Students and doctoral candidatesfrom almostall disciplines applied forthe first Bertha von Suttner-Studienwerk (BvS) scholarship. The spectrum ranges from the natural sciences and engineering to the social sciences, humanities and cultural studies through to artistic subjects. The selection committee of the BvS now faces the difficult task of choosing the ten candidates who will receive the “Suttner Scholarship” for the winter semester 2021/22 from the more than 160 applications received.
“We are overwhelmed by the quantity as well as the quality of the applications received,” explains Tobias Wolfram from the Federal Working Group of Humanist Students (BAG), which the Suttner-Studienwerk founded together with the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), the Humanist Academy Germany (HAD) and the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs) at the beginning of 2021. “In view of the fact that this was our first call for applications and we were unable to run any extensive advertising campaigns, you can imagine how great the actual need for humanist scholarships is in Germany. We therefore appeal to German politicians to support the Humanist Studienwerk in the same way as the religiously oriented Studienwerke!”
In contrast to the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim study organizations, the BvS receives no state funding. The funds for the BvS have so far been raised solely by the participating organizations. “For this reason, we can unfortunately only award ten scholarships per winter semester,” says Wolfram, who sits on the board of the Bertha von Suttner-Studienwerk together with Anja Krüger-Chan (HVD), Ralf Schöppner (HAD) and Michael Schmidt-Salomon (gbs). “As the vast majority of applicants have put an enormous amount of effort into submitting their documents, I already regret that we have to reject over 90 percent of them. All the more reason for me to hope that we will receive support from the state in the foreseeable future.”
In the coming weeks, the Studienwerk’s selection committee will review the documents received and invite the best candidates to virtual interviews. By the end of September, the ten “Suttner Scholarship Holders of the Year 2021” should have been selected so that the funding can flow in time for the start of the winter semester. Further information on the Bertha von Suttner-Studienwerk (BvS), which is supported by numerous public figures, including many academics, can be found on the BvS-Studienwerk website.
