Protection against discrimination

The University of Göttingen is as committed to the social responsibility of science as it is to the realisation of equality. It wants to support all members and affiliates in being able to study, teach, work and research successfully - regardless of their backgrounds of experience and life situations.

Almost 15 years ago, the University set out to implement and continuously develop a comprehensive diversity policy. Diversity orientation is anchored as a cross-sectional task in profile building and university development. With its Diversity Strategy (2016), it has programmatically underpinned this path. A core element of the diversity strategy and policy is the link between the creation of equal opportunities and protection against discrimination.

In recent years, anti-discrimination projects and measures have been implemented at the University (prevention, intervention). However, these activities were strongly focused on the area of studies and the target group of students and were not yet united under one conceptual umbrella.

With this anti-discrimination concept (pdf) the University is now taking the next step: it is taking a closer look at members and members of other status groups, focusing attention on possible synergy effects and identifying existing protection gaps. The concept builds on previous activities, values and bundles them and systematically develops them further. The goal is to implement protection against discrimination in a comprehensive, transparent and practical manner.

The anti-discrimination concept promotes the implementation of the Diversity Strategy: it systematises its substantive strand "protection against discrimination" (by naming fields of action) and establishes the link with practical implementation (by proposing measures).

The anti-discrimination concept is the result of broad internal agreement on content and processes. Since October 2022, it has been coordinated with relevant actors and committees of the University and adopted by the Senate (statement) and the Presidential Board (resolution) on 12.07.2023 and 19.07.2023 respectively. The concept forms the basis for developing a plan with clearly defined measures in the next step. The first new measures in the six fields of action are already being implemented in a prioritised manner.

Chapter 1 outlines the initial situation, which is followed by the concept of protection against discrimination: This includes definitions of terms and the legal framework for protection against discrimination as well as existing voluntary commitments of the University, the data situation on diversity and discrimination as well as a classification of protection against discrimination in the University's equal opportunities and diversity policy. Chapter 2 identifies goals and describes fields of action that the University would like to work on. It takes a cursory look at the respective status quo, identifies needs for action and lists examples of suggestions for measures to address these needs.