Presidential Board of the University of Paderborn awards teaching prizes and graduate scholarships
Innovative teaching concepts, special commitment to student support and outstanding doctoral projects: In order to further improve the quality of teaching and research at the University of Paderborn, the Executive Board regularly awards prizes and scholarships. Future-oriented projects, modern teaching and learning formats and young academics are to be supported intensively in this way. Since this year's "Teaching Day" and "Research Day" could not take place as usual due to the corona pandemic, the university management honoured excellent achievements of its scientists during a small circle on Thursday, August 20.
Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, Vice President for Research and Young Academics, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner, Vice President for Teaching, Studies and Quality Management, both agreed, at the award ceremony, that special commitment of young academics and teachers deserves great recognition. They were delighted with the many imaginative project ideas and congratulated the prize winners and scholarship holders for their outstanding achievements.
Awards for innovation and quality in teaching
The Presidential Board awarded several scientists the "Förderpreis für Innovation und Qualität in der Lehre" (Award for Innovation and Quality in Teaching) for their novel approaches to improving the quality of teaching at universities. With this prize, the university management wants to encourage scientists to test and implement innovative concepts. The award and the associated funding of around 20,000 euros went to Dr. Dagmar Festner from the Institute of Educational Science for her project "How do I react when ...? - repertoire of actions for challenging teaching-learning situations. Accompanying Seminar Emotional and Social Development". Also honored with the award were Prof. Dr. Lothar van Laak, Katharina Blum, Dr. Michael Heidgen and Verena Witschel, all from the Institute for German and Comparative Literature, for their joint project "Baroque Paderborn digital. Building a learning platform by students for and with students". In addition to the award, the working group led by Prof. Dr. van Laak will receive a grant of around 33,000 euros.
The "Förderpreis für Innovation und Qualität in der Lehre" (Award for Innovation and Quality in Teaching) is intended to provide start-up financing for scientists to realize their teaching concept ideas, to conduct pilot phases to improve the quality of teaching or to further develop existing concepts.
Teaching award for young scientists
The university management honored special achievements of young scientists in teaching, advising and supporting students with the "Teaching Award for Young Scientists". Under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Schöppner, the Teaching Award Commission honored a cooperation project between scientists from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Cultural Studies. The junior scientists Bowen Deng and Dennis Hambach, ( both from the Department of Design and Drive Technology) and Hongyu Zhu ( from the Department of German as a Second Language/German as a Foreign Language) were awarded the prize for their teaching project "Fachspezifisches Chinesisch trifft technisches Deutsch für ausländische Studierende" (Subject-specific Chinese meets technical German for foreign students). With this project, the young scientists are responding to a request from students: In order to be able to benefit even more from the cooperation between the University of Paderborn and the Chinese Qingdao University of Science and Technology (QUST) in the field of mechanical engineering. Also included in the project is research into how more authentic communication with native speakers can enable students to learn subject-specific or technical terms more easily.
The aim of the award, which is accompanied by a total of 15,000 euros in prize money, is to recognize teaching concepts and methods of an outstanding and exemplary nature and to make visible the importance of university teaching for the training of young academics.
Graduate scholarships for outstanding doctoral projects
In addition, the Presidential Board awarded scholarships to highly qualified young scientists who have achieved above-average results in their studies and whose doctoral projects are expected to make an important contribution to research. This year, under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer, the Research Commission recommended funding for three applicants. All four scholarship holders will receive a monthly grant of 2,000 euros each.
Brenda Sänger, Faculty of Cultural Studies, was pleased to receive a basic scholarship with a funding period of three years. The research topic of the scholarship is "Motivation for learning German as a foreign language in specialized studies - a mixed-methods study using the example of Chinese students in technical subjects". Muhammad Awais, Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, received a final scholarship for up to one year for "High-level Synthesis of Approximate Circuits" and Elena Fingerhut, Faculty of Cultural Studies, with "Implicit Structures in the Context of Media Address Concepts". A doctoral fellowship in the field of gender research, also with a funding period of three years, went to Kirsten Behr, Faculty of Cultural Studies, for "Ecologies of the Female: Body, Catastrophe and Nature in French-Caribbean Literature".
