Support Circle
An academic career comes with very special challenges, for example, high demands in self-organisation, uncertain financial prospects and extensive time commitments, to name just a few. Sometimes sharing one’s thoughts and experience with other women academics at the University of Münster can lead to the most helpful answers and productive perspectives on such problems. Networking with researchers in other disciplines can open one’s eyes to unusual and oftentimes obvious solutions. This mutual support strengthens everyone involved and builds confidence to forge ahead on one’s career path.
How?
The Support Circle is managed by a professional mediator, and participants receive an introduction into collegial-counselling methods. In contrast to supervision, collegial consultation, or intervision, focuses on providing solution-oriented, case-based advice among coequal professionals. The goal of collegial consultation is to have all participants contribute their wealth of experience in a resource-oriented manner so that everyone may benefit from it. Following an introductory get-together, the participants meet every six to eight weeks in a self-organised group (five to eight people) for about two hours, during which they provide each other feedback and suggest ideas for dealing with questions, problems and strategies related to academic careers.
Who?
The Support Circle is open to all women academics of the University of Münster – from doctoral candidates to associate professors.