Together with the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), the association Familie in der Hochschule e.V. has investigated family equity at German universities. For this study, the authors interviewed family managers at six German and one Austrian university in summer 2020. The focus was on family-oriented structures at the universities that have proven particularly effective during the pandemic or were newly developed during this time.
The study clearly shows that the universities that have come through the pandemic particularly well are those where the issue of family justice is well anchored structurally at university management level. For such universities, it was easier to create new support tools on an ad hoc basis or to expand existing measures, such as working from home. This finding is confirmed by the experience at Saarland University of Applied Sciences (htw saar): before the pandemic, for example, htw saar had a home office regulation that could be directly expanded in the event of a pandemic. This enabled the university to react quickly to the first lockdown in March 2020 without losing valuable time or neglecting core administrative processes.
The study also showed that flexibility in university administration is also possible to a much greater extent than previously assumed. According to the study, the assumption that presence is required for administrative activities as opposed to academic work is outdated. In both areas, there may be specific activities that work better at the workplace, but working from home is possible in both fields of activity. Shifting work to the home office has great potential for freeing up time resources that can make everyday family life easier. It should therefore be equally available to all employees wherever possible.
"Families are currently under enormous pressure due to the double burden of working from home in combination with increased care work," says Sandra Wiegand from the family office at htw saar. "We try to provide support as unbureaucratically as possible, e.g. through a subsidy for private childcare for students or coaching for employees on reconciling work and home schooling."
As the study found, the pandemic has clearly brought existing shortcomings to light: The already existing disadvantage of female professors and female junior academics became particularly evident due to the double burden during the pandemic, as so-called care work, i.e. caring activities or childcare, was increasingly taken up by women during this time.
You can download the publication here.
