In 2021 the Diversity Council proposed a recommendation for participation in the Diversity Audit “Vielfalt Gestalten”, organized by the “Stifterverband”, a founding association for German science.
The University of Klagenfurt was the first Austrian higher education institution to complete this Diversity Audit in 2024.1
The auditing process combines elements of organizational development with collegial advice, supported by external auditor Prof. Dr. Andrea Bührmann (director of the Institute for Diversity Research at the Georg-August-University Göttingen). The audit will support the University of Klagenfurt in the process of creating a strategic diversity management.
The resulting measures are intended to adequately reflect the diversity of students, teachers and the staff at the university. Barriers for disadvantaged groups are to be systematically dismantled, in order to foster a sustainable, appreciative and inclusive university culture. The audit’s aim lies in structuring existing measures, conceptualizing improvement measures and implementing new measures sustainably.
The diversity strategy was divided into four fields of action:
- Strategy and structure
- Studying and teaching
- Communication, participation and information technologies (IT)
- Human resource management
To include a variety of different perspectives in the two-year auditing process, participation of students and employees was regarded as crucial. Therefore, a central concern of the audit has been to include all university members in the process and give them the opportunity to help shape the diversity management at the University of Klagenfurt.
