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ProMotivation – Mentoring for female students and graduates in the humanities and social sciences

Making the decision to pursue a doctoral degree is not always easy. For one thing, doctoral program conditions differ in terms of funding, location, culture of the field and much more. In addition, each doctoral candidate will bring her own resources, skills, and needs to the doctoral process. It is important to harmonize these from the get-go with the challenges of the academic and scientific system. The ProMotivation mentoring program thus accompanies women students and graduates in the humanities and social sciences who are interested in pursuing a doctorate during the transitional phrase between their completion of the undergraduate degree and deciding whether to start a doctoral degree program.

In mentoring, one mentor always works together with a student or graduate in the humanities and social sciences (mentee). The mentor provides individual advice based on his or her own experience in academia. Over the course of a year, the mentees will gain authentic insights into everyday academic life, learn from former participants, and network across disciplines with students and graduates at a similar stage in their lives. At the end of the program, the mentees will reflect on their decision to pursue a doctorate.

The program has been in existence since 2011. Since then, more than 350 people have participated. It is funded by the Women Professors Program of the Federal and State Governments and implemented by the Gender Equality Office in cooperation with the Marburg University Research Academy (MARA) and the Central Academic Advising Office (ZAS).

Even though the Mentoring program is in German, some mentors provide an English One-to-One-Mentoring.