Digital Introduction

Dear new scholarship holders,

Welcome to the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. We would like to congratulate you on your scholarship and on becoming a member of the Rosa Luxemburg family.

When speaking German within the foundation, we use the informal “du” and hope that this is alright with you. We don’t have the opportunity of getting to know you personally at the moment, unfortunately, and our introductory seminar will take place digitally for the second year in a row. Nevertheless, we hope you have a safe arrival, and look forward to friendly interaction and to getting our work together off to a great start.

This Video message from director of the study agency Jane Angerjärv and deputy director of the study agency Marcus Hawel welcomes all new scholarship holders to the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

What this dossier contains...

The following introduction to our funding practice is an orientation aid that will familiarize you with the study agency and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung as a whole. It offers an overview of financal as well as additional practical forms of support.

In the first tile of the dossier, we introduce the study agency, and outline the responsibilities of study agency members and how you can get in touch with them.

The second tile provides scholarship holders funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with details about their financial support and what their scholarship comprises. It also includes information about the period of funding, options for extending funding, and other general conditions. You can also access information here regarding documents that you need to submit and their deadlines – this section in particular should be read carefully.

The third tile is for international scholarship holders funded by the Federal Foreign Office (AA) and contains essential information regarding funding and the documents that scholarship holders need to submit. Conditions for these scholarship holders differ in certain ways to BMBF funding conditions.

Last but not least there is the Self-Service-Portal that you can use to send us proposals and reports and to learn more about bureaucratic processes. Please remember to always keep track of deadlines and ongoing processes – for the most part, the system relies on personal responsibility.

In the fourth tile you can learn everything you need to know about the practical support we offer students. We follow a participatory and emancipatory concept of education that guides the way we work with our colleagues, and with our scholarship holders too. Our current study agency events programme can also be viewed here.

The fifth tile contains everything you need to know about self-governance as a scholarship holder. If you want to know the meaning of the abbreviations VV (general assembly of scholarship holders), SPR (scholarship speaker council), PI (PhD initiative), AWA (selection committee), AK (work groups), and RG (regional groups), you’re in the right place.

The sixth tile offers an introduction to other foundations and bodies. If you need to contact any of these for reasons of collaboration, we are happy to provide guidance.

More and more, former scholarship holders have decided to pursue a PhD. For this reason, the seventh tile covers an introduction to successfully completing a PhD. We share our thoughts on the four areas in which students can approach doctoral studies from a left-wing perspective, and the cumulative effects of these. Anyone considering doing a PhD will find this section of interest. Here, you can also watch some of our new scholarship holders present the topics of their PhDs in short videos (200 seconds in length) - we hope you enjoy them.

We are delighted that you are part of our scholarship programme, look forward to working together, and hope that your time with us will be rewarding. We’d like to encourage you to stay in touch and to let us know if you are experiencing any difficulties. Any concerns you have will be handled confidentially, and we will support and advise you to the best of our abilities. 

Kind regards,

euer Studierenden-Bereich

Table of contents

Tile 01: Introduction to the Studienwerk

  • Development of the study agency
  • Responsibilities and contact information
  • Principles of good communication

Tile 02: Introduction to financal support (scholars BMBF)

  • General information about the scholarship
  • Scholarship amount and additional components
  • Earning opportunities
  • Interruption of funding (funding break)
  • Subject change
  • Funding for studying abroad
  • End of funding period
  • Transferring from BA to MA
  • Options to extend scholarship
  • Documents to be submitted & deadlines
  • Self-service portal (SSP) & the self-governance principle

Tile 03: Introduction to financial support (scholars Federal Foreign Office (AA))

  • General information about the scholarship
  • Scholarship amount
  • Reports
  • Funding period
  • Studying abroad
  • Interruption of funding (funding break)
  • Self-service portal (SSP) & the self-governance principle

Tile 04: Introduction to practical support

  • Participatory and emancipatory educational concept
  • The four pillars of practical support
  • Study agency events programme
  • Doctoral candidate workshops and yearly publication

Tile 05: Introduction of self-governance and bodies

  • General assembly (VV)
  • Scholarship speaker council (SPR)
  • Representatives of the selection committee (AWA)
  • Workgroups (AK)
  • Regional groups (RG)
  • PhD initiative (PI)

Tile 06: Introduction to other foundations - study agency as guide

  • Study agency as guide
  • Foundations and contacts
  • Discussion groups in the foundation

Tile 07: Introduction to successfully completing a PhD

  • Doing a PhD from a left-wing perspective & research questions
  • The four areas for PhDs from a left-wing perspective
  • The left-wing canon
  • Overcoming crises during a PhD
  • Literature recommendations/Guidance literature
  • My PhD in 200 seconds - PhD scholars present their research topics