audit family-friendly university
In 2005, Paderborn University was the first university in North Rhine-Westphalia to be awarded the basic certificate for the audit family-friendly university. In 2008, the re-audit was carried out to confirm the certificate and to further optimise it as a family-friendly university. In the following years, Paderborn University was successfully re-audited again and new target agreements were made to optimise the family-friendliness of the university.
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20 years of "audit family-friendly university": Paderborn University receives compatibility certificate with distinction
Press release from 24.06.2025
Paderborn University was honoured for its family-friendly working and study conditions at a ceremony at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs in Berlin as part of the 27th berufundfamilie Service GmbH certificate award ceremony. It has been honoured for this with the "audit family-friendly university" since 2005 - and was the first university in North Rhine-Westphalia to do so. In recognition of its long-standing commitment to work-life balance, the certificate has now been confirmed with distinction.
"The award is an important signal for all employees and students at our university who take on care responsibilities. We want to offer them an appreciative environment that takes into account different life situations and offers individual support," says Dr Annika Hegemann, Central Equal Opportunities Officer at Paderborn University, and emphasises: "The fact that we have been consistently certified as a family-friendly university for 20 years now shows how consistently we have anchored the topic of compatibility in our university culture."
Due to its continuous certification as a family-friendly university, Paderborn University is currently in the so-called dialogue process. The aim is to maintain the high level of development of family-friendly working and study conditions and to exploit the potential for optimisation in individual selected fields. "We are continuously developing our measures in a targeted manner and anchoring them structurally. In the future, we will increasingly address topics such as caring for family members and raising awareness of care work as a leadership skill," explains Hegemann.
Both students and employees can benefit from the measures to promote work-life balance. Over the past two decades, for example, a comprehensive counselling and service offering for (expectant) parents and family carers has been established. This means that students and employees have access to a wide range of support and relief services in the field of childcare. With the renewed re-certification, the previous measures and instruments are to be consolidated, adapted to requirements and further developed. The action programme for the next three years will focus on strengthening a family-friendly management culture, promoting partnership-based care responsibilities and providing tailored support for students who are carers.
About the "audit family-friendly university" programme
Applicable in all sectors and different company sizes, the audit records the status quo of the family and life-phase-conscious measures already offered, develops the individual potential of the respective organisations and ensures that family awareness is anchored in the organisational culture. Once this process has been successfully completed, an independent board of trustees made up of representatives from business, science, politics and associations awards the audit certificate. A total of 921 organisations are currently certified according to the "audit berufundfamilie" or "audit family-friendly university", including 372 companies, 446 institutions and 103 universities. Around two million employees and more than 1.3 million students can benefit from this.
