Doctoral Studies

Advance your UAS career!

The HAWKarriere mentoring program of the Universities of Applied Sciences (Hochschulen für Angewandte Wissenschaften = HAW) as part of the federal-state program FH-Personal is a cross-university mentoring program for young academics, lecturers and newly appointed professors (mentees).

In the HAWKarriere program, mentees are individually supported on their path of personal and professional development. The HAWKarriere mentoring program offers them the opportunity to gain clarity about their next career steps or how to deal with current challenges, to set individual goals and to tackle them in a self-determined manner with the support of suitable mentors (usually HAW professors). The program is based on a collaboration between several universities in order to offer participants a broad spectrum of experiences and perspectives for exchange. It is primarily aimed at the universities participating in the HAWKarriere mentoring program and can be opened up to other HAWs in Baden-Württemberg in the future. 

As advisors, knowledge brokers, role models, career advisors or door openers, the individually addressed mentors offer the mentees support in questions relating to professional and career planning with the overarching goal of an UAS professorship or its design. As experts in their field, mentors can provide well-founded insights into the current professional world of the UAS professorship and advise and support their mentees in a variety of ways.

Possible topics within the mentoring relationship:

• Professional and career planning
• Application coaching
• Insights into the day-to-day work of a professor 
• Professional / academic exchange
• Building and expanding (professional) networks
• Challenges on the path to a UAS professorship+ International career / stays abroad
• Cooperation with practice partners
• Further development of leadership and social skills
• Transmission: transferring research content into practice
• Support offers, e.g. for external funding, third-party funds
• Compatibility of family and career / life-work balance
   

Who can be a mentee?

You have a connection to one of the 9 participating UAS in Baden-Württemberg, e.g. as:
 

• Former or current doctoral candidate
• Post-doc
• Adjunct lecturer
• Newly appointed professor
   

Who can be a mentor?
 

• Your mentoring commitment is for at least 1 year
• You are motivated and enjoy passing on experience and knowledge to the mentees
• You are a professor at an UAS or an experienced and suitable person from the academic, Economics, administrative or cultural sector

With the following experiences we would like to offer an insight into the possibilities of cooperative doctoral studies.

Daniela Kahlke: “I’m glad for the on-site solution and that my primary supervisor is not at a distant university.”

Daniela Kahlke is employed at RWU at the Faculty of Social Work, Health and Nursing. She is doing her doctorate in cooperation with the neighboring University of Education Weingarten. She receives funding by the state of Baden-Württemberg for three years through the “HAW-Prom” program. The working title of her dissertation is: “Cultures of teaching in undergraduate degree programs for midwifery in Germany – an explorative-qualitative study.” The dissertation was submitted for examination in December 2021.

Daniela Kahlke studied at RWU and at the University of Education Weingarten. For her doctorate, she says, “my main focus was on finding balance between a doctorate and family life.” The scholarship and part-time employment at RWU enabled her to create the optimal conditions for herself.

“Along the way, I’ve received a lot of support from my supervisor and a number of people at RWU as well as from my supervisor at the University of Education.” For the supervision of her thesis, Daniela Kahlke says she is stationed at a number of different locations. In addition to discussions with her primary supervisor at the University of Education and secondary supervisor at RWU, there is the doctoral candidate colloquium at RWU as well as an interdisciplinary colloquium and the doctoral candidate convention at the University of Education. “I’m glad for the on-site solution and that my primary supervisor is not at a distant university,” says Daniela Kahlke, “I can work very well with the feedback I get.”

Nayan Kadam: “In the construct with two supervisors at two different universities I consider an advantage for me.”

I’m in Germany to do something,” says Nayan Kadam. And he indeed has a full schedule: He is employed at the Faculty of Technology and Management as coordinator of the International Academy. and is doing his doctorate on cultural influences in global account management in cooperation with the University of Bamberg. “There is some work on cultural influences in international key account management, but I’m probably the first to investigate this specifically with regard to cooperation between German and Indian companies,” says the 28-year-old.

The contact to the University of Bamberg came about through the supervisor of his master's thesis, Prof. Dr. Barbara Niersbach. He is now supervised by Barbara Niersbach at RWU and has a first examiner at the University of Bamberg.

Nayan Kadam sees an advantage in this arrangement with two supervisors at two different universities. The short distances at the comparatively small UAS mean that it is always easy for him to contact someone. He then meets with both professors twice a semester and can therefore also benefit from the university’s structures.