRW should again provide information in the courses of Master's programs for a doctorate at the university with the connection to the PK NRW starting in 2024. The good quota of female doctoral students is to be maintained.

Completed measures

Support for applications to funding programs for young female scientists (career paths to professorships at universities of applied sciences)

The state program "Karrierewege FH-Professur" supported qualified young scientists on their way to a professorship at an HAW. The state program was discontinued in 2019.

Peer coaching

Peer coaching was offered to faculty as part of quality development in teaching and learning. The potential has been exhausted; newly appointed professors are now addressed through the onboarding program and take advantage of highly didactic offers as a matter of course.

New measures

Gender bias training

In the departments of applied natural sciences and economics, the focus is on future female scientific employees and doctoral students: network meetings, reflections and workshops on fair study environments and performance expectations, awareness of one's own needs and diversity of role models through gender bias training for men and women in all their diversity are intended to strengthen partnership-based behavior and encourage women in particular to pursue combined career paths in industry and science.

Anchoring of gender equality in the units

Target group: Decentralized equal opportunity officers, women with doctorates in business and non-university institutions, students

Responsible parties: Deans' offices, administration, equal opportunity officers (central and decentralized)

Structural anchoring: University management

Key figure/indicator: Women's advancement plan (equal opportunity plan), proportion of time off for equal opportunity officers

Successful measures that will be continued

Equal opportunity officers in the departments

The amendment to the HG NRW in 2016 strengthened the role of the equal opportunity officers in the departments. In the last Equal Opportunity Concept 2018, it was already agreed as a goal to realize exemptions of Equal Opportunity Officers in the departments. This goal continues to be adhered to as they represent central Equal Opportunity Officers in numerous personnel procedures and in meetings of the departments. Demographic changes at the university have exacerbated the problem of lack of release time.

Plans for the advancement of women (equality plans)

With the instrument of the plans for the advancement of women, the departments are concretely obligated to implement measures for the promotion of equality, the compatibility of career and family, and the reduction of the underrepresentation of women. In joint discussions with the deaneries, the departmental equal opportunity officers and the central equal opportunity officer, the measures taken in previous years are reviewed for their effectiveness and further action and target figures for the coming years are jointly determined.

Gender-equitable personnel policy

The goal of a gender-equitable personnel policy is equal opportunity for all genders with regard to (un)temporary positions. The central equal opportunity officer and the equal opportunity officers of the departments continuously accompany this process.

Student Safety - No Tolerance for Violence

On a decentralized level, the Computer Science student council adopted an awareness concept for the protection of women for the first time at the beginning of 2023, which was presented at a workshop with other student councils under the leadership of Equal Opportunities in the Department of Economics. The student councils of other departments would like to adopt the awareness concept, taking into account the offer of help "Is Luisa here?" and establish it university-wide in the future with the aim of making student celebrations and gatherings on campus safer, especially for women.

New Measures

Review strategies for parity in the staffing of honorary professorships.

Departments and institutes are encouraged to develop strategies for parity staffing of honorary professorships, particularly to increase the currently low proportion of women honorary professors. Honorary professorships are a suitable instrument for utilizing the expertise of women with doctorates from professional practice for teaching purposes and for promoting networking between them and the H-BRS.

Increasing the proportion of female professors on committees

Target group: female professors

Responsible parties: University management, equal opportunity officers, deaneries

Structural anchoring: university management, equal opportunity officers

Key figure/indicator: Proportion of female professors on committees

Successful measures that will be continued

Equal representation on committees and family-friendly meeting times

The university council has equal gender representation. The goal is also to achieve gender parity in the composition of the Presidential Board, the Senate, and appointment committees. To this end, the heads of the deaneries and the equal opportunity officers in particular work towards compliance with the currently valid appointment regulations. Meetings of the Senate and the departmental councils are held at times when childcare is generally available.

