Our doctoral scholarship holders

Current status of the doctorate

Ms. Lück's doctoral project includes expert interviews and a field phase. Both have already been carried out. She is currently evaluating the collected data and writing it down in order to establish theoretical references and formulate a concept for political education in open child and youth work in the next step.

Recommendations for future doctoral scholarship holders

“The challenges of a doctorate are manifold: following the red thread, writing, time management, publishing, networking. University of Applied Sciences graduates are also subject to special requirements in order to officially start a doctoral project.

At the same time, there is a lack of suitable offers to compensate for missing content from the UAS degree program (compared to university degree programs). Appropriate networks for professional exchange during the doctorate, particularly with regard to research methods, are also primarily available in a university context. Especially in social work, a constant balancing act between the worlds, the practice of social work and the theories of the related sciences is necessary,” reports Ms. Lück.

Ms. Lück therefore recommends a doctoral colloquium for graduates of universities of applied sciences, in which supportive offers are made available and a continuous exchange between the doctoral candidates takes place.

Current status of the doctorate

For the preparation of the laboratory and field study, preliminary tests were carried out, which were published as part of a doctoral consortium and in a conference publication or are currently being prepared for further publication.

A software solution for stress induction and documentation was also implemented for the laboratory phase. In addition to the actual stress induction, the software also includes the rest phase and the questionnaires for recording subjective stress levels.

The results of the stress-inducing tasks, the answers to the questionnaires and the progression of the experiment over time are automatically documented in the background. The Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test3 serves as the basis for stress induction.

The laboratory phase is currently being prepared. A positive vote from an ethics committee is required for the implementation. The corresponding application is in preparation and, in addition to the laboratory phase, also includes the field phase so that the entire study design can be mapped.

The next steps of Ms. Welk's doctorate include the completion and submission of the ethics application, the acquisition of test subjects and the implementation of the laboratory phase, in which the test subjects perform stress induction tasks while medical measurement data is collected using a fitness tracker and a medical wristband. Based on the preliminary examinations, the evaluation is then carried out, which enables the selection of suitable test devices for the field study. The publication of the laboratory phase is planned as a journal publication.

Recommendations for future doctoral students

Ms. Welk recommends that future doctoral scholarship holders always consciously focus on their doctorate. “Especially if you have a job in addition to the scholarship, you tend to focus on the tasks from your job, as these are familiar and often easier to manage. However, the focus should always be on your personal progress through the doctorate, which you should always keep in mind,” says Ms. Welk.

Further information on Ms. Welk

Scientific career and doctoral project

Further information on Ms. Naumann

Scientific career
Doctoral project