Certificates and memberships

Audit family-friendly university

The compatibility of studies, academic career and administrative work
with family responsibilities is becoming increasingly important at
universities. The University of Erfurt is continuously developing
suitable framework conditions in order to be able to reconcile private
and professional requirements as well as possible. This commitment is
reflected in the award of the "family-friendly university audit"
certificate, which the University of Erfurt was the first Thuringian
university to receive in 2005 and which has been regularly renewed since
then (most recently in 2024).

Examples of family-friendly measures include cooperation with the
Studierendenwerk and Erfurt University of Applied Sciences (for flexible
childcare for students and employees and joint information services),
parent-child workspaces, mobile play boxes and the infrastructure for
hybrid participation in courses and committee meetings. In addition, a
comprehensive range of advisory services has been established in recent
years to help students balance their studies or career with care
responsibilities.

In its action program for the coming years, the University of Erfurt has
set itself the goal of providing more targeted support to international
students and employees with care responsibilities and expanding and
raising awareness of the advisory services on reconciling studying or
working and care responsibilities. The expansion of preventative
measures for mental health is intended to counter the increased burden
on students and employees resulting from care responsibilities.

Further information on the  "audit family-friendly university"

Environmental label "Ökoprofit"

The University of Erfurt has been awarded the "Ökoprofit" environmental seal of approval in 2014. It is thus one of more than 110 institutions that have received this award in Erfurt since 2000. To date, more than 2000 companies in over 90 cities in Germany have received the coveted municipal seal. They are all committed to the sustainable use of resources and to making an active contribution to reducing the burden on the environment and lowering energy costs.

Further information on the Enviroment label "Ökoprofit"

Membership in the German Research Foundation (DFG)

The University of Erfurt was admitted to the German Research Foundation (DFG) on 3 July 2019. The DFG is the leading institution for research funding in Germany. Its members include universities and non-university research institutions, scientific associations, foundations and the Academies of Sciences and Humanities. Exactly 25 years after its refounding, the University of Erfurt is the 97th member of the DFG and has thus become part of a pioneering German scientific organisation.

Further information on DFG membership of the University of Erfurt

"EUniCult" network

The "EUniCult" network comprises 14 European universities from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. The central concern of the project is to re-establish the acquisition of key cultural competencies in a European framework as a university educational goal and an indispensable complement to professional training. These consist above all in a general basic cultural knowledge and skills, which allow a connection between science, everyday working life and the world of life, in the ability to work scientifically and professionally as well as in communicative and social skills. The University of Erfurt belongs to the founding group of EUniCult.

Further information on "EUniCult" network

"Education through Responsibility" network

"Service Learning" was established in the USA in the mid 1980s. The starting signal was given by the founding of the student organization "Campus Outreach Opportunity League" (COOL) and the network "Campus Compact" at the level of university management, to which over 950 universities belong today. The participating universities are committed not only to promoting professional expertise, but also to strengthening the willingness and ability to use the intellectual and material resources of the universities for the benefit and strengthening of the community. In this way, the universities aim to educate students to be citizens and socially responsible, to teach them social skills and to contribute as actors in civil society. In Germany, "Service Learning" has been practiced in isolated cases at various universities for several years. The German universities where the first such approaches are being implemented – including the universities of Lüneburg, Mannheim, Trier, Würzburg, Saarland and Erfurt – founded the "Higher Education Network Education through Responsibility" in March 2009. In their joint declaration, they declare that they regard and develop personal and social responsibility as an essential educational task at their campuses.

Further information on the "Education through Responsibility" network

Innovation Network Education for Sustainable Development (InnoNet BNE)

The Innovation Network Education for Sustainable Development (InnoNet BNE) started its work in 2012. It is a regional network of actors from education, civil society, business and local authorities that are committed to promoting Education for Sustainable Development. The aim of the network is to teach children, young people and adults the ability to think and act sustainably. This puts people in a position to make decisions for the future and to assess how their own actions will affect future generations or life in other regions of the world. In addition to the University of Erfurt, the network includes the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt and the city of Erfurt, the Arbeitsgruppe Nachhaltigkeit e.V., the TheoPrax Foundation in Thuringia (at TIAW e.V.), the Sustainability Centre Thuringia, the NOW project and the Plattform e.V. (an institute at the UAS Erfurt). From September 2012 to August 2013 InnoNet was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In 2018 the innovation network was also awarded a prize by the German Council for Sustainable Development. The award is linked to the award of the "Project Sustainability" signet, which the network has been using ever since to communicate its success.

Further information on the Innovation Network Education for Sustainable Development (InnoNet BNE)

Sustainability Agreement Thuringia

Since the end of 2010, the University of Erfurt has supported the Thuringian Sustainability Agreement (NAT). This is a voluntary agreement between the Thuringian state government and the Thuringian business community. Its aim is to achieve a high level of resource conservation and energy efficiency, environmental protection and contributions to climate protection through business, thereby improving the framework conditions for further economic development. Agreement partners and companies are united by the common basic understanding of sustainable development, which is based on the careful and responsible use of natural resources and is oriented towards responsibility towards future generations. The Thuringian Sustainability Agreement is funded by the Free State of Thuringia through the Thuringian Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation and the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society.

Further information on the Sustainability Agreement Thuringia

The Dual Career Network Thuringia (DCNT) was founded in October 2013 with the aim of supporting the professional and family integration of dual career couples in Thuringia. The University of Erfurt is also a member of this network.

further information

Plaque "Bee friends 2018"

The Thuringian Ministry for Infrastructure and Agriculture has awarded the University of Erfurt the "Bee Friends" plaque for 2018. The university had applied for the plaque because sustainability is a major concern of the university and at the same time a topic that is reflected both in teaching and in various projects. This is why there is also "fiddling" on campus – more precisely in the campus school garden. In this way, the university not only contributes to the preservation of the bee population, it also does something for the exotic trees on campus and, above all, for the training of its future primary school teachers.

Further information on the "Bee Friends 2018" plaque