Compensation for female professors with family responsibilities

On the one hand, where female professors are underrepresented in departments, the requirement for equal representation on committees sometimes acts as a burden. On the other hand, the perspective of women is important for the formation of opinions and topics. This leads to an area of conflict. If female professors with family responsibilities should be increasingly employed in self-administration in order to staff committees in a gender-equitable manner, there is the possibility of additional relief through student assistants who are financed by the dean's office or the equal opportunity office.

New measures

Strengthening of personnel networks

In order to integrate female professors, especially new professors, more quickly into existing personnel networks at the university, they are prepared for their tasks at the university by the dean's offices and by ZIEL (Center for Innovation in Teaching), but also with the support of the Equal Opportunity Officer, and networked with colleagues. The success of good networking also includes personal responsibility on the part of the new female professors. In 2022/2023, the Presidential Board will promote non-university networking by participating in the ZEIT program "Visible Women in Science".

"I can do it" - Coaching program of the Equal Opportunity Office

Women in leadership positions who want to take on new tasks and assume more responsibility in self-administration or research have access to the Equal Opportunity Office's coaching program. This is aimed at women in science and administration.

Increasing the proportion of female students and graduates

Target group: female students and graduates

Responsible parties: Departments, especially engineering and computer science, Equal Opportunity Office

Structural anchoring: University management

Indicator: Number of visits by female students, number of female students

Successful measures that will be continued

Komm mach MINT

Komm mach MINT" project: Project weeks during the vacations for schoolgirls (GET together = Girls Explore Technics together); school cooperation with high schools, middle schools and secondary schools in the area; workshops for schoolgirls in schools or at the university.

Computer science focus in "Komm mach MINT" courses

Vacation courses introduce female students to hardware-related programming with Arduino in a playful way. In the Roberta (Lego robot) and Scratch (game programming) courses, programming skills are deepened. In 2021 and 2022, newly acquired "Ozobots" in the Equality Office will be used in various courses for playful programming.

H-BRS as an extracurricular learning venue

The university is networked via the MINT Community NRW and is registered there as an extracurricular place of learning. The Equal Opportunity Office cooperates with numerous schools in the region, offers workshops for students and for teacher training, presents courses of study and runs vacation courses for schoolgirls.

Student Mentoring / Network WISE

Female Student Mentoring in Engineering: Women's Mentoring empowers young women in the Electrical/Mechanical Engineering/Technical Journalism department and aims to provide a forum for aspiring female engineers to network and support each other. Female students from higher semesters, supported by student assistants, take care of female students in their first semesters. Students who have benefited from mentoring as freshmen are welcome to volunteer as mentors. Something similar was initiated in the Department of Computer Science: "Women in Cyber Security" (WISE). Other departments are also encouraged to recruit female students for master's programs.

Measures to be modified

Girls‘ Day

Since 2000, the university (or individual branches) has been conducting Girls' & Boy' Day. Originally organized by the Equal Opportunity Office for all departments, in the future especially the departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism (EMT), i.e. those departments with a low percentage of female students, are to offer Girls' Day courses on their own responsibility.

Promotion of early study

The Computer Science and EMT Departments are reviewing the reinstatement of early study or the re-enrollment of exceptionally gifted female students in individual courses in order to retain them at the university and in the technical programs. The project was discontinued in 2016 due to lack of demand. In the meantime, however, the topics of sustainability and security have come into sharper focus, for example with the establishment of the bachelor's degree programs "Sustainable Engineering" and "Cyber Security'& Privacy", where the proportion of female freshmen is higher than in regular engineering degree programs. Options are to be explored as to whether and under what conditions female students in particular can participate in courses in the departments.

Completed measures

Students' Special/”hochschule-spezial”

The Equal Opportunity Office's lecture and workshop series "University Special" was held annually on the topics of "Studying with a Child, Application Training, Coping with Stress, Time Management, etc.". The program was discontinued in 2022 due to insufficient demand.

