Academic Personnel Development at the University of Freiburg
Successful academic personnel development calls for more than just individual support and skills development – it is based on an approach that incorporates and considers structural, cultural and individual advancement in equal measure. So, Academic Personnel Development at the University of Freiburg is working hard to offer researchers optimal work conditions and attractive career prospects as well as to promote a university culture that is fair to all and alert to discrimination.
Our strategy: structural, cultural and individual development
Academic personnel development is given high priority at the University of Freiburg – based on the university’s overall strategic objectives, the needs of various target groups and against the backdrop of developments and debates in higher education policy. To achieve this, we focus on the structural improvement of academic career paths and a culture that promotes good leadership, support and working conditions for all researchers. Developing the individual skills of our researchers is a central component of our wide-ranging offering, helping them to identify their own potential and strengths, reflect on their career goals and make decisions for themselves about their own development.
You can read more about our projects and activities below.
Academic career paths: designing academic personnel structures
Attractive and future-oriented career paths are crucial for attracting talented academics to the University of Freiburg in the long term and promoting their potential in the best possible way. We attach particular importance to diversity and creating an environment that offers all researchers a wide range of development opportunities.
For the University of Freiburg, the tenure track professorship is a strategic instrument for shaping career paths responsibly, raising the profile of faculties and departments and increasing our competitive ability to attract national and international talent. We strive constantly to develop the tenure track professorship, and offer junior and tenure track professors targeted support through our Tenure Track Office.
The University of Freiburg is committed to developing attractive career paths in addition to professorships and specifically works on the structural improvement of career paths in order to ensure high-quality recruitment and good working conditions.
Forward-looking personnel structure planning ensures and increases the quality of teaching, research, transfer and science communication. It enables better supervision and support for students, doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers, creates continuity in work and team processes and preserves valuable experience and expertise.
As co-founder and coordinator we are active in the nationwide tenure track network in UniWiND e.V.together with the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and involved in higher education policy at European level with ‘Careers of Researchers and HR’ in the League of European Research Universities (LERU).
University culture: promoting good leadership, support and working conditions
Based on the university’s mission statement, we promote the improvement of our leadership and support culture at the University of Freiburg with various projects and services, thereby contributing to an institutional cultural change, as we believe that everyone who works, researches, teaches and learns here should be able to rely on high-quality leadership and support, good working conditions and collegiality.
Together with Personnel Development for Administration, Services and Technical, we coordinate the university-wide process of developing leadership guidelines at the University of Freiburg, with the aim of providing orientation, transparency and reliability in university management activities.
We design and organise target group-specific offers and individual leadership coaching to further develop leadership, supervision and management skills for all academic managers from postdoc level up to and including university and faculty management.
Respectful cooperation thrives on a variety of exchange formats and shared discussions about our university culture. We regularly organise workshops and networking events in order to actively shape and promote the further development of our culture at the University of Freiburg.
The University of Freiburg aims to survey all post-doctoral researchers regularly about their work and career conditions. This survey will be conducted for the first time in 2024, and, together with GraCe, we are working to record and improve the working conditions for post-doctoral researchers at the University of Freiburg.
Centre for Advanced Researcher Development: developing individual skills
The Centre for Advanced Researcher Development (CARD)offers target group-specific services for all academic career phases after the doctorate in preparation for activities within and outside academia. We develop leadership, mentoring and transformation skills for a future-oriented and innovative university. Our services are in line with the European Framework for Research Careers and are routinely quality-assured and developed.