Mission Statement Diversity

Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences is leading the way in Germany in terms of its proportion of international students and staff. More than half of its students originate from another country, representing over 120 different nations. Indeed, many members of our committees and executive bodies reflect this same diversity, and their members take every opportunity to work bilingually, in both German and English. As a university, we welcome bilingualism in daily interactions and recognise this as a prerequisite for the successful communication and participation of all of our members. 

Our students and staff are extremely diverse in terms of their international backgrounds, social aspects and other characteristics, such as cultural or ethnic origin, religion and worldview, gender, academic culture, migration background, family responsibilities, (dis)abilities, age, interests and skills. These are all essential to our teaching and research approaches and decisive to both producing confident young graduates and operating successfully as a university. Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences is home to an international and inclusive community in which open dialogues across cultures, genders, views and values occur daily in all faculties and departments.

Diversity on campus goes far beyond translation between languages, though. Rather, it involves mediating between different expectations, whether owing to different countries of origin, academic experiences, socioeconomic status, disciplines or status groups. It thus presents a central challenge, unique feature and opportunity for our teaching, research and administrative activities. To enable the full participation and inclusion of all of our members, we continuously develop mechanisms to cater tothese many different backgrounds and perspectives, reflect on and adapt our requirements accordingly, recognise potential difficulties and exclusion, and resolve issues as they arise. To achieve this, we voluntarily commit to various audits as well as plan and organise events such as the Days of Antidiscrimination, action days like IDAHOBIT, quality dialogues, etc. The offices directly responsible for facilitating greater participation (anti-discrimination, equal opportunity, representative for persons with disabilities or a chronic illness, etc.) are empowered in their work through tight integration into the University’s management structures and expanded as necessary.

Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences consciously intervenes at all levels to address inequalities (such as the gender pay gap, unequal educational opportunities and abuses of power) and exclusion (whether due to racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism, sexual or gender identity, etc.). This also includes ensuring that both campuses are accessible and inclusive in terms of mobility, dedicated spaces for learning and safe spaces, but also with regard to gender identities, health, care responsibilities, etc. This is accomplished not only through structural measures and compensation for disadvantages during examinations, for example, but also through allowing individual freedom in teaching and research and stimulating mutually respectful interactions between all university members with the goal of acknowledging our individual needs. Reflecting on power structures and (potentially) violent encounters, as well as developing appropriate mechanisms in response to these, are integral to our self-perception as corrective instruments for encouraging participation. Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences actively opposes any form of discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, gender, religion or worldview, disability, age or sexual identity. It cooperates with external actors at the local, regional, state and federal levels as well as internationally to combat these.

A keen awareness of the value of diversity for all of our members and proactive processes that hasten the inclusion and integration of newcomers in (non-)academic areas are core elements of our work and mission. Teaching, research and campus life serve to promotedemocracy, freedom, equality, co-determination and participation and these in turn enable the vibrant diversity of all contributors to flourish. The diversity that prevails here allows us to accommodate the needs of all interest groups, respects and supports the individual diversity of university members, and empowers them all to successfully achieve their personal goals in a supportive and encouraging environment