Newsletter July 2023

Dear colleagues,

we would like to welcome all of you who have joined the University of Passau as Academic Staff since our last newsletter!

Information about the work of the „Mittelbaukonvent“ (Representative Council for Academic Staff) as a representative for the Academic Staff of the University of Passau, topics concerning this group, as well as further contact persons are available on our website https://www.uni-passau.de/en/university/governance-structure/academic-staff-council.

Further contents:

Summer „Mittelbau“ Event – reminder
Onboarding Guide
Cooperation with the administration of the University
Representative for good working conditions in science
Outlook

1. Summer „Mittelbau“ Event – reminder

We would like to remind you about our Mittelbau event for the this semester. We planned a visit to the famous "Mostbauer" (also known as Mostausschank Unterer Inn).

When: Wednesday, July 12th, 2023, 5 p.m.

Where: Mostausschank Unterer Inn (1.5 hours by foot from Campus; 25 minutes by bike)

Please note: bring cash! (card payments not possible)

If you want to cycle there in a group: we meet between the Mensa and ZMK buildings (bike lane to the Inn) at 4:20 p.m.

Please join our Stud.IP event so that we can manage our reservation accordingly.

Alternative route:

Take the train at 4:48 p.m. from Passau Hbf to Wernstein, arrival at 4:57 p.m., 30 minute walk

We look forward to see you there!

2. Onboarding Guide

To help you get started at the University of Passau, we have compiled important information and topics typically associated with starting your working life at the University of Passau in one guide. We hope that this will answer most of your questions. However, if you find that important topics are missing, please let us know! The same applies, of course, if you have questions to which neither you nor your colleagues have found an answer. The latest version of the Onboarding Guide will be available on our Website.

3. Cooperation with the administration

As you may have already experienced, there have been problems with the cooperation with the administration in the past months, e.g. with the organization of examinations, the processing times of business trip invoices or applications, and contract matters.

After we asked you for your opinion on this issue some time ago, we have been in discussion with the university management and individual departments of the administration for several months in order to improve communication and processes for all parties involved.

Especially in the organization of exams, we have made many steps forward and improvements are on the horizon for the near future.

Unfortunately, we have also encountered a lack of understanding in other areas, but we are continuing to work for a noticeable improvement and are in close contact with the President, Prof. Ulrich Bartosch.

4. Representative for good working conditions in science

In the light of increasing workloads and the associated problems, the Council appointed Dr. Desiderius Meier as a Representative for good working conditions in science at the end of last year. In close cooperation, we are continuing to further improve working conditions. The current focus is especially on workload, (unpaid) overtime and fixed-term employment contracts.

If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns regarding these issues, please feel free to contact us at any time.

5. Outlook

As a supplement to our Onboarding Guide, we want to provide you with an additional Guide for Good Teaching in the coming weeks to make it easier for you to get started and further develop your courses. We will provide you with new information on this and the other mentioned topics in the coming weeks.

On our website https://www.uni-passau.de/en/university/governance-structure/academic-staff-council you will find more information about topics concerning the Academic Staff, about our work as a representative body, as well as contact information of the Representatives of the Council.

If you have any questions, hints or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us! The entire Konvent wishes you a good start of the semester!

Best regards on behalf of the entire Council

Florian (Brüderlin)

Speaker of the Council