Awards, distinctions and partnerships

With the audit family-friendly university, TH OWL is actively working towards its goal of creating study and working conditions that do justice to the different lifestyles of people with family commitments at the university. Equal opportunities and family services at the TH OWL design and coordinate the measures and advise students and employees – whether people with responsibility for children or people caring for relatives – on all issues relating to compatibility.

To the family service

The Total E-Quality award stands for Total Quality Management (TQM), supplemented by the gender component (Equality). Organizations from business, science and administration as well as associations that successfully implement equal opportunities in their personnel and organizational policies are awarded the TOTAL E-QUALITY rating. The TH OWL has held the award since 2004, and its initiatives to increase the proportion of women in the various status groups and the promotion of women during their studies have been particularly highlighted as tailor-made, diverse and sustainable.

The Magna Charta Observatory of Fundamental University Values and Rights is a non-profit organization founded by the University of Bologna and the European University Association (EUA). Like more than 800 universities worldwide, TH OWL has also signed the Magna Charta's canon of values. It is thus committed to values such as academic freedom, culture and institutional autonomy and rejects intolerance in any form.

The European University Association (EUA ) represents more than 850 universities and university rectors' conferences in 48 European countries and has a decisive influence on the Bologna Process and EU policy on higher education, research and innovation. The EUA facilitates unique Europe-wide networking between universities and/or higher education institutions and helps to shape European policy and initiatives with a view to higher education and research.

Working together for career and study guidance free of gender stereotypes - this is what the Cliché-free initiative is campaigning for. Young people should be guided by their talents and strengths and not be influenced by gender stereotypes. The TH OWL supports the initiative as a partner organization.

Offers to support young people in their career choices in the best possible way and without stereotypes can be found here:

www.klischee-frei.de/de/klischeefrei_92804.php

The German Society for Sustainability at Higher Education Institutions (DG HochN) is committed to a more sustainable development of society and a more sustainable development of all universities. To this end, it acts as an exchange and expert platform and cooperates with other national and international sustainability networks in order to exploit synergies and provide mutual support. The aim is for as many German-speaking universities as possible to learn from each other in the context of sustainability and benefit from each other's experiences.

TH OWL has been a member of DG HochN since 2024.

The "Innovative University" funding initiative is a two-stage competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). With up to 550 million euros for two selection rounds of five years each, the initiative is aimed in particular at small and medium-sized universities and universities of applied sciences. The federal and state governments are providing up to 290 million euros for the second round of funding. The Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe is being funded in the second round of the competition with the TRInnovation OWL transfer project alongside 16 other individual and 13 collaborative projects. The project was launched in 2023 and will be funded for five years with a maximum of two million euros per year.

Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences is a member of the Alliance for Cyber Security (ACS) of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The aim is to strengthen Germany's resilience to cyber attacks. The strong network is a joint effort: 7,697 companies and institutions currently belong to the initiative - and more members are joining every day. IT service and consulting companies as well as IT manufacturers are equally represented in the network as user companies of all sizes and industries. This diversity is an important guarantee for a rich exchange of IT expertise and application experience from which all participants benefit.

www.allianz-fuer-cybersicherheit.de

Recognizing, promoting and using diversity to be successful: This is the idea behind the Charter of Diversity initiative. It sees opportunities for innovative and creative solutions in the different skills and talents of employees. By signing it on German Diversity Day 2021, TH OWL is declaring that it will implement the objectives of the Diversity Charter at the university. This includes a respectful and appreciative working environment for all employees – regardless of age, ethnic origin and nationality, gender and gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion and ideology, sexual orientation and social background.

In the leading-edge cluster it's OWL - Intelligent Technical Systems OstWestfalenLippe - more than 220 companies, research institutions and organizations are developing solutions for intelligent products and processes to enable companies to produce and work more sustainably.

With its expertise from around 500 projects on topics such as artificial intelligence and intelligent product development, it's OWL is laying the foundations as a 'competence network for Industry.Zero', with which it aims to make East Westphalia-Lippe a model region for sustainable value creation. To this end, new technologies and applications are being developed with the support of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. For the reduction of CO2 emissions and circular value creation, for intelligent energy supply and sustainable product development and for new forms of skilled worker development.

TH OWL is a member of this competence network.

TH OWL is part of the network Weltoffene Hochschulen gegen Fremdenfeindlichkeit (Open-minded Universities against Xenophobia) and, together with universities and universities of applied sciences, is positioning itself for open-mindedness and tolerance on the initiative of the German Rectors' Conference.

In concrete terms, this means that topics such as xenophobia, racism and extremism are addressed in numerous courses as well as in overarching events (including conferences, workshops, seminars and online discussions).

Multipliers at each study location are committed to promoting open-mindedness and combating xenophobia and encourage local campaigns.

Applied Research – NRW University Network (HN NRW) is the network of 21 state and state-funded universities of applied sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia. HN NRW was founded as a project in 2004 under the name "Living Research at Universities of Applied Sciences in NRW" with the aim of creating a stronger perception of university of applied sciences research on the part of politicians.

In 2017, the name was changed to "Applied Research - NRW University Network". Since its foundation, the HN NRW has received funding from the NRW Ministry of Science. The HN NRW has the task of making the research strength of its member universities visible and thereby providing impetus, initiating political processes, creating synergies and strengthening the exchange between science, politics, business and society.

The sustainable development of our society is a central challenge for politics, business, society and science. The universities of applied sciences (HAW) in NRW understand sustainability as a complex cross-cutting issue with many dimensions, such as climate change, education, energy, health and social security. They are pooling their expertise and experience in a Sustainability Alliance for Applied Sciences NRW (NAW.NRW) in order to find viable solutions to the many challenges.

The HAW are active in all core areas of the universities within the framework of NAW.NRW. The activities relate to all tasks of the universities (teaching, research, transfer, social responsibility, infrastructure and administration) in the context of ecological, social, economic and technological development.

The online evaluation portal StudyCHECK asked: How digital are Germany's universities and colleges? The result: In the nationwide comparison 2021, the TH OWL is in 10th place, in NRW even in 2nd place!

To the Digital Readiness Ranking (nationwide)

To the Digital Readiness Ranking (NRW)

The TH OWL has taken 6th place in the "Most Popular Universities" category of the StudyCHECK Award 2021 and received the "Top University 2021" award. The course evaluation on StudyCHECK.de is carried out in the categories of course content, lecturers, courses, facilities, campus life, organization, library and canteen, for each of which up to 5 stars can be awarded. The TH OWL currently has 899 course evaluations, which result in an overall rating of 4.0 stars and a recommendation rate of 95%. In the NRW ranking 2021, the TH OWL even occupies 1st place.