Better Science Initiative
“Rethinking excellence”
Excellence at the University is to be rethought to make it easier to reconcile an academic career and a family. This is what the “Better Science Initiative” demands, explains Heike Mayer, co-initiator and Vice-Rector of the University of Bern.
Heike Mayer: We want the concept of excellence to be critically scrutinized and interpreted more broadly. Values such as sustainability, equal opportunities and diversity should also be promoted at the University. If attention is paid to a fair, appreciative and responsible environment, this also leads to better and thus excellent science.
Do you also address the pressure on scientific research?Yes, we are drawing attention to the problem of the science system accelerating further and further and draining the strengths of everyone involved. In order to promote the discourse on excellence at the University, we have formulated ten calls for action. In doing so, we are providing all members of the University with ideas and encouraging them to consider how they can shape the University landscape in their own work. In particular, the University should better position itself in terms of its work culture.
How do these calls for action help mothers and fathers to better reconcile academic careers and family life?It is important to make all work visible. It is therefore essential that academics indicate on their CV whether they have done or are currently doing care work. The academic age is thus visible in “net” terms: This figure shows how many years you have actually worked in research. In turn, this makes it easier to compare the productivity of applicants; this transparency is still not taken into account sufficiently in selection procedures, even at the University of Bern.
Article on the topic
Science and family: New ways to reconcile
Reconciling a family and an academic career is full of high hurdles and sacrifices. Young doctors and researchers want to change this, supported by initiatives that want to create better framework conditions.
This is exactly the question we are investigating. “Excellence” certainly does not just mean having a large number of publications under your belt. You can be excellent in a variety of areas, including teaching and the impact your research results achieve. The understanding of science as the only passion – in the sense of “I live and work purely for research” – remains widespread. However, most scientists also have families in addition to their research work. Our initiative also wants to make this work visible. We need to change this picture of the male researcher who works 150% – I deliberately only use the masculine form here. Nowadays, there are actually a number of excellent female researchers: This could be the 80% part-time researcher, someone who heads an institute through job sharing, or researchers who do their PhD late in their careers. For these forms of work, we need more role models and opportunities to follow these different paths.
Who needs to rethink and act?Our initiative is an appeal to everyone, but above all to people in positions of power, i.e. professors and the University management. For example, we should be more open when it comes to applications and promote new working time models and job sharing. We are still in the early stages, but there are already good examples of part-time research and job sharing. It is important that we recognize that these researchers also do excellent work.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Heike Mayer, Vice-Rector for Quality and Sustainable Development heike.mayer@unibe.ch
Subscribe to the uniAKTUELL newsletter
Discover stories about the research at the University of Bern and the people behind it.
