Diversity

Diversity-sensitive onboarding - diversity and anti-discrimination in the arrival phases of all new university members

A living culture of diversity and active engagement with discrimination should be visible and tangible from the onboarding of members of all status groups at Bielefeld University.

As places of social allocation and as part of their social mission in education and research, universities cannot be free from structures of advantage and disadvantage in university practices. Discriminatory behaviour is sometimes intentional, but more often unintentional. The moment of "arrival" in the organisation is a particularly good time to address discrimination, reflect critically on it and make it possible to experience an open culture that questions discrimination, encourages observation and reflection. The aim is to introduce the topic to all new university members in a positive way from the outset and to enter into a dialogue about the culture of diversity at the university and about the dimensions and limits of diversity potential. In this broad perspective, disadvantages and exclusion as well as advantages and privileges can be considered.

All new members of the university should experience the diversity opportunities available at the university during their arrival phases, welcome and orientation programmes - and at the same time get to know the open atmosphere that prevails on campus.

Measures are therefore constantly being designed and further developed to promote and support the discourse on topics such as equal opportunities, diversity and anti-discrimination by specifically addressing new members of the university as part of their onboarding process. The aim is to have a lasting, broad and deep impact by promoting open and natural communication about aspects of diversity culture and dimensions of diversity and keeping relevant multipliers, e.g. in the departmental student representative committees, close to the topic.

Particularly good results have already been achieved for the target group of students. A range of different instruments for raising awareness and diversity competence have been tested and established here, which support student multipliers (primarily departmental student representative committees, but also other student initiatives) in their work with first-semester students as required. Workshops and coaching sessions as well as direct dialogue on diversity issues are rated extremely highly. At the same time, all other member groups of the university are also addressed on various occasions and encouraged in a low-threshold, positive way to engage with diversity issues and follow thought-provoking impulses.

The measures for diversity- and discrimination-sensitive onboarding emerged from the "Diversity from the start" project, which was funded by the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) in the winter semester 2023/2024 as part of the "Diversity at German universities" initiative and with funds from the BMBF. All successful measures will now be further developed, differentiated and optimised after the project ending date.

Click here for the project report "Diversity right from the start - diversity-sensitive onboarding at Bielefeld University"