New measures

New Master's Degree in Cyber Security & Privacy

Digitization for all people needs the perspective of all people, especially even more so that of women, who have so far been underrepresented in computer science. With an information campaign of the Cyber Campus NRW, female students are to be animated in the future to also complete a master's degree program in "Cyber Security & Privacy" after their bachelor's degree.

Gender controlling

Target group: Administration

Responsible parties: Department of University Planning, Organization and Controlling, Department of Human Resources and Law, Evaluation via ZIEL/VP1

Structural anchoring: university management

Key figure/indicator: counter-gendered university data

Successful measures that will be continued

Counter-gendered student and graduate surveys and personnel data.

Department 4 for University Planning, Organization and Controlling regularly provides counter-gendered student data. In addition, the Evaluation Team at ZIEL conducts annual counter-gendered freshman and graduate surveys and surveys of upper semesters and makes them available on a structure-specific basis. In the student surveys, for example, questions are asked about family situations (children, dependents requiring care) and whether the study conditions are suitable for meeting these family obligations. Staff statistics are generated for the various employment groups.

Networking

The networking of those responsible for measures and the cross-institutional transfer of knowledge are another important element for equality controlling. Professional networking and collegial consultation between administration and equality is a goal of contemporary equality management.

Measures to be modified

Financial resources of the equality office

The financial resources of the Equality Office will be put to the test and, if necessary, adjusted in line with increasing activities in the area of third-party funding acquisition.

Review of gender equality goals

The strategic equality goals are reflected on every five years in the course of the preparation of the university development plan and adapted to current needs. Following on from this, the operational goals and measures set out in the equality concept are further developed. The university undertakes to review the equality concept after two years to determine whether it has achieved its goals.

New measures

Gender-appropriate research data

Together with the Vice President for Research and Young Academics, the extent to which research performance can be broken down by gender will be examined.

Audit assignments of the internal audit

In the future, the internal audit department will examine the implementation of individual equal opportunity measures of the present concept - insofar as this can be sensibly integrated into the audit concept and noted in the audit assignment. The Equal Opportunity Officer will provide Internal Auditing with corresponding information.

Expansion of gender research

Target group: female students, university employees

Person responsible: Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism

Structural anchoring: University management

Indicator: Projects, courses

Successful measures that will be continued

Continuation of the research focus "Technology Gender Journalism

Prof. Dr. Susanne Keil, Professor of Journalism, Online Journalism, Gender and Media, established the research focus in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism. Thanks to the financial start-up funding from the Equal Opportunity Office, it was possible to hire a research assistant for the research focus. She supported the professorship in the development and implementation of gender-sensitive technical journalism, taking digitalization into account

Blog for the "gender2technik" research focus area

Launched in 2015, the blog makes women visible in the context of technology and innovation. In teaching research projects and theses, media are subjected to a gender check.

Prize for the best bachelor's and master's theses with a gender reference in each case

Every year, the Equal Opportunity Commission awards prizes for the best Bachelor's and Master's theses in the amount of € 1,000 each as part of the graduation ceremony or the opening of the academic year. The prizes are aimed at all students regardless of gender and are intended to promote the anchoring of gender equality-related topics in teaching and research.

Data Literacy to Identify the Gender Data Gap

In the "DAViD" project, competencies in the area of data literacy will also be strengthened by the end of the project term in 2024 and considered a basic prerequisite for perceiving the gender data gap and counteracting it accordingly. It is the declared goal of those responsible for the project to use the results of the DAViD project for equality and to apply them to students and teachers.

Free Menstrual products

The Equal Opportunity Officer herself became active in the area of gender studies for the first time in 2022. Gender Studies for the first time. With the pilot project "Studying and menstruation" pilot project, she presented an empirical study on the acceptance of free menstrual articles and presented it to the Committee for Equality and Family in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament. The continuation of the offer of free menstrual products is a declared goal, which the university management will also include in the 2022 program of the "family-friendly university" certificate in 2022.

