Equal Opportunity

If you have any questions about equal opportunity in the Faculty of Business Administration, contact the following members of staff:

Equal Opportunity Representative
Prof. Dr. Petra Steinorth, Tel: 42838-1525
Moorweidenstraße 18, Room 1013, 20148 Hamburg
petra.steinorth"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Deputy
Prof. Dr. Michel Clement, Tel: 42838-8721
Moorweidenstraße 18, Room 3003, 20148 Hamburg
michel.clement"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler, Tel.: 42838-8716
Moorweidenstraße 18, Room 3029, 20148 Hamburg
henrik.sattler"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Isabel Kaluza, Tel: 42838-1564
Moorweidenstraße 18, Room 2009, 20148 Hamburg
isabel.kaluza"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Felix Ferkau, Tel.: 42838-7742
Von-Melle-Park 5, Room 2022, 20146 Hamburg
felix.ferkau"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Annika Schneider, Tel.: 42838-9526
Esplanade 36, Room 4003, 20354 Hamburg
annika.schneider"AT"uni-hamburg.de

View the Equal Opportunity Plan of the Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School).

Within the context of equal opportunity and diversity management, the Faculty of Business Administration implements various measures in accordance with university-wide equal opportunity guidelines. It also carries out additional, self-funded measures in order to achieve the key objectives specified above and consolidate previously achieved results for the long term.

Measure 1: Support for early-career researchers

The Faculty of Business Administration has established the Elisabeth Eisfeld Postdoctoral Funding Program. It is aimed at female postdoctoral researchers and junior professors in the Faculty who require financial support for their research. Founded in 2014, it funds in the main periods abroad in order to increase the international visibility of female early career researchers and provide them with networking opportunities. The program is due to continue.

Measure 2: Mentoring for female students and doctoral researchers

The Faculty of Business Administration operates its own mentoring programs and has supported university-wide mentoring programs for female students and doctoral researchers since 2014. It intends to continue its mentoring services in the long term.

Measure 3: Promoting diversity in teaching and research

The Faculty of Business Administration encourages all its members to engage in an open, international dialog in teaching and research. It does this by promoting and facilitating international partnerships and exchange programs. The purpose of this measure is to familiarize Faculty members with foreign cultures and allow them to gain a deeper understanding of academic cultures abroad. It also helps Faculty members to establish international networks.

Measure 4: Participation in collaborative measures with the engineering sciences and STEM subjects in order to attract female applicants to the degree programs in industrial engineering and management

The Faculty of Business Administration contributes to measures intended to increase the number of female applicants, such as Girls’ Day and Boys’ Day. It further collaborates with other faculties to attract larger numbers of female students to the corresponding degree programs.

Measure 5: Reconciling academic, professional, and family obligations

The Faculty is planning to introduce flexible regulations to help its members reconcile their academic, professional, and family obligations (such as childcare or care for dependent relatives). To this end, it collaborates closely with the University’s Family Office. One concrete measure developed by the Faculty of Business Administration is the BWLternzeitmodell, the Faculty’s own parental leave model discussed at length in the subtopics listed below.

The BWLternzeitmodell aims to improve the balance between family life and academic work in the Faculty while ensuring planning security for positions attached to a professorship. Many research associates decide to start a family during their doctoral research, and are entitled to statutory maternal and/or parental leave.

Faculties already have the option of hiring temporary replacements for research associates on leave, but factors such as the long training periods required in teaching and research can lead to increased organizational demand at institutional level. Due to the relatively short contracts involved, maternity/parental replacement positions are not particularly attractive, and applicants are largely unlikely to hold a doctorate. This can have a negative influence on the quality of potential replacements. The BWLternzeitmodell aims to strike a balance between individual and institutional needs.

Upon application and within specific criteria, each professorship can establish one position in the faculty-level parental leave pool for one research associate, as defined in Section 28 subsections 1 and 2 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG). The working time share of the new position must correspond to that of the replaced member of staff. The research associates remain in that pool until a suitable fixed-term research position funded out of the University’s budget (known as a “Landesmittelstelle”) becomes available. Transfer to the parental leave pool only affects the HR administration of the position; research associates continue to report to the relevant professorship. This transfer to the faculty level also frees up capacity for the professorship and allows it to offer a replacement position with the same part-positions and a contract duration that complies with the Code of Conduct. It prevents staff shortages within the professorship and even improves the overall situation: when the parent returns from leave, the contract of their replacement is usually still in force (cf. diagram).

The Equal Opportunity Database provides a structured overview of all measures and programs offered by Universität Hamburg in the fields of gender equality, diversity, and work–life balance. The Database is expanded continuously.