When lecture periods overlap with school holidays, balancing work, studies, and family quickly becomes a challenge. To provide targeted support for employees and students in this regard, the University of Stuttgart has been offering vacation childcare during the Easter, Whitsun, summer, and fall holidays since 2025. A special feature is that one of the two holiday programs is run by the university sports department, which makes it unique among universities.
In order to ensure long-term and reliable vacation childcare, the program has now been anchored as a permanent measure in the strategy paper "Balancing Work, Studies, and Family Life." At the end of January, a group of experts from the university management, the Vice Rectorate for Early-Career Researchers and Diversity, the Equal Opportunities Officer, and Uni & Family discussed further concrete implementation options.
In addition, the University of Stuttgart is actively involved in the Family in Higher Education Network, the largest network for balancing studies, career, and science with family responsibilities in the German-speaking higher education sector, with 155 members from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
University sports vacation program
Since 2016, University Sports has been offering a sports holiday program for children and young people of full-time employees, students, and international researchers in cooperation with the Uni & Family service. This year, the holiday program will take place during the Easter, Pentecost, summer, and fall holidays. The program can be booked for children aged 5 to 7 and 8 to 14.
"Stuttgart Research Holidays"
The "Stuttgart Research Holidays" are organized in long-standing cooperation with Konzept-e for the University of Stuttgart and the five Fraunhofer Institutes in Stuttgart, as well as for the Stuttgart Hochschule der Medien. The program for 6- to 12-year-olds takes place during the Easter, Pentecost, summer, and fall holidays.
Vacation care can be booked for children and young people of full-time employees, students, and international researchers.