Prof Dr Oliver Steffens, Vice President for Research and International Affairs at OTH Regensburg, and Miriam Kerl, Equal Opportunities and Diversity Officer, proudly accepted the TOTAL E-QUALITY award and the TEQ Sustainability Award at a recent award ceremony at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
TOTAL E-QUALITY e.V. presented the award to a total of 60 prizewinners from all over Germany. ‘We would like to thank all award winners for their commitment,’ said Dr Ulla Weber, Chairwoman of the TOTAL E-QUALITY Executive Board. ‘They are outstanding examples of an equal opportunities HR policy that is geared towards current and future challenges. With your successful application, you document that equal opportunities and diversity are an integral part of your organisational culture. They present themselves as attractive employers in the competition for committed, qualified specialists. Scientific institutions also emphasise equal opportunities as part of their excellence.’
Organisations from business, science and administration as well as associations that generally have at least 15 employees can apply for the TOTAL E-QUALITY award. The application should document fundamental attitudes, strategies, measures and their monitoring. An independent jury examines the application documents on behalf of the association and decides on the award. The criterion is that the organisations achieve a consensus between economic concerns on the one hand and strategies for implementing equal opportunities in the interests of employees on the other.
The award is granted for three years and is renewed if the reapplication proves that the path to equal opportunities is sustainable and further progress has been made.
TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e.V. has awarded over 1,000 awards since 1997. Those who receive it for the fifth time receive the sustainability award.
The jury justified the award to OTH Regensburg as follows: ‘In its application, OTH Regensburg presents a convincing equal opportunities strategy and thus fulfils the TOTAL E-QUALITY standards in the various fields of action in an outstanding manner.’
With 39 per cent of its employees being women, including 22 per cent of professors, OTH Regensburg implements numerous equal opportunities measures, such as target agreements, an incentive system and an equality and diversity evaluation. This brings the university ever closer to its goal of integrating equal opportunities into its mission statement and university development planning and anchoring them structurally. Particular emphasis is placed on the focus on ‘Women in STEM’, internationalisation and the removal of barriers.
The university is actively committed to combating sexualised discrimination and implements preventative measures, such as the integration of a complaints function in the OTH app and events to promote gender and diversity skills. OTH Regensburg thus pursues a holistic approach to promoting equal opportunities and diversity.
