Coronavirus Assistance Fund for Teaching Staff with Family Obligations

The coronavirus pandemic has created a challenging situation for academics who have to look after their children or dependent relatives at home while simultaneously carrying out their teaching duties online. Due to care services being unavailable, teacher staff with family obligations are having to look after their children, carry out homeschooling, and/or care for dependent relatives all while working from home. This makes it very difficult to get any work done. Parents of toddlers, in particular, find themselves in a stressful situation, and early-career researchers are disproportionately affected by this problem.

Universität Hamburg has announced a new assistance fund for teaching staff to cover the wages of student assistants who can help with digital teaching duties.

Applications are open to academics employed at Universität Hamburg who have an obligatory teaching load in Summer Semester 2020 and who have to look after children under 12, children with disabilities, or dependent relatives at home due to the unavailability of childcare and nursing facilities and therefore struggle to prepare and carry out their teaching duties. Assistance is provided in the form of increased hours for student assistants or financial support for hiring student assistants to help with teaching duties.

To apply for support from the coronavirus assistance fund for teaching staff with family obligations, submit an informal letter containing the following information:

• The number of hours required and the period of time they will be needed
• Your faculty, department and, if applicable, subject group
• The scope of your teaching obligations
• Name(s) and birth certificate(s) of your child(ren) or the name(s) of your dependent relative(s)
• A brief description of your situation and the support you intend to get from a student assistant

Submit your application to the equal opportunity commissioner of Universität Hamburg. Applications are open until all schools and childcare and nursing facilities reopen fully. Funding is available for up to 3 months, covering up to 40 hours per month. Please consult the directive on the employment of research and student assistants at Universität Hamburg (Richtlinie für die Beschäftigung von wissenschaftlichen und studentischen Hilfskräften im Bereich der Universität Hamburg): https://www.kus.uni-hamburg.de/en/themen/personalservice/personaleinstellung-weiterbeschaeftigung/shk-tutoren-studierende-angestellte.html

All complete applications will be processed in the order of submission. The decision will be made at the discretion of the equal opportunity commissioner and subject to the availability of funds. The individual institutions will be responsible for hiring student assistants or increasing their hours.

Please email the completed application form along with the required documents as a PDF to gleichstellung"AT"uni-hamburg.de.