Leadership and University Culture
The University of Freiburg is committed to the constant development of its leadership and university culture. In doing so, we focus on shared values, clear guidelines and open dialogue. We strengthen a positive and supportive culture at the University of Freiburg through targeted skills development and active participation in our processes.
Development of leadership guidelines for the whole university
The issue of leadership and support affects every member of the University. With the assistance of an external process consultation, the University of Freiburg has been working on leadership guidelines for the whole university from June 2024 to June 2025. These guidelines provide orientation and transparency along with a sense of commitment, and form the framework for successful leadership and supervision at the university. Finally, transfer measures should ensure that the guidelines have a lasting impact on university management behaviour.
To this end, the Senate has established a work group that will develop these guidelines under the joint responsibility of the Head of Administration and the Vice Rector for University Culture. This group includes staff from administration, university services and technical services as well as students, doctoral candidates, postdocs, professors and deans. The staff committee, Equal Opportunities Officer and Equal Opportunity Representative also make up the work group.
Our university’s leadership guidelines have been formulated and approved.
Further information and comments on the release of our leadership guidelines can be found here:
Our nine leadership principles in their entirety can be found here:
A special thank you goes out to all 120 participants of the university-wide event “Zukunft gestalten: Unsere Führungsleitlinien im Dialog”. In an open and constructive exchange, members of the university from academia, administration, service, and technical departments came together to discuss the current state of the leadership principles and to reflect on how they can be sustainably embedded in our daily work.
During the event, a graphical recording (see right) was created, visually capturing key thoughts and discussions. It highlights central themes and brings the diversity of perspectives into focus—at a glance.
Contact:
Cultural change | Dialogue & exchange
What are good working conditions at the University of Freiburg? What is everyday working life like for researchers? What challenges do they face and what changes would they like to see?
We probe these questions using exchanges, target group-specific networking opportunities and regular surveys, because we believe dialogue and connection within the academic community is important. We actively contribute the results of our efforts to university bodies and the university’s structural and development plans.
A selection of our activities:
- Dialogue #IchBinHanna – work conditions and career paths at the University of Freiburg (2021)
- Postdoc-Appreciation Day (2023)
- Cultural change workshop: Helping to shape the university of the future (2024)
- Postdoc survey (2024)
Leadership skills for researchers
The Centre for Advanced Researcher Development (CARD) supports budding and established academic management in the individual development of their leadership, support and management skills. The everyday demands of leadership differ depending on position and responsibilities. So we develop services specifically tailored to post-doctoral researchers, newly-appointed and established professors, deans and executive board (Rectorate) members.