Working together for a healthy university location in Thuringia - cooperation sets new priorities

On the initiative of Ilmenau University of Technology and Techniker Krankenkasse, nine state and one private university in Thuringia and Studierendenwerk Thüringen are involved in the project "Healthy Universities in Thuringia - Exchange Forum ’From University to University’" in order to integrate health promotion deeply and naturally into university processes. To this end, the partners regularly exchange information on specific health promotion issues and best practice examples and derive concrete measures from the knowledge gained. Today, the members of the exchange forum met in Erfurt for the first time since the cooperation was extended on July 1 of this year.

For seven years now, Thuringian universities have been demonstrating that health promotion for students and staff can best be achieved together. The "Healthy universities in Thuringia - exchange forum ’From university to university’" project, funded by Techniker Krankenkasse, has been running since spring 2017. In addition to the universities, the Studierendenwerk Thüringen and health promotion officers in the university sector are also part of the network. Due to the positive experiences, the cooperation has now been extended for a further three years and the universities have set further priorities together with TK.

Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler, President of Ilmenau University of Technology, which is coordinating the project together with TK, is also pleased about the extension of the cooperation as Chairman of the Thuringian Conference of State Presidents: "The Thuringian universities in the network have a common goal: we want healthy students and employees. We regularly share our best practice examples on how best to achieve this and, with the support of external experts, we continue to educate ourselves together. We are delighted that TK will continue to provide us with specialist advice and financial support in the future."

Non-competitive exchange for health

The core of the exchange forum is the non-competitive cooperation of health coordinators from Thuringian universities. Although it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract students and employees, the topic of health is not a matter of course at universities. Since their establishment and with the support of the exchange forum, Thuringian universities have managed to install a health management system at almost all locations: "This is a great success and gives us hope that the topic will be integrated into university processes. The past few years have shown us that this cooperation and the open exchange of concrete challenges and successes in health-promoting offers and changes are the network’s recipe for success," says Mike Römer, prevention consultant at TK. "We want to bring our expertise in health promotion to the universities as precisely and effectively as possible. We can do this particularly successfully if we exchange ideas from different perspectives. At the same time, each individual university brings valuable experience from which the other universities and we can learn. The many years of trusting cooperation is also an enrichment for TK."

At the heart of the exchange forum are thematic face-to-face or online meetings and specialist conferences, each of which results in concrete measures. Members also exchange information in an interactive information forum.

For the first time in Germany: Thuringian State Presidents’ Conference member of the State Health Conference

Representatives of the exchange forum work closely with university management. For this reason, the Thuringian Conference of State Presidents has decided to become a member of the State Health Conference. This is a first in Germany. As a first success of this networking, the target group of students was included in the target system of the Thuringian Health Conference.

On the way to university health management

The focus of the new cooperation period is to integrate health promotion even more deeply and naturally into universities. "Occupational health management, i.e. how do I make work more health-promoting for my employees, and student health management are already familiar concepts at most universities and are also practised in some cases. Universities are currently undergoing enormous change processes. One goal of the health coordinators is to accompany these processes in a health-promoting way, to think more inclusively and comprehensively and to combine cross-cutting issues such as sustainability, diversity and internationalization more effectively. Establishing this type of university health management at Thuringian universities is ambitious. However, with the funding of the exchange forum for the next three years, I am confident that we will be able to support and accompany the universities on their way to university health management," says Andrea Krieg, head of the project "Healthy Universities in Thuringia - Exchange Forum ’From University to University’".