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Student sits at workstation and looks at laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund
PRwiss starts term of office 2024 to 2028

Anja Szypulski elected Chair of the Academic Staff Council

© Foto: Ines Heider
The Staff Council of Academic and Artistic Employees has elected sociologist Anja Szypulski as its chairperson. Andreas Brink is retiring.

The Staff Council of Academic and Artistic Employees at TU Dortmund University has started the 2024 to 2028 term of office with a new head: Dr Anja Szypulski has been Chair of the committee since 1 July, having been unanimously elected at the constituent meeting. The sociologist and member of the Faculty of Spatial Planning replaces Dr Andreas Brink, who will retire at the beginning of 2025. In addition to the new Chairwoman, 16 other full members belong to the PRwiss.

As one of the most important tasks for the PRwiss, Anja Szypulski cites the implementation of the permanent position concepts in the faculties. The PRwiss will also continue to campaign for effective measures against abuse of power at TU Dortmund University and advise colleagues who are affected by such abuse.

In the last term of office, Anja Szypulski was involved in drawing up a service agreement for mobile working, which was jointly adopted by PRwiss and the university administration. ‘This was an important building block in giving all employees equal access to mobile working and at the same time making the TU more attractive as an employer,’ says the Chairwoman. Now a new challenge is on the horizon with the savings plans set out by the state. According to these plans, the TU - like other universities in NRW - is to save 20 per cent of its office space. ‘The PRwiss will ensure that the needs and interests of employees are taken into account when workspaces are being designed.’

The reform of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (WissZeitVG), which is one of the central foundations of PRwiss' work as a law on fixed-term employment contracts, also remains an important topic. The planned reform aims to increase the predictability of career paths and to further curb short-term fixed-term contracts. The discussion on the reform proposals to date has been controversial, as one of the proposals is to reduce the duration of fixed-term contracts for the period after the doctorate from six to four years.

About the person

Dr Anja Szypulski studied sociology, modern history and education in Münster and Vienna and subsequently worked as a research assistant in the state parliament in Düsseldorf, at the WWU Münster and the Ruhr University Bochum.

She was a scholarship holder in the DFG Research Training Group on Gender Relations and Social Change at TU Dortmund University and has been a research assistant at the Faculty of Spatial Planning there since 1998 - initially in the Department of Women's Studies and Housing, then from 2005 onwards in the Department of Urban and Regional Sociology. She completed her doctorate in 2004 at the Faculty of Education and Sociology.

 

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