Family-friendly University
Students and staff should be able to opt for a career and a family. To this end, Esslingen University provides family-friendly studying and working conditions.
Family-friendly working and studying
To provide family-friendly working and studying conditions, Esslingen University has a number of activities in place at all levels and in all areas. Since receiving certification as a family-friendly university through an audit by the berufundfamilie (job and family) Service GmbH in 2006, our measures have been systematically structured and extended. Esslingen University also wants to remain an attractive employer and educational provider for new staff and students.
We hope to improve the satisfaction of staff and students in reconciling family responsibilities with work or study.
We understand “family” to be a union of partners or a multi-generational community with parents, children, siblings and grandparents. This union or community is characterised by the fact that its members take responsibility for each other.
A selection of measures that are already in place
- Advice for students and staff with caring and childraising responsibilities by the Family-friendly University Service Centre.
- A child-care centre for the children of students and staff between the ages of 1 – 3 on the Hilltop Campus, Flandernstrasse, run by the Student Union
- Family-related matters are taken into consideration in the way the courses are organised, for example:
- provision to extend study times, deadlines, and periods for practical placements/internships
- rooms for breastfeeding and nappy-changing on all the University’s campuses
- Family-related matters are taken into consideration in organising working hours, for example:
- flexible working hours
- alternating teleworking
- In making academic appointments, and when assessing academic qualifications, Senate may not use irregularities in the person’s C.V. against them, for example, career breaks or reduced working hours due to caring for a child/children or dependent relatives.
Family-friendly University Service Centre
Head of the Project
to implement our goals arising from the family-friendly university audit:
Prof. Christel Althaus
Tel. +49 (0) 711 397-4572
The Family-friendly University Service Centre is the central point of contact for all questions to do with reconciling work and family. We aim to make relevant information quickly accessible to you, ensure transparency about the various offices and centres at our University that are responsible, and inform you about various existing external services. We offer concrete support in individual, stressful family situations. Further, we work continuously to improve the family-friendly climate and implement our goals identified in the family-friendly university audit.
Part of this involves building up a network of care advisors within the staff workforce
We offer information and advice to members of staff on the following topics:
- child-care
- caring
- state benefits for families
- information about other sources of information and advice
You can turn to us to obtain:
- general information
- advice in acute, stressful family situations
- support in emergencies
All conversations are confidential.
Family-friendly university service center
Annemarie Graffé
Tel. +49 (0) 711 397-3212
Student Advice Centre
Tel. 0711 397-3212
Family-friendly Working and Studying
The University has been looking for viable models to achieve family-conscious working and studying conditions for a number of years.
To this end, the non-profit Hertie Foundation in collaboration with Trier University has developed the family-friendly university audit.
Its aim is to achieve a balance between the organisational needs of universities and the family-related interests of students and staff.
Esslingen University has been certified as a family-friendly university since 2006. Since then, three further audits have taken place in 2009, 2012 and 2017. In 2017, the University received the family-friendly audit certificate for a further three years.