About Us
UA Ruhr initiates a wealth of collaborations among universities in the fields of research, academia and administration with the aim of cultivating, promoting and strengthening the economic region Ruhr. Its bottom-up approach has proved successful, as the UA Ruhr has emerged and grown organically following concrete projects performed in individual disciplines and faculties.
This is why the UA Ruhr has succeeded in recruiting an increasing number of institutions at its universities for its collaborative endeavor and in promoting the idea of the University Alliance among its members. An inter-university culture of collaboration linked together by complex structural ties has thus emerged.
Since our foundation in 2007, the UA Ruhr cultivated and exploited the interdisciplinary advantages of its geographical vicinity to the large universities of the Ruhr Area and their academic diversity and to expand the alliance in an ongoing process. Its strategic goal is still to establish UA Ruhr as a center of excellence in the national and international scientific marketplace.
Our shared vision is to foster research and scholarship within our network of academic excellence and to promote the transformation of the entire Ruhr Area into one of the leading science, research and cultural locations worldwide. To this end, a new framework cooperation agreement was approved by the Coordination Board of the UA Ruhr in March 2017.
Governance
The Coordination Board controls the strategic orientation and further development of the UA Ruhr. Its members are the rectors and chancellors of the partner universities, who regularly discuss the general conditions, fields of cooperation and future projects.
The Coordination Board is supported by the central office of the UA Ruhr. It accompanies, coordinates and initiates new cooperation projects, acts as the first point of contact for internal and external interested parties and is responsible for the external representation of the University Alliance Ruhr.
Successful equal opportunity policy
The universities affiliated under UA Ruhr provide best opportunities to academics for individual career development. For the successful implementation of equal opportunities strategies, the UA Ruhr universities have been repeatedly awarded in the context of the DFG’s Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality and the Women Professor Program implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Visible proof of a successful equal opportunities policy is the percentage of women academics in all areas of research and teaching, which has been on an upward trajectory at UA Ruhr over the last ten years and has risen to approx. 38%, as well as the percentage of women professors, which has seen the same dynamic growth and currently amounts to approx. 25%.
Equal opportunities at UA Ruhr cover a broad spectrum, apply to all stages of the academic career, and are protected by reliable structures. Together, the UA Ruhr universities have broken new ground: with its mentoring³ program module that has been running for over a decade, the Research Academy Ruhr has become the first personnel development program for women researchers in Germany’s academic landscape under joint responsibility; it is now complemented by the Dual Career Network Ruhr.
Daycare centers, short-term and holiday care, as well as parent service offices support families no matter what their circumstances. Gender Studies established at UA Ruhr offer a broad academic foundation for nurturing equal opportunities and reflecting over social structures and processes with regard to gender aspects.
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