Equal opportunities for employees

There are slightly more women than men in technical and administrative positions.

If you have any questions or concerns about gender equality and your professional situation or development, please feel free to contact our Equal Opportunities Officers or the departmental equal opportunities officers for administrative and technical staff.

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At the University, qualifications in science and academia are mainly governed by fixed-term employment contracts under the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). These provisions pose particular challenges for woman who have to interrupt their careers for family reasons as they go on maternity or parental leave and switch to part-time work. A disproportionately high number of woman decide against a career at the University after completing their doctorate.

The University of Jena is commited to integrating the competences and potentials of female and male academics equally in research and teaching. To ensure an equality-oriented support for early career researchers, we have put designated measures for doctoral candidates  deand postdocs de in place.

Personal career development

Individual training is a key driver of successful employment and career development. The in-house qualification programme offered by the Division for Human Resources' Section for Staff Development takes place during regular office and childcare hours and is open to all employees. In addition, you can participate in individual continuing education programmes and take educational leave for training purposes. For more information, please visit this page.

Performance and development reviews

The University of Jena recommends that supervisors and their employees hold regular meetings to discuss the status and development of their work and individual perspectives. For this purpose, we developed a number of adaptive concepts to match our employees' different work and career settings.

We also offer dedicated training to help you prepare for these conversations more effectively. Learn more

If you have any questions about equality-related issues in this context, please contact the Equal Opportunities Office.

Gender equality is a central topic in our Appointment Regulations effective from 23 September 2019pdf, 494 kb · de and across all divisions and departments.

Compliance with gender equality is considered as a criterion in all phases of our appointment procedure—from our call for applications to the actual appointment. There are workshops for members of appointment committees covering our appointment regulations as well as unconscious bias in perfomance evaluation. The implementation of gender equality in appointment procedures is reviewed by the Equal Opportunities Officers, the Executive Board, and the Senate of Friedrich Schiller University Jena. 

Appointments are based on the principle of selecting the best candidates. 

Friedrich Schiller University Jena is committed to creating a university workplace where gender diversity is natural and can be lived openly.

Learn moreExternal link

Recruitment and career development—as regulated by the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG)—are based on the principles of equal opportunities and merit. The University’s recruitment and hiring guidelines provide information on how to observe and implement equal opportunities in the various phases of recruitment.

However, previous experiences, emotions, and implicit knowledge, such as stereotypes learned at an early age, can have an unconcious impact on our social perception and influence how we assess people or make decisions. In other words: They can lead to an unconscious bias in performance evaluation and decision-making.

For detailed information, studies, and examples on gender bias in performance evaluation and staff selection, please visit this pageExternal link.

For further information, feel free to contact the Section for Staff Development and the Equal Opportunities Office.

Knowing that we can defend ourselves in potentially dangerous situations strengthens our self-confidence.

Under the theme ‘Defend yourself in everyday life!’, the university sports programme regularly offers self-defence courses for women.The training programme aims to help everyone get physically fit and learn some simple defence techniques that allow them to defend themselves in the event of a physical attack. Courses are designed for two people who want to train together, but you can also register on your own. More information on current and upcoming university sports courses is available hereExternal link.

For a first insight into self-defence techniques, you can watch this videoExternal link of a self-defence course.