Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Family Support Centre

Family Fund of Humboldt-University Berlin

Every year, the family fund of Humboldt-Universität makes financial resources available to students and staff in order to help them overcome structural barriers that stand in the way of balancing their family life with their studies, work or academic career.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin sees itself as a family-friendly university. It regularly participates in audits to certify its family-friendly status and its University Senate has ratified a mission statement that reflects its commitment to the work/university-life balance. In line with that commitment, the HU established a family fund. The fund provides financial resources to students and staff to help them overcome, or at least mitigate, structural difficulties in balancing academic and professional commitments and family life.  

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has a broad-minded understanding of family, considering it any situation in which a person is responsible for a family member long term. It encompasses all parent-child relationships – including single parents, and patchwork and LGBT families – as well as sibling relationships, spousal and marriage-like relationships, and relationships to other relatives.

The Allocation Guideline was published in edition No. 93/2019 of the Official Gazette (Amtliches Mitteilungsblatt) of the HU Berlin and defines possible applications of the funds. 

Financial resources from the central family fund can be used for short-term personnel measures and degree completion scholarships as well as for material expenses. Financial resources from the family fund may only be handed out for personnel measures if they are supplementing the basic infrastructure of the respective faculties and institutes.

The call for tenders for financial resources from the family fund takes place at least once a year and is advertised university-wide. The Commission for a Family-Friendly University (Kommission Familiengerechte Hochschule, or KFH) is charge of the call for tenders.