Ment15

"Should I do a doctorate after my Master's degree and pursue an academic career? And what happens after the dissertation?"

The Mentoring Program Ment15 offers Master's and doctoral students at the Faculty of Social Sciences the opportunity to find individual answers to these questions together with a mentor. The mentors are doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

From 2026 on, the program is primarily, but not exclusively aimed at women*. There is still an imbalance in academic careers in terms of the proportion of doctorates and postdoctoral qualifications, as well as in the filling of positions in favor of male* academics. Experience has shown, however, that many of the questions that arise are not gender-specific. Some uncertainties regarding an academic career, for example, tend to stem more from a non-academic family background. The Faculty Council of Faculty 15 therefore decided on October 29, 2025, to open the program to individuals who are not female as well.

Ment15 aims to provide a framework to familiarize with the possibilities of an academic career, make contacts and form networks. If there are more applicants than potential mentors, female applicants will be given preference. However, since there are fortunately many people available to serve as mentors, your chances of being considered are high.
The mentoring relationship is designed as a tandem: Mentees can discuss individual topics with their mentors in personal meetings and benefit from their wealth of experience. This can be about fundamental issues (academic career yes or no?), exploring career prospects or the compatibility of family and career.

In addition to this exchange in confidential one-to-one meetings, the mentees get to know each other at regular networking meetings in order to share their experiences before and during their doctorate and to support each other. The program runs for one year.

Ausschreibungsrunde 2026

Please send your written application in the form of the completed application form (PDF, 198 KB) by e-mail to ment15@soziologie.uni-muenchen.de by 01.07.2026.

A list of all mentors available for the 2026 call for applications can be found here (PDF, 417 KB).

The first joint networking meeting with and for all mentees in the 2026 cycle will take place in October 2026. At the networking meeting, we will get to know each other and would like to give the new mentees a few hints and tips on how to organize the mentoring relationship - applicants should therefore make a note of the date. You will receive further information about the meeting from us by e-mail in due course.

Your desired mentor is not on our list? Write to us and we will be happy to request the desired person for our program.

Involvement with Ment15

Ment15 is organized and supported on a voluntary basis by employees of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Ulrike Schwertberger (Institute of Communication and Media Research), Christian Ganser (Institute of Sociology), and Moritz Weiß (Geschwister-Scholl Institute of Political Science) are currently part of the organizational team.

We are always happy to welcome more committed employees who would like to volunteer for Ment15!
If you are interested, please send us an e-mail at any time.