Projects, initiatives & services

A range of projects, initiatives and services at the University of Vienna are dedicated to the issue of diversity and are tailored to the needs of various target groups.

Applications open

Diversity Competence for Non-Academic Staff - Workshop Series

The daily routine at a university mirrors the diversity of people as well as their thinking or the motivations for their actions. This provides many opportunities at the University of Vienna to learn new things and have enriching experiences. At the same time it may lead to irritations and misunderstandings.

The workshop series takes actual experiences of the employees as its departure point and connects those with knowledge on the topic of diversity based in theory and practice. Diversity is understood as the experience of similarities and differences in the university as a working environment. Building from that the participants should be empowered to develop strategies on how to deal with challenging situations in their daily work more consciously and more competently.

The next workshop series will take place in summer semester 2024. Applications open until February 11, 2024. More information on the topics, dates and application of the current workshop series can be found in the programme folder (German).

In addition to the workshop series Diversity Competence (held in German), you can find many different and shorter seminars on the topic in the category "Lived Diversity" in the course database every semester (some of them held in English). 

Registration closed

Successfully planning anti-racist events

The Culture and Equality unit invites you to take part in the online course "Successfully planning anit-racist events" by Noah Sow. Noah Sow's book „Deutschland Schwarz Weiß: Der alltägliche Rassimus“ ("Germany Black and White: Everyday Racism") has become a standard work for learning and talking about structural racism in Germany.
In video lectures you'll learn how you can plan and organize an anti-racist event. The lectures lead you step by step through all important phases of event planning and give many examples and hints from Sow's experience of many years. In addition, you will receive work sheets, memos, checklists, e-mail templates and much more.

The course plan allows both experienced and inexperienced participants to profit from the lectures. Here is an overview over all sessions. The course is only available in German.

You have 12 months to complete the course at your own speed. There is also an optional inner-university exchange group.

Target audience

The course is for all academic and non-academic employees at the university who conceptualize and plan events, including but not limited to trainings, lectures and seminars, as well as multipliers of the course content.

Inner-University Exchange Group

In the course of the year, three meetings fo the exchange group with other participants from the University of Vienna in the online course will take place. The participation in these meetings is optional. The group is supposed to be a space for reflection of the questions from the course and for networking. The group is moderated by the Culture and Equality unit. If there is enough interest, an exclusive group for BIPoC employees/employees targeted by racism can be organised.

Dates:
Monday, November 28, 2022 (10-12am)
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 (2-4pm)
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 (10-12am)

Raising awareness for diversity

The University of Vienna provides a range of offers to help its staff members broaden their knowledge of diversity:

  • Gender and diversity (course database, organised by the Human Resources Development unit; courses in German&English)
  • Workshop series Diversity competence for Administrative Staff (organised by the Culture and Equality unit, see above; in German)

A series of information services and workshops for lecturers are available to help them make their courses accessible and diversity sensitive:

Advice for older students

Parenthood, parental leave & childcare

The website "Reconciling work & family life" (Human Resources and Gender Equality unit) provides a compact overview of this subject.

The Children’s office of the University of Vienna offers a range of childcare services:

The following two offers are available to female staff members returning to work from maternity leave:

First generation students

In general, students who are the first in their family to study are often less familiar with German as an academic language and with the structure of a degree programme. The Center for Teaching and Learning offers the following services to this group of students:

The Faculty of Computer Science offers a mentoring programme that is supposed to help students ease into their degree programme:

Gender equality

The Gender Equality and Diversity unit provides the majority of the offers in the field of gender equality. Gender analyses and general information can be found under the section Gender monitoring.

The Sexual Harassment and Bullying Counselling Office is open to all members of the University.

The Gender Equality and Diversity unit’s measures focusing on career advancement are tailored to the needs of female academics.

The following guided tour gives an overview of the history of women’s enrolment at the University of Vienna:

Information for prospective students

The Faculty of Physics – along with other institutions of the University of Vienna – has been involved in initiatives in the field of "Girls and Technology" for years.

Other information and introductory offers are open to all young people:

  • UniClub (Children's Office of the University of Vienna)(in German)
  • School meets Uni (open days for prospective & first-year students (Teaching Affairs and Student Services)

Anti-Racism

One of the first points of call for student counselling is the ÖH:

(Educational )Resources on Anti-Racism, especially in an academic context:

Sexual orientation

The Rainbow tour focuses on the history of homosexuality at the University of Vienna:

Language acquisition for students with migration background

Various offers aim to help students with a native language other than German with their language learning:

The writing mentoring offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning is available to all students and focuses, among other things, on the use of German as an academic language.

Students with disabilities

The initial contact point for students with disabilities is the "Team Barrierefrei" (Team for accessible studying) of the Teaching Affairs and Student Services unit:

The following service is available to blind and visually impaired students: