New Scholarship Program Supports Teacher Training Students in the Ruhr Region

The academic success of school students in Germany still greatly depends on their social background. What’s more, the shortage of teachers poses significant challenges for schools. Against this problematic backdrop and to sensitize prospective teachers to educational equity, the program “Lehramtsstipendium Ruhr. Deine Region. Deine Chance” (“Ruhr Teacher Training Scholarship. Your Region. Your Opportunity”) was initiated, which aims to have a positive influence on the educational biographies of school students in the Ruhr region. The scholarship supports highly motivated teacher training students at RUB, UDE and TU Dortmund University both financially and through an accompanying program. In return, the scholarship holders work as learning facilitators at schools in challenging locations. One of the 29 scholarship holders from TU Dortmund University is Sebastian Raikowski, 30, from Waltrop, who is studying to become a special educational needs teacher. He is looking forward to “training that is even more practice-oriented than commonly the case at university.”

At a ceremony at RUB on June 26, 2024, Dorothee Feller, Minister for Schools and Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, welcomed the first 70 holders of the teacher training scholarship.  “We must ensure that schools in challenging locations also get the teachers they need – every single teacher counts. The scholarship offers wide-ranging support and prepares students for an exciting as well as important profession at these very schools – and it contributes to fair educational opportunities for school students,” she said. “It is only thanks to our partners’ dedication, for which I express my sincere thanks, that we can put this program into practice.”

The RAG-Stiftung has made over €1.5m available for the scholarship. The Wübben Stiftung Bildung is financing the program’s Coordination Office and the networking of the scholarship holders with around €500,000. RUB is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the program within the UA Ruhr. Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia (Member of the Board of the RAG-Stiftung), Dr. Markus Warnke (Managing Director of the Wübben Stiftung Bildung), Professor Kornelia Freitag (Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at RUB), Professor Stefan Rumann (Vice-Rector for Studies, Teaching and Education at UDE), Professor Isabell van Ackeren-Mindl (member of the Selection and Program Committee at UDE), and Professor Wiebke Möhring (Vice President Academic Affairs at TU Dortmund University) also attended the ceremony.

Towards more educational equity in the Ruhr region

On behalf of the UA Ruhr, Professor Kornelia Freitag, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at RUB, said: “The objective of the scholarship program and the topic of educational equity are entirely in line with the self-conception of the Ruhr universities. It offers us as the University Alliance Ruhr a tremendous opportunity to pursue important goals together in the training of future teachers in the Ruhr region and at the same time to make an impact on the region. By helping to prepare even more students to work as teachers where they are particularly needed, the program will have a positive effect long after it ends. We are very proud of our students for taking on this task, and we are convinced that they will later do outstanding work at schools in challenging locations in the Ruhr region. This will motivate other prospective teachers to embark on this path themselves.”

The scholarship holders receive a monthly payment of €300 for up to three years and are able to acquire practical experience in schools in challenging locations alongside their Bachelor’s degree. They work as learning facilitators at schools in the Ruhr region selected via the Social Index for Schools . On the basis of factors such as child poverty, special educational needs, family language and school students’ experience of migration, the Social Index for Schools identifies which schools require particular support. Through non-material support and an extensive accompanying program, the prospective teachers have the opportunity to deal intensively with the topic of educational equity and to exchange thoughts and ideas with education specialists from science, politics and society.

The first participants were selected by the coordination team and a committee comprising teachers, talent scouts, lecturers, head teachers, school supervisors and staff of the scholarship program in a two-stage application process. A further 70 scholarship holders are to be selected from December 2024 onwards in the same way.