Maintaining of a good work-life balance

Target group: University employees

Responsible parties: Equal Opportunity Office, Administration, Department of Business and Economics

Structural Anchoring: University management, Equal Opportunity Officer

Key figure/indicator: Number of consultations, feedback office Family Office and Equal Opportunity Officer

Successful measures that will be continued

Auditing of family-friendly university

The sixth re-audit "family-friendly university" was successfully carried out. In the target agreement for the confirmation of the certificate, the university is certified to consolidate and intensify concepts and activities for all target groups. Measures were agreed upon to further promote the family-oriented culture of the university.

Mobile and flexible working

As a result of the experiences of the pandemic, the flexibilization of working hours and location has been reflected in a "mobile working" service agreement. Particularly in administration, the culture of presence that had prevailed until then was broken up. On the one hand, flexibility in the sense of reconciling work and family life is desirable; on the other hand, separation is necessary to maintain mental health. Visibility and evaluation of women's work performance must not suffer in the home office, which is why the proportion of mobile work is also limited to a maximum of 50%. In order to be able to offer employees more flexibility in addition, the topics of "long-term work account and sabbatical" are to be pushed further in the next few years. There are corresponding working groups.

"Healthy university"

The "Healthy University" project with the Technikerkrankenkasse health insurance fund was extended by one year and will continue until 2024. Topics relating to mental health are becoming increasingly important and have in some cases been anchored in counseling services offered by the departments.

Measures to be modified

Guideline on conduct in a spirit of partnership, ombudsman commission

The guideline on conduct in partnership is to be revised. Violations of the guideline, such as violations of personality and discrimination, can still be reported anonymously to an ombudsman commission.

Completed measures

Master's scholarship for students with children

The goal of the scholarship was to encourage students with children to have the financial confidence to pursue a master's degree. Due to lack of demand, the measure was discontinued in 2019.

New measures

Return to work interviews

Returning to work is an individual process, especially after a long period of parental leave. In the future, targeted "return interviews" will be held with employees returning from such a phase to discuss further training or refreshing specialist knowledge, changes in everyday working life such as restructuring or new tasks. Corresponding support material is being prepared in the HR department.

Gender bias training

Gender sensitization is important for awareness of structural gender inequities, resistance and motivation. The Equality Office is therefore planning gender bias training sessions for employees in which social attributions and intersectional effects on social gender and power relations are critically reflected upon (for example, with regard to the topics of keeping minutes in committee meetings, parental leave for fathers and so on).

"Nursing Knowledge Pool"

„Demographic change in the next few years will lead to a "nursing knowledge pool" in the appointment process.

As part of the family-friendly university, the Equal Opportunity Office will be setting up a "Nursing Knowledge Pool" in the coming years, in which experienced relatives can share their knowledge with colleagues and students.

Cooperations with other universities with regard to the concept

Cooperations to improve appointment management

Due to demographic change, appointment procedures will be of particular importance at the university in the coming years. Closely linked to this important personnel selection will be the question of how competitive the university will be in the future in the fields of action of social-ecological transformation and digitalization, but also security and health. In order to meet the societal challenges, there needs to be a higher proportion of female professors at H-BRS, because solving problems requires more female perspectives, talent and knowledge, which are currently being lost due to the "brain drain" or the "leaky pipeline". Many stakeholders contribute to the success of a successful appointment process: from human resources employees, to appointments officers, the equal opportunity officer, committee members, and last but not least, the president. They are all aware of the importance of equality.

The H-BRS and the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences jointly recruit professorial staff as part of the "Cyber Campus NRW" cooperation. Expertise is shared and there is a collegial exchange about appointment processes. Newly appointed professors participate in a joint onboarding program in which the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, and the H-BRS cooperate via the ZIEL (Center for Innovation in Teaching). H-BRS also signed the "Joint Declaration on the Gender Pay Gap in the Compensation of Female and Male Professors" (Lakof) in 2022. As a result, the Equal Opportunity Officer was proactively informed by the administration at an early stage as soon as a woman accepted a call. This procedure has proven successful and is to be continued, as it provides an opportunity to sensitize negotiators in recruitment and salary negotiations. The Equal Opportunity Office has also developed a handout for decentralized equal opportunity officers in appointment procedures in 2023. The aim is to further enable and qualify the decentralized equal opportunity officers with regard to their role and to pay attention to non-discriminatory evaluation criteria.

