Renewed Award for Fair and Transparent Appointment Negotiations
RWTH Aachen will continue to wear the seal of approval from the German Association of Universiy Professors and Lecturers, DHV for short, for fair and transparent appointment negotiations. In August 2013, it was the first university to be awarded with the DHV seal of approval. After three years it has become the first university to successfully complete the re-audit process.
Appointment negotiations at RWTH Aachen continue to demonstrate competence, appreciation, and promptness, according to the DHV. A clear indicator of the successful appointment politics at RWTH is the high success rate of appointments. In 88 percent of cases, the first-choice candidate was appointed and 67 percent of re-negotiations were successful. In comparison to the original seal of approval process, the process transparency and information politics connected to the appointment negotiations have improved further. The creation of the Divison of Appointment Management and Civil Servants within the Department of Human Resources in February 2015 has further professionalized the coordination and accompaniment of the appointment processes at RWTH. The excellent support services for newly appointed professors have also been expanded. These include an online Welcome Center for newly appointed professors.
The DHV sees a few select areas for improvement. The DHV renewed its plea for regular appointment negotiations for junior professors.
"The DHV seal of approval has proven itself as an instrument to increase the appointment culture at universities. It supported the change processes at RWTH Aachen, which must continue to be updated," explained the chancellor of RWTH Aachen, Manfred Nettekoven.
The re-audit process is based on the original seal of approval process, composed of a weighted questionnaire with 42 questions and additional, special re-audit questions, which the DHV developed based on its consulting experience in appointment processes. The focus of the evaluation is on fairness, appreciation, transparency, and reliability in the appointment and re-negotiation processes. The evaluated universities' responses were also included in the evaluation. This included interviews with appointed professors at the respective universities about their experiences during the appointment process and the practical knowledge of the DHV legal advisors.
Source: Press and Communications