Mentoring Program

The Mentoring Programme at the Faculty of Theology supports the advancement of young academics. It offers an introduction to the scholarly community by familiarising students with the spoken and unspoken rules of academic research. It promotes informal and formal networking, and it thus enables access to relevant information.

The Women’s Mentoring Programme was conducted for the first time at our Faculty from June 2012 to August 2013. The programme has also been open to men since its third round in Spring 2017. 

1-3 ECTS can be awarded for participating in the mentoring programme.

One-to-one mentoring is helpful when it comes to the complex issues and decisions that affect the course of yoru academic career. Mentees are placed with emntors who help them reflect on where they are in their individual career, and they help them expand their netowrk. For the mentors, the transfer of their own experience is central to the process, promoting understanding and instrumental knowledge of how to plan and pursue a successful academic career.

Target Group

• People who are habilitating
• People who are writing doctorates
• People with a Master’s who want to do a doctorate
• Postdocs who want to do a habilitation

Program Elements

Three elements characterise the Mentoring Programme:

1. Support programme with workshops for new researchers
2. One-to-One mentoring between new researchers and established professors
3. Individual coaching for new reserachers

Flexible Mentoring Programme

Since September 2020, it is become possible to join the Mentoring Programme at any time. An individual mentoring agreement lays out which workshops you will attend over approximately 18 months (in addition to the formalities of one-to-one mentoring). Some of the workshops will continue to be primarily for women theologians while, as in the past, there will also be cooperation with other mentoring programmes at the University of Bern.

Further information/application: Dr. Claudia Kohli Reichenbach (claudia.kohli@theol.unibe.ch), Programme Manager

17  Women – 17 Paths

17 Women Theolgoians Describe their Careers

The spectrum of careerpaths for women theologians with doctorates is broad. Some have stayed in academia after graduating and are now professors, while others have gone into practice, and still others have combined both paths. Sometimes an academic career follows a “classic” path and there are no major obstacles. But sometimes the career path is quite rocky, and sometimes women theologians must be creative even as many things repeatedly do not go according to plan—no matter what, there are always people ready to support them.

You can order the print edition “You Set My Feet on Solid Ground” by Prof. Dr. Angela Berlis (see contact details).