The summer break is slowly coming to an end. And just like summer and the semester-free period, it’s time for us – the first doctoral student representatives at MLU Halle-Wittenberg – to say goodbye. We want to do this with a short review of the elections that took place in June 2024. This will be followed by an outlook on the upcoming constituent meeting of our successors and the tasks that await them.

More than a year before this important event for us, we had already given some thought to the following questions: How can we get more people to stand for the doctoral student representatives? How can we finally get representation, especially in the natural sciences? Because, as we have already mentioned on this blog several times, we unfortunately did not have a complete line-up. Many faculties were not staffed at all. We also had to accept a few “losses” during our two-year term of office, so that in the end there were only a few active members left. We did manage to do the important development work – contacting the university management, identifying problems and taking the first steps in the committees, as well as setting up the website and newsletter. But we certainly remained “below our capabilities”, simply because there were too few of us. Read here what we have done over the last two years: LINK

So for the last part of our election period, our top priority was to advertise as much and as intensively as possible, both analog and digital. To this end, we sent emails (several times), put up posters on campus and tried to activate all the channels we had become familiar with over the years. We set ourselves the goal of having all 9 faculties nominate at least one person.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that we were not successful. Only five (!) people, including one who had previously been active in the doctoral student representation, stood for the university elections in June. And again: the natural sciences are not represented. This means that even fewer people now have to represent the up to 2,000 doctoral students at the university. And this is true both in the respective faculties (where there are sometimes enough construction sites), as well as in the Senate and the many working groups and committees to which we are now invited. It remains to be seen whether the networking work (in Central Germany as well as nationwide) can continue in this context.

What could be the possible reasons? First of all, we unfortunately have to admit that we are not yet as widely known as we had hoped and that many professors, graduate centers, colloquia and other “multipliers” have not responded to our inquiries. It is also questionable whether the relevant contacts of doctoral candidates are even aware of our existence – without our involvement. The new doctoral student representation must find other ways to reach its target group. The newsletter (or other forms of digital accessibility) can only be the first steps here.

One reason why we were sometimes very surprised by the low response was that there were often many interested doctoral students present at our get-togethers who made it clear that they wanted to get involved. A frequent question was about the workload and the “rights and duties”. We fear that potential successors were often afraid of a two-year commitment. We will therefore ensure that in future, the promo representation – similar to the student council – is only elected for one year.

Of course, we have given some thought to how we can continue – despite the further reduction in the number of members of our representation. After all, the tasks are not getting any less and the new doctoral student representation is facing many challenges with topics such as the amendment of the WissZvG, the state graduate scholarship and the reorganization of MLU. On the one hand, we will limit ourselves to core issues in future and will no longer be able to be present at every meeting. On the other hand – and this is much more positive – we will accept the offer of some doctoral candidates and involve non-elected members in the work that lies beyond membership in official committees: Our get-together, possible actions and stands as well as this website.

Despite this somewhat difficult starting position, we wish the new doctoral student representatives constituted this week all the best and every success for the next two years. We would also like to invite all doctoral students to get actively involved! The doctoral student council – like the student council – is only elected for one year.

This text was translated with the help of DeepL.