What interested you in becoming a liaison lecturer in general and for the Hans B枚ckler Foundation in particular?
I had applied for the "Inclusion-Education-School" research training group at the HBS, which ran very successfully over two funding phases from 2015 to 2022. I was therefore in close contact with the foundation and was eventually asked to become a liaison lecturer.
How have you yourself benefited from scholarships in the past?
I still consider it a great privilege to be able to accompany young people in their academic careers. In doing so, I also gain deep insights into the tremendous commitment, but also into the new questions that the next generations are asking. The personal interviews with the applicants are also extremely interesting, because you also learn a lot about the diversity of young people's lives and their equally diverse social commitment, which I am always deeply impressed by. (I always remember a sentence that was once said to me during an interview for a non-academic student job in London: "You have packed so much into your young life.")
What do you do in your role as a liaison lecturer and what do you value most about it?
In fact, the most important role at the moment is conducting job interviews - so far I have not been contacted in any other case for further counselling, which I always offer - except for my own doctoral students, of course. Therefore, I assume that the scholarship holders manage their studies without major difficulties (which I also see in the reports every time) and/or that they are well integrated academically and socially (it is important here that the role of the liaison lecturer is not subject-related, but locally based).
What does the Hans B枚ckler Foundation value in its applicants?
The HBS attaches particular importance to supporting scholarship holders without a family academic background who are also socially committed.
What advice do you have for students who want to apply for a scholarship from the Hans B枚ckler Foundation?
It is important to match your own CV and motivation for the application with the profile and goals of the HBS.
From your perspective as an inclusion researcher, can scholarships play a role in promoting academic and social inclusion and/or equity?
Absolutely. After all, inclusion stands for the goal of bringing more diversity to academic staff, but also in the area of leadership activities. I think the foundation is doing an excellent job of this when I look at the biographies of the scholarship holders.
Is there anything you would criticize about the scholarship landscape and its accessibility?
From the field of future teachers, we currently have an understandable recruitment problem. This is a little unfortunate because we also see great potential for excellent young academics here, but they are not choosing this path. In addition, the psycho-social support factor is certainly an increasingly important focus, for which there are a variety of counselling services, but which are not in demand to the necessary extent. More educational work is needed in this area.
How can all teaching staff, not just liaison lecturers, contribute to promoting students' scholarship success?
Regular colloquia are key, as they not only serve to support and advise the individual work process, but also provide an important space for mutual peer support and are perhaps the first significant academic network.
Is there anything else you would like to say on this topic?
Overall, I would like to express my thanks to all study funding organisations, because they are an important lever for the further development of social justice.
