Project coordinator Larissa Weber (centre) accepted the certificate on behalf of the TH Mittelhessen from State Secretary Caren Marks (right) and Frank-Jürgen Weise, Chairman of the Hertie Foundation (left).The Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen has passed the "audit family-friendly university" for the fourth time. For the first time in 2005, the “berufundfamilie gGmbH” funded by the Hertie Foundation checked the THM and recognized it as a particularly family-friendly university. Larissa Weber, coordinator in the family-friendly university project at the THM , was able to receive the new certificate in Berlin from Caren Marks, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, and Dr. Frank-Jürgen Weise, CEO of the Hertie Foundation.

Students with children have to cope with special challenges. They are faced with the task of reconciling studies, childcare and often also jobs. Many employees at universities also have to reconcile their paid work and the perception of family responsibilities on a daily basis. The TH Mittelhessen, where around five percent of the students have children up to the age of 14, has decided to make the study programme and the everyday work of the staff family-friendly.

After the certificate was last awarded in 2012, the university management and auditors agreed on goals that the TH should achieve by the time of the re-auditing. Examples of family-friendly measures in recent years are the establishment of a parent-child room on the campus in Wetzlar and the addition of current information on the subject of caring for relatives to the website.

According to project manager Catharine Meckel-Oschmann, a scholarship programme for doctoral students, holiday childcare and a babysitter subsidy for students are financed from funds from the federal and state professorship programme.

The next audit is due in three years. According to THM President Prof. Dr. According to Günther Grabatin, the project “raised awareness of the topic among university members. The existing offerings and other planned measures are a very good basis for the Technical University of Central Hesse to make further Further steps towards becoming a family-friendly university.”