Advising Structures and Network in the Context of Diversity

With regard to equality, employees and students with their diverse social and cultural realities have access to numerous contact points and interest representation groups that are firmly integrated into the structure of RWTH (here, interest representation groups are collectively understood as: the staff council, the staff council for scientific, medical and artistic employees, the group representation of scientific employees, the central group representation of employees in technology and administration, the representation of employees with severe disabilities, the youth trainee representation).

Figure 3: Central Advising Services at RWTH Aachen

Students have even more contact points through the Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss, in particular the inclusive education officers, the foreigners' representation, the "Queer-Referat" and the equal opportunities project of the RWTH student body with an additional anti-racism office. All actors provide support for individual concerns and advise on possibilities for fair and constructive cooperation. In addition to their specific commitment, networking in interdisciplinary committees and working groups enables them to promote equal opportunities at all levels of RWTH strategically. These transparent and participatory processes lead to a significantly increased visibility of the cross-sectional task of diversity and contribute to a change in the organizational culture. One representative example is the forumDIVERSITY, which meets twice a year. In addition to a large number of the above-mentioned persons, its members include the two vice-rectors and numerous responsible persons from the faculties, the area of professorships with gender- and diversity-denomination, and the central university administration (ZHV).

In addition, RWTH is involved in a number of supra-regional networks on the topic of diversity and equal opportunities, including the Network Diversity at Universities, the Network of Vice-Presidios or Prorectorates responsible for diversity at German universities, the State and Federal Conference of Women's and Equal Opportunity Officers at Universities (bukof, LaKof NRW), the Network of Equal Opportunity Actors at the Universities of Excellence (GEx), the TU9 Equal Opportunity Network, the Network of Actors in the Context of the Common Guidelines on Equal Opportunity (cf. Development & Milestones), the Task Force Human Resources of the Europe-wide network of technical universities CESAER, the Task Force on Studies and Disability NRW, the nationwide task force of health-promoting universities, the NRW Network of Healthy Universities, and ENHANCE (the results of the Diversity and Gender Equality work package developed in the European network are used in the context of internal strategic processes at RWTH and interlinked with other measures; cf. Development & Milestones).