Staff development

Symbolic picture: Hands coming together in a huddle

For the University of Passau, staff development has strategic importance.

On the one hand, the Staff Development Section was created in March 2018. Its primary responsibility is to support managers and develop academic support staff at the University of Passau.

On the other hand, early career researchers also figure as a key element in the University of Passau's staff development concept: in its bid to deliver on the objective of providing early career researchers with first-rate support, the Graduate Centre continues to improve support and funding formats in collaboration with the faculties and institutions.

The University of Passau has also been a member of UniNetzPE, a nationwide network for HR development at universities, since June 2018. On the strength of its Code of Good Staff Development, the network sets quality standards to further the systematic professionalisation and implementation of staff development at universities.

Network integration of the University of Passau's staff development activities

The staff development network was set up on 1 February 2020 and is the central institutional hub for university-wide staff development. It makes the University's staff development structures and the measures visible. The main objectives are to build a common understanding among the different target groups of what constitutes staff development and about staff development needs and to develop coherent measures for all University of Passau members.

Task force

The staff development network consists of a task force and will be expanded to include further advisory members in the medium run. The current members of the task force are:

Division I – University Governance Support (will provide direction for the staff development network)
Section I/1 – Staff Development
Division VI – Centre for Careers and Competencies
Lehre+ higher education teaching training
Division VIII – Human Resources
Graduate Centre
Gender Equality Officer

Staff development activities

2017: development of a staff development concept in connection with the implementation of the tenure-track career pathway
2018: creation of the Staff Development Section
2018: implementation of a survey among all doctoral students
2018: admission of the University of Passau to UniNetzPE
2019: first internal training programme organised by the Staff Development Section
2019: launch of a cross-divisional exchange for staff development purposes
2020: creation of the staff development network and start of cooperation