With its equal opportunities concept titled "The destination determines the journey!" Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) has successfully acquired funding in the third round of the "Professorinnenprogramm", a programme promoting female professors initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state governments. LUH has been awarded funding for the initial appointment of up to three female professors according to salary grade W2 or W3.
Furthermore, LUH is one of ten higher education institutions in Germany to achieve the highest possible rating "Equal Opportunities: Excellent!" for its human resources development and recruitment concept on the road to professorship in this round of the programme. This distinction provides the opportunity to receive additional funding for the initial appointment of another female professor. In the first two rounds of the programme, Leibniz University Hannover was awarded funding for the appointment of five female professors, enabling the university to implement numerous equal opportunities measures.
"I am delighted that our equal opportunities standards, our ambitious objectives in terms of equality, as well as our consistent and structured equal opportunities policy are recognised once again. This acknowledgement will strengthen our equal opportunities policy and provide great opportunities for Leibniz University Hannover as an employer, while simultaneously urging us to continue with our efforts", said Prof. Dr. Volker Epping, President of Leibniz University Hannover.
The German federal and state governments initiated the programme for promoting female professors in 2008 in order to address the "Leaky Pipeline" issue with regard to women in science. The term "Leaky Pipeline" refers to the decreasing number of women at various qualification levels and career stages in science observed in many fields despite specific measures being in place.
The "Professorinnenprogramm" aims to increase the number of female professors in higher education in Germany, as well as to strengthen equal opportunities structures at higher education institutions by implementing specific measures. Overall, LUH succeeded in increasing the number of female professors from 17 percent in 2008 to 26 percent in 2018.
In the third round of the programme, a maximum of 165,000 euros per professorship will be provided annually over a period of five years. In addition, it is possible to apply for funding provided by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony to promote the appointment of female professors in Lower Saxony. "This is a great success for LUH. By establishing the equal opportunities concept, we actively practice a gender-balanced university culture", said Helga Gotzmann, equal opportunities officer at Leibniz University Hannover.
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For further information, please contact Mechtild Freiin v. Münchhausen, head of Communications and Marketing and spokesperson of Leibniz University Hannover (Tel. +49 511 762 5342, Email kommunikation@uni-hannover.de).
