Family-friendly university “very good”

The berufundfamilie Service GmbH confirmed to the University of Stuttgart that it would be maintaining the certificate “family-friendly university”. In addition the responsible auditor praised the implementation status 2016 as being “very good”. The University of Stuttgart may now continue to display the European-wide and most well-known certificate logo for family-friendliness as an attractive employee and external funding partner.

The University of Stuttgart has been certified as a “family-friendly university” since 2012; however, it is subject to an annual appraisal for this distinction. “Besides fully implemented measures, the progress of other measures is clearly visible and even the milestones are highly presentable“, is how Dr. Georg Barzel, responsible auditor of berufundfamilie Service GmbH, expressed it appreciatively after his audit. “The implementation status of the University of Stuttgart is very good.“

Minister Theresia Bauer congratulated the University of Stuttgart on the renewed positive appraisal: “I am delighted that the University of Stuttgart has once again been awarded the certificate as a family-friendly university as one of five universities from the state of Baden-Württemberg. With this the universities from the South West have been honoured for their great commitment towards making studying and career compatible. Through this our universities have also presented themselves as contemporary employers and educational facilities compared to the rest of the country.“

Professor Wolfram Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart, was pleased about the praise from the Minister and emphasised: “We have been able to initiate some measures this year and are hoping they will have positive effects on the compatibility of career, studying and family. I am particularly looking forward to the parent-child area in the students’ house.“ Dr. Bettina Buhlmann, Chancellor of the University of Stuttgart, added: “Senior managers are the key to a family-friendly working environment and that is why it is so important to train them well in the framework of our personnel development. They should reflect their management behaviour with regard to the topics of compatibility of career, studying and family as well as health and also confront their work situation.“

Through the auditing the awareness of positive effects has increased: “Through creating a family-friendly university structure, it is not only university staff with family duties who will benefit: we recruit and retain highly-qualified employees, deploy our personnel more efficiently and reduce drop-out rates due to family burdens“, explained Inken de Wit, project leader and manager of the Service Uni & Family.