Statements

On this page we introduce our diversity strategy and present comments and progress reports on the subject of diversity at the University of Tübingen.

Diversity strategy

The University of Tübingen’s diversity strategy is antidiscriminatory and pursues a structural approach. The aim is to identify and name exclusionary mechanisms and disadvantages, and to take measures to reduce them, as well as working to counter them with a policy of cultural and structural change.
It also involves raising an awareness of problems and sensitizing members of the university to diversity.
Central components of the diversity strategy are sensitization, enlightenment, education, awareness and finally structural and cultural change. The goal is to ensure the University of Tübingen becomes a diversity-oriented and inclusive university.
The University of Tübingen sees diversity – like equal opportunities and family-friendly policies – as a cross-sectional task and therefore believes in diversity mainstreaming.
The understanding of diversity is intersectional.

Comments

Prof. Dr. Monique Scheer
Vice-President for International Affairs and Diversity

A sensitivity to difference is important at all levels of the faculties and administration at a globally active and sociopolitically advanced university, both for the international exchange of ideas and in everyday life at Tübingen.

Diversity policy in higher education is a task that touches on two areas: excellence and equity. Equity as a value in itself also accommodates excellence, because excellent academia needs the most talented and capable students and staff - completely independent of social or national origin, of gender or physical limitation.

This requires awareness of differences and open discussion of their implications - both of discrimination and privilege. We are about raising awareness and sensitivity to diversity and removing structural barriers through action - from unconscious assumptions about people to stairwells without elevators.

Diversity policy is a cross-sectional task. We always consider and address diversity, equal opportunities, and inclusion in strategic considerations in all areas and in the University's mission statement.

Prof. Dr. Karin Amos
Vice President for Students, Academic Affairs

Diversity, lived diversity, is a factor in creativity, because it brings together different perspectives, experiences of the world and approaches; in relation to teaching and learning, this tends to be productive and necessary ‘irritations’ that in turn are really important aspects of the educational experience: expanding horizons, transformative experiences.

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Hotz-Davies
Director of the Center for Gender and Diversity Research

The university is a place of research and teaching and as such a place of intensive communication. It lives on the diversity and variety of voices that meet there: without this diversity there can be no living university. It is in the university’s own interest to ensure that the diversity of society has equal access to the university and can realize its full potential at and in it.

Lukas Häberle
Student member of the steering group for the first auditing phase

A sensitivity for diversity is important, as the university has to be a safe space in which everyone can realize their potential without fear, marginalization or disadvantage. Only if we jointly accept and support individual identities and personalities can our society profit from the many-faceted resources and potential that people offer.

Experiences

In the first phase of the “Vielfalt gestalten” diversity audit, 2015 to 2016, we interviewed people who were associated with the University of Tübingen – either as staff, students or alumni. Their stories show how different lives, studies and careers, and the experiences they give rise to, can be. At the same time, they make it clear that heterogeneity enriches our everyday lives and our potency at the university.
Please note that these interviews are only available in German.

Graduate
After secondary school it was clear to me that I had to earn money first of all.

Dr. Üner Kolukisaoglu
A little bit of the atmosphere of the bazaar would do German universities good.

Student
With my child I often feel like an alien at the university.

Simone Trägner-Uygun
I often felt that I would have to do everything better.

Would you like to tell us your story? We’d love to hear from you. Just send it in by e-mail to the Diversity Office. We will read what you have to say, redact it where necessary and only put it online with your consent. It’s also possible to publish your contribution anonymously.