"Perspektiven. Wege in die Wissenschaft"
Application launch
The mentoring programme "Perspektiven. Wege in die Wissenschaft" is offered for the first time in the winter semester 2025/2026. Applications can be submitted via application form from now on. Application deadline is 30 June, 2025.
"Perspektiven. Wege in die Wissenschaft"
Dear doctoral candidates, postdocs and those interested in mentoring,
The new programme "Perspektiven. Wege in die Wissenschaft" explicitly focuses on academics with a non-academic family background. This is important because only 27% of primary school pupils from a non-academic household go on to study - compared to 79% of academic children. As a result, the proportion of first-time graduates at German universities is only 48%, although non-academic children make up 71% of the school population. So we are still a long way from equal opportunities. However, it is not enough to simply improve the starting conditions for first-time graduates - we must take into account the special needs of these students throughout their studies and careers and provide support. I myself was the first person in my family to go to university. My family always motivated me and supported my wish, but they could not draw on their own experience. No one was familiar with the structures of a university, university life or the important networks.
Anyone who comes from an academic family benefits from a direct line to people who are familiar with the customs of academia. Where these role models are lacking in the family environment, mentors are needed as guides and confidants. I have been lucky enough to be supported by such mentors throughout my career. I am therefore delighted that my colleagues at the Graduate Academy are now expanding and continuing the Helene Lange Mentoring Program with a focus on academics with a non-academic family background and open to all genders. "Open to new paths" - this is the motto of our university, which has been committed to enabling non-traditional target groups to access higher education since its foundation. With the "Perspectives" programme, we are now paving the way for doctoral candidates and "freshly graduated" first-time academics at a crucial career stage.
I wish all mentees and mentors an enriching time together!
Best regards
Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder
President of Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
The new mentoring programme „Perspektiven” is an offer for advanced doctoral candidates and early postdocs of all genders who are pursuing their career goal within science. The programme is aimed at doctoral candidates and postdocs with a non-academic family background.
The nexus of social background and educational inequality in the German higher education system has been an increasingly discussed topic for several years and is increasingly being taken as an opportunity by graduate institutions to offer support and qualification programs to promote scientists in early career phases who are the first in their family to pursue an academic career.
Over the course of the one-year programme, mentors from Academia support their mentee with questions about decision-making and career orientation. The mentoring programme also includes a supporting program including a kick-off and final workshop. In addition, workshops, discussion evenings or lectures, which are organized according to the mentees' wishes, offer the opportunity to acquire additional interdisciplinary knowledge and to network with each other.
The programme is aimed at doctoral candidates in the final phase of their dissertation and early postdocs who completed their dissertation no more than three years ago. The programme is held in German. However, the one-to-one mentoring can take place in other languages. People who locate themselves outside the gender binary system are explicitly addressed. Together with the trainer who accompanies the programme, we want to create a "safer space" for all genders.