Working Group for Education and Social Inequality

Current studies show that students’ socio-cultural origins can have a considerable effect on their success at university, or rather on the reason for dropping out of a study program. This working group will develop suitable strategies to reduce the problems related to social inequality.

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The working group focuses on raising awareness of socio-economic and educational-cultural factors for all those involved with the university, particularly lecturers and information centers. These include:

  • Unequal (general) requirements for entering higher education
  • The fact that some students need to earn a living and finance their degree by taking on casual or part-time work;
  • A lack of contact with people from an academic background either within the immediate family or in their friendship group who they could go to with issues related to university.

Factors such as these and a feeling of social shame related to their socio-cultural background can prove to be considerable obstacles for some university students.

Concepts and projects

In order to enable it to work effectively in this field, the working group is currently developing concepts and projects that take the subject of diversity into account. These will support students, both at the beginning of their studies and later, to recognize any deficits and to deal with these in a practical way, e.g. by attending relevant crash-courses, peer-to-peer offers, or receiving support with planning their study program. Measures such as these help to reduce high drop-out rates, but also to encourage talents that may otherwise have remained undiscovered. Other subjects will also benefit from the specific socio-cultural experiences of these students.

The working group meets twice or three times each semester. Everyone is welcome, just send us an Email.

Please remember that if you work whilst studying, you don’t necessarily have to adhere to the regular period of study – it is possible to move some modules to a later date. The regular period of study is intended for students who can dedicate themselves to their studies full time – i.e. 40 hours a week. If you have any questions about planning your individual study program or which modules it would make sense to postpone, please contact your academic advisor.

Contact to the Working Group for Education and Social Inequality

This image shows Fabian Dirscherl

Fabian Dirscherl

 

Program management; Research and Teaching Associate

This image shows Yvonne Zimmermann

Yvonne Zimmermann

Dr.

Akademische Rätin und Studiengangsmanagerin

This image shows Claus Baumann

Claus Baumann

Dr. phil.

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, GWP-Arbeitsbereichsleiter Philosophie

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