Professorial careers for women

January 26, 2024

Today, Friday, January 26, 2024, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) officially launched the project Traumberuf Professorin Plus (Professor - a dream job for women), together with the first round of mentoring. The mentoring and qualification program aims to encourage talented women to pursue a career in teaching and research at universities. It is being funded for five years with 465,000 euros from the European Social Fund (ESF Plus) and 350,000 euros from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK).

Around 180 invited guests attended the official inaugural event at HKA, including representatives of the MWK, the rectorates of the partner universities and the mentees and mentors of the first mentoring round with 50 tandems. The program was introduced with words of welcome from the rectorates and the State Conference of Equal Opportunities Officers at Universities of Applied Sciences in Baden-Württemberg and the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (LaKof). Afterwards, the Vice-President and Professor of Air Conditioning Technology at Trier University of Applied Sciences and mentee of the first round of the predecessor project, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Beate Massa, gave an impressive insight into her career in her keynote speech and emphasized the importance of the mentoring project: "The project has opened up a new professional perspective for me and shown me unexpected and exciting areas of responsibility at the university." At the end of the official part of the programme, Isabel Nietzsche, author of several non-fiction books and a specialist in job and career topics, gave valuable impulses in her lecture "What makes mentoring successful?".

The joint project "Traumberuf Professorin Plus (TP+)" continues the successful predecessor project "Traumberuf Professorin", in which 37 of a total of 113 mentees, i.e. 33%, were appointed to a professorship within four years. For the first time, all 21 universities of applied sciences (HAW) and the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) have now joined forces under the LaKof umbrella. The participating mentees receive one-year mentoring from a professor at an HAW or DHBW, where they are shown the possibilities for an individual path to a professorship. Project manager Prof. Sissi Closs from the HKA emphasizes that "the project can be used to retain talented women at universities." An important component for a successful appointment is a qualifying accompanying program with network meetings, seminars and workshops, "because networking between women in business, the public sector and academia naturally plays a decisive role on the path to a professorship," continues Prof. Closs.