Diversity Survey 2024

Each and every perspective matters! People have different needs depending on their age, origin, family situation (and so on). We want to do justice to these diverse circumstances and promote mutual appreciation for individual life situations. By doing so, we fill a cosmopolitan and diverse university with life and fulfil our responsibility as a public place of encounter and knowledge.

Your participation helps us to do better. It shows us who you are and which services are needed when and by whom. Your perception of the diversity-related learning and working environment and the awareness of our programmes provide the university with a meaningful basis for further strategic measures. So that you receive the excellence you deserve: the best university we can be for you.

The development of a diverse, open-minded university and the development of suitable measures requires knowledge of the composition of our university members. HHN has a long-standing and conclusive monitoring of gender equality metrics. However, it is often only possible to ascertain indirectly or at great expense in which areas there is a particular need for action or where the effects of measures can be recognised. These gaps are to be closed by the survey.

Therefore, the survey is aimed at all members of Heilbronn University: students, teaching staff and employees. By addressing all of these groups, the following objectives are pursued:

• Creating a database for further strategy development: To facilitate more

data-supported strategy development and identify areas of action for further development of diversity work, quantitative and qualitative data will be compiled to provide the basis for a well-founded analysis of the current situation.

• Strengthening our understanding of diversity and disseminating it: 

With the aim of deepening the understanding of diversity within our organisation and increasing university-wide commitment, diversity characteristics of our members are recorded and presented transparently. Furthermore, the survey aims to encourage self-reflection among participants by raising awareness of their own diversity dimensions. As such, the survey also provides an opportunity to strengthen cross-divisional diversity communication and position diversity work even more strongly as a cross-sectional task.

• Making HHN's strengths and potentials visible:

The collection of data should not only make underrepresentation and vulnerable groups visible, but also focus on the unique strengths of HHN, which can be used as a basis for future diversity measures. As it stands, HHN already offers a very heterogeneous environment – especially among students – whose potential is not yet sufficiently recognised. For this reason, the already largely positive diversity beliefs should be further strengthened in order to breathe even more life into the concept of diversity.

The Department for Equality and Diversity is responsible for developing ideas and concepts. The department worked closely with stakeholders from the various university groups, the university management and the data protection office.

The market research institute at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is responsible for the technical implementation and evaluation of the collected data, and its proposal was selected through a public tendering process in autumn 2023.

The project is financially supported as part of the “Initiative Vielfalt” funding line of the German Rectors' Conference. Further information on the funding line can be found in the links below.

The survey is accessible via a personalised participation link. This link will be sent to all members of the university on 09.01.2024 by serial mail. Please check your mailbox carefully. Participation is only possible once.

The survey is expected to run until 31.01.2024. The duration will be decided again at the end of January, depending on the number of participants.

The project was planned in close consultation with Heilbronn University's data protection officer. Data protection is observed throughout the entire process of data collection and analysis. The survey is conducted using the GDPR-certified Qualtrics tool and the data is stored on a German server. It is not possible or desirable to draw conclusions about individuals based on the information provided. Analyses that allow conclusions to be drawn about individuals are not carried out.

Students can win canteen vouchers for the locations in Heilbronn and Künzelsau as well as city vouchers for Heilbonn and Schwäbisch Hall. The total value amounts to 500 Euros.

Participation in the raffle is reserved exclusively for students who have completed the survey. They can enter their e-mail address in a separate window at the end of the survey. The market research institute commissioned by the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt will draw the winners as a neutral body. Contact and delivery of the prizes will be handled jointly with the Department for Equality and Diversity.

The data collected is analysed by the commissioned market research institute with a view to the above objectives. The results are then published in a suitable form both within the university and externally and used for strategic development.

The collection and interpretation of the collected data requires a high degree of sensitivity and methodological reflection. For this reason, it is not yet possible to predict when the internal analysis will be available.