Students evaluated scholarship program – University of Innsbruck
Students of the module “Economic Education Research Competences” supported Heike Welte in evaluating the scholarship program for doctoral students at the University of Innsbruck. Your work delivers good, interesting results that are also relevant for the further development of the promotion of young researchers. Because the project had a concrete practical relevance, the motivation of the students was particularly high.
Doctoral scholarships from the University of Innsbruck have already been awarded to more than 1,000 young scientists to promote young scientists. In order to obtain a sound basis for assessing the achievement of objectives of this instrument and thus for further development, the instrument was evaluated in the summer semester 2022 by Heike Welte from the Institute for Organization and Learning on behalf of the Vice Rectorate for Research. In addition to a quantitative survey of all people who have received the scholarship so far, a qualitative survey was also carried out among PhD students from various departments.
This second part of the evaluation took place as part of the module “Economic Education Research Competences”. Students of the master’s degree in business education were actively involved in the evaluation with the aim of learning to “do research” on the basis of a specific research project.
The module – consisting of a lecture and a seminar part – is basically aimed at developing the research-methodical competence of the Master’s students. The university didactic concept is geared towards an interlocking of theoretical input (including an overview of different methodological and methodical approaches to empirical social research) and the subsequent, actual implementation of research designs developed by the students themselves.
In the lecture, the 16 students, together with Annette Ostendorf, dealt with the theoretical basics of evaluation in educational contexts. In the seminar, the students got to know the individual research steps with and accompanied by Michael Thoma and then actually implemented them. The central tasks for the students were clarifying the research assignment and the associated goals with the clients (Vice Rectorate for Research, projekt.service.büro and Heike Welte), developing the research instrument, organizing and conducting the survey at the various faculties as well as the evaluation, interpretation and presentation of the results.
The survey was carried out by means of individual and group interviews in the study programs of architecture, business administration, biology, chemistry, education and educational sciences, mathematics, philosophy, law, language and media studies as well as theology. Central questions and results relate to knowledge about this instrument and possible (future) information channels, motives and barriers for the application, opportunities for improvement and other support options for completing the PhD program.
On June 22, the final presentation of the students took place in the presence of Vice Rector Ulrike Tanzer, Katharina Pöllmann (VR for Research), Katharina Steinmüller (projekt.service.büro) and Heike Welte (Institute for Organization and Learning).
The evaluation project yielded very good, interesting results that were also relevant for the further development of the promotion of young people.
For the highly committed students, numerous important “real” learning experiences were associated with this research project, such as finding interviewers, conducting interviews, discussing results with “clients”. The motivation of the students in the project was very high, which they justified by saying that the results “don’t end up in a drawer”.