Multiply Diversity! Multiplicators in the focus of lived diversity

The diversity strategy of the University of Vienna “Diversity in Action: the 3-Pillars-Model of Interaction of the University of Vienna” enables us to implement measures for all university members in their different roles and positions as students, teachers, juniors, leaders, researchers and employees. Keeping in mind that people who study and work at the University of Vienna fill different positions, functions and roles in the organisational whole in the course of their lives, the University of Vienna focuses on multiplicators for its diversity-related activities.

Multiplicators transcend professional and hierachical status border within the university’s organisational structures. They contribute to the social transfer of knowledge and competencies. Additionally, multiplicators have an effect outside of university and societal responsibility in terms of the Third Mission that the University of Vienna fulfills through them.

With the Diversitas Award 2022, the Ministry for Education, Science and Research distinguishes the initiative “Multiply Diversity!” Every two years, the award is given to institutions of higher education for extra-ordinary projects in diversity management. “Multiply Diversity!” includes 15 decentral projects that contributed significantly to bringing the overall diversity strategy of the University of Vienna to life. The projects show how diversity is actually lived and facilitated by different people in different contexts and in different ways at the University.

The further education and advancement of mulitplicators takes effect in the central fields of interaction that the University of Vienna defined in its diversity strategy: teachers/students, juniors/leaders and theory/practice. The projects are embedded within the strategy. This means that the structure and dissemination of diversity consciousness and knowledge within the organisational whole is oriented at those fields of interaction. This also shows how the University of Vienna enlivens its strategy continuously, among other things through the structural embedding of the mulitplicators’ activities.

Five of the 15 projects were emphasised in particular. Those projects include multiplicators in special ways. Those projects are:

• Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies: Policy Gender Justice
• Faculty of Life Sciences: Network for female scientists Women in Biology
• Faculty of Law / Faculty of Social Sciences: Research platform GAIN – Gender: Ambivalent In_Visibilities
• Center for Teaching and Learning: Offers of scientific writing and peer learning for students, incl. qualification of student multiplicators
• Vienna University Children's Office: UniClub – learning space

An overview over the 15 projects

1 – Interaction Teachers and Students: facilitates reflection and responsibility in the student-teachter relationship, as well as the creation of teaching and learning concepts suitable for heterogenous groups; focuses on a diversity competent formation of all teaching, learning and organisational spaces and strengthens diversity comptences of students and teachers.

2 – Interaction Juniors and Leaders: describes the gender and diversity fair development of juniors and the diversity oriented further education of leaders in the academic and general staff

3 – Diversity in theory and practice: aims to connect the research-driven university internal diversity expertise of academics with the organsiational practices of the Universy of Vienna, as well as including the practice-based knowledge of experts from the university management in research and teaching.