Recruitment procedure

In its Equal Opportunities Plan 2025-28, the University of Bern has set itself the goal of filling at least 55% of vacant professorships with women. According to projections, this would mean that by 2028, women would make up 38% of all professorships. The current proportion of women in all professorships is around 33%.

A central issue to increase the proportion of women is ensuring the quality of the recruitment procedure. Fair and transparent recruitment procedures increase gender equality. For this purpose, the University of Bern has issued a series of basic rules and the guide "Hiring Process at the University of Bern With Special Consideration of Equal Opportunities" which was adopted by the University Executive Board on June 15, 2021.

In accordance with the Employment Regulations, one member of each structural and electoral committee has the function of a gender equality delegate. A member of the Office for Equal Opportunities also has to sit in on the commissions in an advisory capacity.

The Office for Equal Opportunities provides the structural and recruitment committees with documents and holds workshops on gender equality in the recruitment procedure.

Further Information

Guide Hiring Process at the University of Bern

Fair Research Assessment

The University of Bern has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) [KB1] in 2016, inviting its members to consider its recommendations. 

The DORA Declaration aims to improve the way scientific research is evaluated. It focuses on journal-based metrics, such as journal impact factors, which are often used as the most important quality criterion when comparing the scientific output of individuals and institutions. The journal impact factor was originally developed as a tool for libraries to help them make decisions about purchasing scientific journals, not as a measure of the quality of the research in an article. It is therefore not a suitable tool for evaluating research results. The DORA Declaration contains a number of recommendations for funding agencies, research institutions, publishers, organizations that supply metrics, and researchers.

Recommendations for Hiring Committees

(summary excerpt from the declaration)

  • Your assessment of scientific qualifications should be based on scientific content rather than publication metrics.
  • Do not use journal-based metrics, such as journal impact factors, as a substitute for evaluating the quality of individual publications by candidates in hiring processes.
  • Be transparent about the criteria you use for selection decisions.
  • When evaluating research, consider not only publications but also all other research outputs (including datasets and software), as well as a range of other factors such as qualitative indicators of research impact, e.g., influence on policy and practice.
  • Question evaluation practices that rely unduly on journal impact factors, and promote “best practices” that focus on the value and significance of specific research outputs.

Following the implementation of DORA, the University of Bern continues to build on its original commitments. In March 2026, it also signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA). Through these steps, the University reaffirms its commitment to these goals and continues to advance a research culture grounded in excellence, integrity, and fairness.

For more information on implementing DORA (including short videos with practical tips) and ARRA, click here: Scientific Culture

Guiding principles for jobsharing

The University of Berne is committed to giving its employees the opportunity to work in contemporary working models. It therefore welcomes and encourages job sharing. This flexible working time model helps to create a balance between employment and other areas of life, namely family and leisure time.

In job-sharing, the job-sharing partners assume overall responsibility for fulfilling the agreed tasks, which they divide up in terms of content and time.

The University of Berne has new guiding principles for jobsharing since the end of june 2015.

Relief pool Care responsibilities and jobsharing

The contributions from the relief pool are intended to support measures that promote the use of new working time models (job sharing, part-time) and the compatibility of career and profession at the professorship level.

The relief pool is aimed at new hires and should make the University of Bern even more attractive to potential applicants.

These guidelines govern the framework and modalities for granting contributions from the relief pool.