{"id":949,"date":"2025-09-09T11:33:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/?p=949"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:40:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:40:33","slug":"financing-your-doctorate-as-a-first-gen-academic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/2025\/09\/09\/financing-your-doctorate-as-a-first-gen-academic\/","title":{"rendered":"Financing your Doctorate as a First-Gen Academic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Alina Franziska Becker<\/a>, doctoral researcher and long-standing member of ArbeiterKind.de, discusses financial barriers and social differences during the doctorate. In this interview, she shares her experiences on how background and money influence the decision to pursue a doctorate \u2013 and what support first-generation doctoral candidates need to successfully pursue their path. Find additional links to help you get started with your doctorate here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audio <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

highlights<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n

„For someone who is a first-generation academic and perhaps also has care responsibilities, it’s not so easy to do the unpaid work that is expected. And it’s certainly also a structural problem in academia that it’s simply common practice to expect so much unpaid work.“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

„I thought to myself, the main thing is that my PhD is funded. I am aware that both a job and a PhD scholarship have advantages and disadvantages. [\u2026]. But I didn’t have the luxury of choosing what suited me best. Instead, I really thought, okay, whatever opportunity I get, I’ll take it.“<\/p>\nAlina Franziska Becker, volunteer at ArbeiterKind.de<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

SUMMARY<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

[Note: This interview was conducted in German. You can find a full English translation here<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This episode features Alina Franziska Becker, a doctoral candidate and research assistant at LMU Munich and mother of two kids. Alina talks about the struggles faced by first-generation doctoral students, particularly in securing funding for their doctorate. She shares her own challenges with financial support and juggling a scholarship with a university job, emphasizing how crucial financial stability is for people from non-academic families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alina urges prospective doctoral candidates to explore different funding options and to discuss their research topics early. She highlights both the pros and cons of a variety of funding options, noting for example that many scholarships might not provide unemployment benefits and that university jobs can result in a lot more work in practice than is noted in the contract. Alina notes the pressure of unpaid work in academia for first-generation students, reflecting on how these issues are often ignored by those who are more familiar with academia from an early stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alina also takes part in ArbeiterKind.de, a German organisation that helps individuals from non-academic backgrounds. She became involved there after a lecture by the organisation\u2019s founder that resonated with her experiences. Alina recommends their mentoring and study groups, and also discusses overall potential changes needed in funding to make academia more accessible, particularly for first-generation academics. She emphasizes the importance of networks for scholarships and expresses the need for a supportive environment where a first-generation status is viewed positively. Lastly, she offers encouragement to those considering a doctorate, advising them to persist despite challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In dieser Folge ist Alina Franziska Becker zu Gast \u2013 Doktorandin und wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der LMU M\u00fcnchen sowie zweifache Mutter. Alina spricht \u00fcber die H\u00fcrden, mit denen Promovierende aus Nicht-Akademiker-Haushalten konfrontiert sind, insbesondere bei der Finanzierung ihrer Promotion. Sie schildert ihre eigenen Erfahrungen mit der finanziellen Absicherung und der Kombination von Stipendium und Universit\u00e4tsjob; dabei betont sie, wie entscheidend finanzielle Stabilit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Menschen aus nicht-akademischen Familien ist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alina ermutigt angehende Doktorand:innen, sich \u00fcber verschiedene Finanzierungsm\u00f6glichkeiten zu informieren und fr\u00fchzeitig \u00fcber ihre Forschungsthemen zu sprechen. Sie beleuchtet die Vor- und Nachteile unterschiedlicher Finanzierungswege und weist beispielsweise darauf hin, dass viele Stipendien keinen Anspruch auf Arbeitslosengeld begr\u00fcnden und Universit\u00e4tsjobs in der Praxis oft einen deutlich h\u00f6heren Arbeitsaufwand mit sich bringen als vertraglich festgelegt ist. Zudem thematisiert sie den Druck durch unbezahlte Arbeit im Wissenschaftsbetrieb, der Promovierende aus Nicht-Akademiker-Familien besonders belastet, und reflektiert dar\u00fcber, wie diese Problematik oft von jenen \u00fcbersehen wird, die schon fr\u00fch mit dem akademischen Umfeld vertraut sind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alina engagiert sich zudem bei ArbeiterKind.de, einer Organisation, die Menschen aus nicht-akademischen Elternh\u00e4usern unterst\u00fctzt. Sie begann, sich bei der Organisation zu engagieren, nachdem sie einen Vortrag der Gr\u00fcnderin geh\u00f6rt hatte, der ihre eigenen Erfahrungen widerspiegelte. Sie empfiehlt die Mentoring- und Studiengruppen der Organisation und diskutiert dar\u00fcber hinaus, welche Ver\u00e4nderungen im Finanzierungssystem n\u00f6tig w\u00e4ren, um den Wissenschaftsbetrieb zug\u00e4nglicher zu machen \u2013 insbesondere f\u00fcr Akademiker:innen der ersten Generation. Sie unterstreicht die Bedeutung von Netzwerken im Stipendienwesen und pl\u00e4diert f\u00fcr ein unterst\u00fctzendes Umfeld, in dem der Status als Akademiker:in der ersten Generation positiv wahrgenommen wird. Abschlie\u00dfend macht sie all jenen Mut, die eine Promotion in Erw\u00e4gung ziehen, und r\u00e4t ihnen, trotz aller Herausforderungen dranzubleiben.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alina Franziska Becker, doctoral researcher and long-standing member of ArbeiterKind.de, discusses financial barriers and social differences during the doctorate. In this interview, she shares her experiences on how background and money influence the decision to pursue a doctorate \u2013 and what support first-generation doctoral candidates need to successfully pursue their path. Find additional links to … \u201eFinancing your Doctorate as a First-Gen Academic\u201c<\/span> weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}