The Code of Conduct for Teaching and Learning
All staff members of the School of Business and Economics are committed to high standards of professional conduct in their dealings with students and in their responsibilities towards them.
The professors and other teaching staff welcome personal contact with their students
The professors will ensure that they themselves and the teaching staff are accessible to discuss relevant study issues and problems with their students, responding to these issues and problems by the appropriate means and within an appropriate timeframe. Means of accessibility are, for instance, consultation hours, direct email contact, supervised teaching-related forums and an 'open door' approach. Should students consider the accessibility of any professor or teaching staff member to be lacking, they are encouraged to consult the Ombudsperson of the School.
The following principles are standards of conduct:
Professors and teaching staff and staff of the Service Center will hold consultation hours at regular intervals. During the lecture period, professors and teaching staff will hold at least one consultation hour a week. Students are encouraged to take advantage of this facility. Should the times of the consultation hours collide with other study obligations, professors and teaching staff will propose an alternative appointment within the following 7 days.
In order to avoid unnecessary waiting times, and to enable questions to be channelled in advance, students are expected to make appointments for a professor’s consultation hours. In the case of other teaching staff, it is also sensible to make an appointment, but there is no obligation to do so. During the lecture-free period, professors and/or their teaching staff hold consultation hours at regular intervals (normally, a total of at least 6 consultation hours).
Professors will usually respond personally to email queries within two working days, or will authorize staff members to respond on their behalf.
Before students contact a member of staff personally, they should ascertain whether their query is already answered on a Chair’s website or on the “Campus” system.
Professors and their teaching staff will aim for a high-level of quality in their teaching activities
All professors and teaching staff will continuously strive to enhance their own teaching skills. Teaching staff make active use of the “team teaching” approach in their teaching activities.
All newly appointed teaching staff attend RWTH Aachen University’s programme Fit für die Lehre (Shaping Up Your Teaching Skills) or similar continuous education seminars. Professors or experienced staff members are also at hand to provide support to new teaching staff members when the latter hold their first seminars or first consultation hours.
Teaching staff desire serious feedback on the quality of their teaching
In each semester, teaching staff members implement evaluations of the individual courses and modules. At regular intervals, external satisfaction studies are also conducted at School level. Professors are committed to discussing the findings of the evaluations with the students and – in particular – to continuously enhancing such findings.
The School of Business and Economics aims to attract and retain those students who can identify with RWTH Aachen University’s high-performance culture
The School requires from students that they display moral integrity, initiative, and responsible behavior, and that they become actively involved in the University community. Students should also have the ability and the willingness to study and learn in an inquisitive and explorative manner. Students, are, in this context, required to undertake both preparatory and follow-up work with regard to all activities within the respective study programs.