With demographic change well underway in Germany, family friendliness has become an important factor in choosing a place to live, work, and study. The future viability of companies and regions is largely measured by whether they can offer skilled workers and their families attractive working and living conditions. In this context, universities can exert a positive influence on the entire region by promoting a self-understanding not as mere educational institutions. Instead, they need to view themselves as a central hub for the life and family planning of the qualified professionals they employ.

As a joint project of Studentenwerk Dresden, the Technische Universität Dresden, and the TU Dresden Student Council, the Campusbüro Uni mit Kind has been working since 2007 as a family center within the framework of the audit familiengerechte hochschule© initiative to create family-friendly conditions for studying and working in the university city of Dresden. The Campusbüro Uni mit Kind is committed to an inclusive understanding of family. In our understanding, the family network extends beyond the nuclear family to single mothers and fathers, non-married and same-sex partnerships, as well as patchwork and foster families. We understand “family” to mean all ways of life that include a parent–child relationship, a partnership, or dependents, and in which those individuals involved assume responsibility for one another.

We offer students at Dresden’s universities and TU Dresden employees

• Specific information and counseling services on financing as well as the individual and institutional compatibility of studies, career, and family life
• Open meet-ups for students and employees with child(ren)
• Courses offered by qualified course instructors
• Topic-based seminars for parents and workshops
• Networking for students and employees with child(ren)
• International group programs and counseling in English
• A family-friendly infrastructure on campus (breastfeeding and diaper changing facilities, playroom, and quiet room)
• Opportunities to help shape family-friendly conditions for studying and working in Dresden

We offer TU Dresden faculties and institutions

• Support for students and employees with child(ren) in their everyday studies as well as academic and working life
• Opportunities for cooperation in family-friendliness projects

We offer interested parties

• Opportunities to network and exchange with others on all topic of family friendliness
• Opportunities to contribute to the attractiveness of Dresden as a location for higher education, science, and business by supporting a family-friendly infrastructure at the university

We fulfill our tasks through

• Dedicated and competent service
• Quality, reliability, and transparency
• Friendliness and trust
• Open-mindedness and a sense of responsibility
• Continuing education and training
• Cooperation with partners at and outside the university
• Efficiency and the creative use of resources

In the future we want t

• Intensify our service in terms of facilities and institutions at other universities in Dresden
• Expand our contact and exchange with Dresden’s counseling services and family centers
• Offer supplementary needs-based information and courses for family-specific target groups
• Increasingly incorporate the latest findings from research and continuing education into our work
• Engage in higher education policy through involvement with the audit familiengerechte hochschule® initiative, the AG Teilzeitstudium (part-time study working group), the best-practice club “Familie in der Hochschule” (family in higher education) from the Centre for Higher Education, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung