Gender and Diversity

THI welcomes men and women of all persuasions, regardless of their social background and origin, whether disabled or not and whether they have children or not, and as an institution it is committed to ensuring equal treatment for them all.

The first Gender Equality Plan was developed in 2009 at THI and includes the goals and measures to increase the number of women in Science and Education as well as the number of female students in MINT-studies. Since 2009 THI was successfully assessed by the BMBF to get founding for the German Women Professor Programme. Since then the number of female professors could be increased even in technical faculties. The latest Gender Equality Plan and Gender Equality Concept (GEP, Eng. translation, pdf) was issued in 2023.
In June 2010 THI was awarded the distinction of “family-friendly university” by Kristina Schröder, who was Minister of Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth at the time. Since then the university has pursued the goal of providing highly effective support for employees and students in reconciling work or study with a family. The aim is to create family-friendly working conditions for university employees and family-friendly study conditions for students.
In addition to numerous established measures that make it easier to cope with the demands of combining a family with a job or a degree course, the university also offers an advisory service for all its members. The personal life and work situations of families are becoming increasingly diverse and it is no longer sufficient to think in terms of preconceived patterns. Instead, personal interviews are taken as a basis for individual support.
Students are involved in social projects to help refugees and children in care, while the student association N.I.C.E. founded in 2015 provides support for the increasing numbers of international students, helping them with bureaucracy and day-to-day problems in Germany. In 2015 THI also started appointing professors as integration representatives and as representatives for people with disabilities.
See the following pages for an overview of THI advisory and support services on the issue of combining a job or university study with a family.