FH OÖ’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

FH OÖ Compass upholds the 10 guiding principles of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. Therefore, FH OÖ Compass upholds guiding principle 2, which states: “We represent a value system that does not tolerate any form of discrimination, be it on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual orientation.”

Additionally, FH OÖ Compass upholds guiding principle 10, which states: “We are committed to the fundamental right to education for all people and support people nationally and internationally in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills.”

FH OÖ commits to creating and maintaining a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment for all students. Here you’ll find resources to identify, prevent, and report sexual harassment.

Identify Sexual Harassment

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, sexual harassment is defined as “any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature occurs, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.¹

Often times, sexual harassment is “typically, carried out in the context of abuse of power, promise of reward or threat of reprisal”.¹

Sexual harassment is discrimination, and violates the Austrian Federal Equal Treatment Act, in which “nobody may be discriminated against in employment due to their gender, age, ethnicity, religion or views, or sexual orientation”. ²

Therefore, sexual harassment is never accepted, despite statements which are often used to excuse it, including the following:

• “’It was just a joke.’”
• “’But s*he is so nice!'”
• “’S*he is from a different culture.’” ¹
• “But in former times, that was acceptable.”