Cooperation in the area of equality in general

In addition to the initial counseling at the university's own HELP counseling center, the Psychosocial Counseling Center of the University of Bonn is the point of contact for students, lecturers, and employees of the Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The Equal Opportunities Officer of the H-BRS would also like to regularly commission and make use of joint external supervision with at least two other Equal Opportunities Officers from other universities from 2024 onwards. Due to the complexity of the tasks of equal opportunity officers on the one hand, as well as confidentiality of the cases to be dealt with on the other hand, supervision is also a characteristic of professionalism.

Sustainability of this concept according to the "Female Professors Program 2030

The goals and measures described in the previous chapters are part of the university's gender equality strategy and will be pursued and implemented regardless of whether the application to the "Female Professors Program 2030" will be successful.

Family justice and equality are of great relevance to the university. Third-party funding selection criteria also bring the topic of gender equity not only vertically, but also horizontally into research and transfer.

Quality assurance

Gender equality quality management is embedded in the university's holistic university quality management system. Counter-gendered university data is part of strategic gender controlling.

Quality assurance procedures:

• Statistical evaluation of the composition of the university's committees by gender (by Department 4 and the Office of Legal Affairs, annually)

• Appointment management: Monitoring of applications by gender for advertised professorships (Equal Opportunity Officer, Human Resources Department, respective procedures)

• Evaluation of the number of participants in events and advisory services offered by the Equal Opportunity Office (Equal Opportunity Office, annually)

• Online survey on family justice at the university, situation of students with children (ZIEL - Center for Innovation in Teaching, every 3 years)

• Certification of family-friendly university (Presidential Board/Equal Opportunity Office, every 3 years)

• Accreditation: review of the promotion of gender equity and equal opportunities at the level of study programs (departments/ VP Teaching, every 5-7 years)

• Discussions with employees to identify measures for personnel development (managers, annually)

• Feedback and complaint management on gender equality incl. family-friendly university (Equal Opportunity Office, continuous)
• Discourse on the implementation of equality-related goals and measures (Presidential Board/Equal Opportunity Commission, annually)
• Equal opportunity plans for departments with 20 or more employees in accordance with §5 (1) LGG (department heads/decentralized equal opportunity officers, every 5 years)
   
• Implementation and review of the equality concept in accordance with §5 (10) LGG (departmental management, every 2 years)

• Strategic orientation of equality in the university development plan (Presidential Board/Equal Opportunity Office, every 2 years)

• Creation of new equality concept (Presidential Board/Equality Office, every 5 years)

Conclusion

The University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences already has a high affinity for the advancement of women and gender equality due to its founding history. With regard to the equal participation of women at all levels and in all committees of the university, she has great successes. The challenge for the future is the recruitment and retention of excellent employees in times of demographic change. Family and equal opportunities make up a large part of the attractiveness of H-BRS as an employer, but there are still no long-term employment prospects for employees due to limited budget funds, even if the proportion of permanent contracts has increased. Maintaining a good work-life balance in times of increasing tasks and crises (digitization project and cyber security of the university, reconstruction of the Rheinbach campus after the flood) requires prudence, creativity and commitment on the part of university members. The fact that the H-BRS repeatedly receives top marks for student satisfaction and is ranked among the best employers in the region shows that it manages to maintain the balance. The university has set itself the following goals for the coming years:

• Achievement of the equality quota, particularly in economics and applied natural sciences

• Anchoring equality in the departments

• Increasing the proportion of female professors on committees

• Increase in the proportion of female students and graduates in engineering and IT

• Expansion of gender controlling

• Expansion of gender research

• Maintaining a good work-life balance

 Prof. Dr. Hartmut Ihne

 President of the University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences