Corporate health management

Press release of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), 21.08.2024

For seven years now, Thuringian universities have been demonstrating that health promotion for students and staff can best be organised together. The Healthy Universities in Thuringia - Exchange Forum ‘From University to University’ project, funded by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), has been running since spring 2017.

In addition to the universities, the Studierendenwerk Thüringen and health promotion officers in the university sector are also part of the network. Due to the positive experiences, the cooperation has now been extended for another three years and the universities have set further priorities together with TK.

On 21 August 2024, the members of the exchange forum met in Erfurt for the first time since the cooperation was extended on 1 July.

Prof Kai-Uwe Sattler, President of Ilmenau University of Technology, which is coordinating the project together with TK, is also pleased about the extension of the cooperation as Chairman of the Thuringian Conference of State Presidents: ‘The Thuringian universities in the network have a common goal: we want healthy students and employees. We regularly share our best practice examples on how best to achieve this and, with the support of external experts, we continue to educate ourselves together. We are delighted that TK will continue to provide us with expert advice and financial support in the future.’

The core of the exchange forum is the non-competitive cooperation between health coordinators at Thuringian universities. Although it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract students and employees, the topic of health is not a matter of course at universities. Since their establishment and with the support of the exchange forum, Thuringian universities have managed to install a health management system at almost all locations. This is a great success and gives us hope that the topic will be integrated into university processes.

‘The past few years have shown us that it is precisely this cooperation and the open exchange about concrete challenges and successes in health-promoting programmes and changes that are the network's recipe for success,’ says Mike Römer, prevention consultant at TK.

‘We want to bring our expertise in health promotion to the universities as precisely and effectively as possible. We can do this particularly successfully if we exchange ideas from different perspectives. At the same time, each individual university contributes valuable experience from which the other universities and we can learn. The many years of trusting collaboration is also an enrichment for TK.’

At the heart of the exchange forum are thematic face-to-face or online meetings and specialist conferences, each of which results in specific measures. Members also exchange information in an interactive information forum.

Representatives of the exchange forum work closely with the university management. This is why the Thuringian Conference of State Presidents has decided to become a member of the State Health Conference. This is a first in Germany. As a first success of this networking, the target group of students was included in the target system of the Thuringian Health Conference.

The focus of the new cooperation period is to integrate health promotion even more deeply and naturally into the universities.

‘Workplace health management, i.e. how do I make work more health-promoting for my employees, and student health management are already familiar concepts at most universities and are also practised in some cases. Universities are currently undergoing enormous change processes. One aim of the health coordinators is to support these processes in a way that promotes health, to think more inclusively and comprehensively and to combine cross-cutting issues such as sustainability, diversity and internationalisation more effectively.
Establishing this type of university health management at Thuringian universities is ambitious. However, with the funding of the exchange forum for the next three years, I am confident that we will be able to support and accompany the universities on their path to university health management,’ says Andrea Krieg, head of the Healthy Universities in Thuringia - Exchange Forum “From University to University” project.

The Healthy Universities in Thuringia - Exchange Forum ‘From University to University ’ project is a network of Thuringian universities, the Thuringian Student Union and the representatives for health promotion in the university sector, which was launched in 2017. As a health partner, TK supports the exchange forum both financially and professionally.