
TANDEM & Welcome – Scholarships for university students
Since the 2022/23 academic year, the Wilo-Foundation (in its role as a trustee of the WILO-Stiftung) has been supporting the TANDEM scholarship programme of the Deutsche Universitätsstiftung (German University Foundations) as part of its efforts to promote academic talents. The programme targets “first-generation students”, i.e. students from non-academic families. What makes the programme so special is that students receive one-on-one mentoring support from a university professor in their field of study and near their university. The foundation sponsors two scholarship holders who are students in IT and engineering. In addition to the academic mentoring programme organised by the university, the two scholarship holders supported by the WILO-Stiftung also receive support from a Wilo employee taking on the role of mentor in their spare time, sharing their expertise with the scholarship holders and enabling them to gain insights into their day-to-day work.
Prior to this initiative, from 2016 to 2020, the Wilo-Foundation (as a trustee of the WILO-Stiftung) supported several IT students from Syria at TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) under the “Welcome Scholarship” programme. The programme was launched in 2015 in order to make it easier for refugees – mainly Syrians back then – to integrate into the German education system. In addition to a monthly book allowance, scholarship students receive one-on-one support from a professor in their department and field. Also, the programme includes an annual workshop dealing with specialised topics, various soft skills workshops and activities to include scholarship students in networks of the academic community.
Our funding partner:
The Deutsche Universitätsstiftung (German University Foundation) was founded in June 2009 by the Deutsche Hochschulverband (German Association of University Professors and Lecturers). The mission of the foundation is to act as the interface between academia, business and society. It sponsors scholarship students who have talent, ambition, intelligence and motivation, yet lack an academic role model.