| Title: | UniMento - cross-faculty mentoring programme |
| Implementation |  |
| Field(s) of Action: | * Strucural Integration of Gender Equality |
| * Presence and Visibility | |
| * Gender-inclusive/Gender-sensitive Organisational Culture | |
| Objectives: | * Career promotion * Building a network |
| Target Group(s): | Students (undergraduate and graduate) PhD students, PhD candidates and research assistants Postdocs and mid-career scientific personnel |
| Description: | The UniMento project, introduced in June 2008, is the first cross-faculty mentoring programme at the University of Augsburg. It is a project of the university's gender mainstreaming programme. It combines specific support measures with practical and accompanying research. The mentoring concept includes mentoring modules - both one-to-one mentoring and peer mentoring - for students and female researchers. There is also a supporting programme of workshops, training, specialist presentations, tours of companies and informal networking events tailored to the specific target group. The mentoring programme is divided into two parts: * Mentoring for students: To help eliminate gender-based career stereotypes female and male students in subjects where their sex is under-represented, receive individual career planning support. On the basis of current university statistics (at Augsburg), male students in linguistics and social sciences and female students in mathematics, science, engineering and economics were identified as target groups. For one year a group of 20 students are given the opportunity to reflect on their future ambitions and plan their entry into professional life with the help of an experienced mentor in their own subject area. Specialists and managers from companies were recruited as mentors. The mentoring relationship is complemented by a supporting programme. Participants are prepared for their role as mentees, receive training in gender communication and job applications, and make useful contacts for their future careers. This support is designed to effectively assist students to get a foot on the career ladder and plan a career outside stereotypical expectations. * Mentoring programmes for early career researchers: The target group are female students who are interested in a scientific career and seeking concrete advice on career planning. It is also open to female doctoral researchers who are looking for support, career advice and peer-networking in the doctoral phase and are interested in forming a support network. The programme also supports female postdoctoral researchers (including those preparing for habilitation) who want to take advantage of peer networking and coaching to enhance their personal development and progress to the next step in their academic careers. Peer groups are formed from up to four mentees in the same discipline at the same qualification level. Through discussion and reciprocal advice, mentees receive specialist and personal support from the group. During this shared development process the group is supervised by an experienced mentor. In addition to group meetings, which take place approximately every four to six weeks, one-to-one meetings with mentors are also possible. |
| More information: | University of Augsburg (Germany) Contact: unimento@zbe.uni-augsburg.de Website: https://www.uni-augsburg.de/de/fakultaet/philsoz/dekanat/frauenbeauftragte/weitere-einrichtungen/ |
