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Diversity and equality of opportunity at the University of Cologne

The University of Cologne is proactively committed to diversity, diversity of perspectives and equal opportunities and has anchored this in its "Equal Opportunities" strategy and in its mission statement "Diversity and Equal Opportunities". Strategies, concepts, structures and measures for administration, research and teaching have been implemented to increase diversity, sensitize to (in)equality of opportunity and reduce discrimination.


In 2018, the University of Cologne received the Total E-Quality Award for outstanding gender equality work for the fourth time, and the gender equality future concept 2019-2024 was positively assessed within the framework of the Women Professors Programme III. Within the framework of target and performance agreements with the faculties, equality goals are specified in concrete terms and their implementation is financially rewarded.

In addition, the University of Cologne has established a large number of structures and measures in the fields of inclusion, educational justice and anti-discrimination, which have been linked and strategically bound together by the overarching strategy development process within the framework of the Diversity Audit "Shaping Diversity" (2017/2018).

The University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen University, TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, the German Aerospace Center e.V., the FH Aachen – University of Applied Sciences and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn underscore their close partnership through joint guidelines in the field of equal opportunities.

Further institutions as well as measures and services in the field of diversity and equal opportunities can be found on our Gender Equality & Diversity Portal at: https://vielfalt.uni-koeln.de.

Central strategic goals and selected measures