Magnus Kids Evaluation eines Kölner AStA-Projekts zur Kinderbetreuung in der Sommerferienzeit

This study evaluates the ‘Magnus Kids’ project, a childcare service offered by the University of Cologne’s Executive Student Committee during the school holidays, and places it in a wider context. It examines the circumstances in which student parents live and study. These parents need extra support during their children’s school holidays, which often coincide with their own exam periods. What do they expect from appropriate childcare, and what childcare alternatives do they use?
Petra Stemmer analyses the childcare offered by the University of Cologne during the school holidays and examines the difficulties of initiating and establishing such a service. In addition to qualitative and legal problems, other challenges arise while the children are being looked after. The study highlights them in the detailed evaluation of ‘Magnus Kids’ through the results of a quantitative survey of parents and through qualitative interviews with the project’s carers. The author compares the solutions developed at other universities or at the University of Cologne’s other childcare facilities, and provides an analysis of which facilities, both internal and external, conduct good practice in terms of childcare during school holidays.