University Teaching Award
In 2024, the University of Freiburg honoured the extraordinary teaching achievements of two scholars with the University Teaching Award, which included prize money of 5,000 euros per person.
Dr Andrea Kuhnert, Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg and lecturer at the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, received the award for “PsyMent Freiburg.” The modular course programme was designed in an evidence-based manner according to the requirements of medical students. It uses various learning and teaching formats to teach coping strategies for maintaining mental health during studies and at work. PsyMent can be transferred to other courses of study for which a high level of mental stress is characteristic. Students of law and psychology are already benefiting from this.
Dr Wiebke Semper-Hogg, Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg and the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, was also considered. She combines innovative technologies – from extended reality to interactive learning objective control – with proven didactic methods to activate and inspire students. It is fitting that she integrates a dental podcast and online materials into her teaching concept. By combining various characteristics of a dedicated university teacher in a special way, Semper-Hogg has succeeded in redesigning the way radiology is taught.
Special prize for outstanding studentinvolvement
The award for exemplary student involvement that directly benefits other students and/or society was also given to two recipients. The prize money of €1,000 was split equally between the winners.
Among the prize winners are medical students Celine Hansmann, Hanna Hofmaier, Carolin Neufischer and Laura Sohler, who are jointly implementing the “First Aid For All” project. With workshops and training, they want to enable the population to perform cardiac massage in an emergency and thus save lives. The impact of “First Aid For All” is very high, as Germany has a lot of catching up to do in this area in international comparison.
Student Klara Oehler, who has been active in university politics for many years, campaigning for student issues, received the award for her overall commitment. Among other things, she is active as a tutor, in the Senate, in several student councils, in the ombudsman’s office for studies and teaching, the structural and development commission, and the Senate commission for gender equality issues.
Administration Prize
The newly established University of Freiburg Administration Prize honours employees from administration, service and technology who make a special contribution to the smooth running of the University’s administrative processes and support research, teaching and services. Individuals or teams from these areas could be nominated in the categories of process optimisation/quality management, customer service and team/collaboration. A total of 31 individuals (25 women and six men) and 26 teams were nominated for the prize. While one award winner was originally planned, the jury decided on two winners based on the compelling reasons given, each of whom will receive a prize of 1,500 euros.
The administrative prize for an individual went to Monika Blasy, head of the Faculty of Law’s administration, in the categories of customer service and team collaboration. She was nominated by the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Law and the elected student representatives. The letters explaining the decision highlighted her commitment to a sustainably positive working atmosphere and the successful inclusion of chronically ill colleagues – as well as her positive overall impact on the faculty administration and the outstanding cooperation with the student representatives.
‘CL:Ose Chemisches Laboratorium: Online Services’ is the name of the programme for which Verónica González Segovia and Manfred Bär, both from the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, received the administrative prize as a team. They were nominated in the categories of process optimisation, customer service and team collaboration for the cross-departmental development of their comprehensive programme for chemicals management and accounting.
Freiburg prizes for the promotion of young talents
The University of Freiburg is very proud to announce and award numerous prizes for the promotion of young scientists every year, the prize money of which is provided by generous donors.