The Integration Team supports the development of measures which take interdisciplinary learning and curricula as well as projects and professional related studies into account. Behavioural differences in attitudes of studying between women and men will be considered as well as differences between single departments in order to enhance the proportion of women and people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds.

Perspectively it is planned to screen the faculties in order to identify already existing best practice and thus if applicable implement certain measures at other departments. The screening serves as basis for the modification of curricula regarding Gender and Diversity as well as for the development of corresponding modules.

The Integration Team cooperates with the central administration for the evaluation of studies and teaching regarding the evaluation of study and teaching. The Integration Team was a member of the subcommittee “evaluation of student courses” and contributed to the acknowledgement of gender and diversity aspects in the evaluation survey of student courses (Further information on the websites of the evaluation of student courses at RWTH Aachen University (in German)).

The RWTH Aachen offers scholarships for didactical PhD topics in natural science. These scholarships are supposed to initiate the cooperation between the different didactical centres of various scientific departments in order to develop qualification modules for teachers. The idea behind this project is to improve the transfer between science and school and in the long run to attract and retain more female and male students for scientific subjects, such as Mathematics, Engineering or Computer Science.

The main objective of the phd-fellowship programme in the didactical field of natural sciences is to increase the percentage of women with PhD degrees in the respective fields. The first call in which five scholarships were tendered showed already a positive signal. Four successful female junior scientists - two mathematicians, one biologist, one chemist and one computer scientist - were awarded the prestigious scholarships.

The expertise of the head of IGaD Carmen Leicht-Scholten was requested for the integration of gender and diversity aspects into the “Future Concept Teaching” which was initiated by the vice-rector for teachings. The concept was successfully presented at the competition “excellence in teachings” by the Stifterverband for the German Science System. You can find further information in the official press release by RWTH Aachen University (in German).