August 8, 2017
Satisfaction, motivation and health are important requirements for academic and career success. Jacobs University Bremen is helping students, professors, administrative employees and lecturers to stay healthy. The University is developing individual offers jointly with the German health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse.
Yoga lessons, back therapy or nutritional counseling: a lot can be done to stay healthy. But what is good for whom? In a project on workplace health management, Techniker Krankenkasse is carrying out a risk analysis for the various target groups at Jacobs University. The needs analysis makes use of a participatory research process under the leadership of Dr. Sonia Lippke, Professor of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine and Head of Workplace Health Promotion at Jacobs University. Tailored concepts will then be developed for students, professors, lecturers and administrative employees. The offering ranges from workshops to time management or stress prevention through to sports courses during the lunch break and individual consultations, for instance, on ergonomics at the workplace. Students can participate voluntarily in fitness checks and get nutritional tips or have a sports program designed for them.
Jacobs University’s approach to further develop as a health-promoting, multicultural university and thereby including all levels is unique. Sonia Lippke: “This is not only exciting for us but we may also be able to encourage others to follow suit internationally”. The program supports employees and students with specific offers, but the design of the working environment is also looked at.
The cooperation agreement between Jacobs University Bremen and Techniker Krankenkasse intensifies their collaboration. Individual projects, for example for students, had already been carried out in the past. Natalia Naida, who is responsible for implementing the program at Jacobs University Bremen, says: “Our collaboration with Techniker Krankenkasse has proven to be successful. We now want to meet the high requirements of today’s working world in a joint collaboration”.
“The trends of our health reports indicate a need for action, for example that we need to do more for the health of students”, says Maik Ziegler, specialist consultant for TK in Bremen. “For this reason, we want to make young people aware of healthy behavior as part of workplace health management. Merely having an ergonomic chair is therefore not enough. Modern health management is not about individual measures but about making the whole University a healthy place”.
