Project funding

"Obviously, social structures also need a certain recovery time"


Thomas Mosthaf - Head of Communication
Money for ecological, social and cultural projects
Money for ecological, social and cultural projects

The Studierendenwerk has been funding student projects on application for more than 30 years. Eligible for funding were and are all projects that have a social, ecological or cultural dimension and were submitted by a student university group, the Asten or the departments of the universities in our area of responsibility.
As a rule, funding amounts between 100 and 1,000 euros were awarded for larger projects in 2022. The annual budget of 24,000 euros was awarded after review of the projects by the Communications Department and with the approval of the management.

2022, everything back to the way it was?
By no means. We have noticed that social interactions and the willingness to implement joint projects in addition to everyday university life clearly also need a convalescence period. Basically, everything was possible again in 2022, but we still received far fewer applications than expected.
At the same time, we were quite benevolent in reviewing the applications because we knew that the new start would not be easy for many.

What is the reason?
You can already see very clearly that during the pandemic years many structures, projects and the associated people fell by the wayside. On top of that, we have four or five semesters in our target group for whom social interaction at the place of study is still completely new. For many of them, socialisation in their own studies will have been completely cancelled without replacement between 2019 and 2022.

It is therefore also quite significant that we have many more social projects that are about encounters and many fewer cultural projects and actually no ecological projects at all in 2022.
Nor can it be due to the publicity of the funding; we have announced through all our channels that there is still money in the pot. Several times.

How can you change that?
Projects don't come about because someone said you can apply for money for them, but you are there and then there might not be enough money. For our students, unfortunately, completely different issues are important right now: Where does the money for the increased energy costs come from? Why does everything cost three times as much in the supermarket? Where do I get financial help or how do I find an additional job that fits in with my studies?
If you are in this tension every day, you probably have less energy for additional projects. We won't do anything about that.

What are the prognoses?
Involvement in joint projects and the topic of soft skills was, is and will remain a very important aspect of a successful degree programme. We still believe in that. But - this is just as clear - such structures are fragile and take time to re-emerge. But we are very confident that this will happen. In any case, we continue to help ensure that there is no lack of awareness of the funding.

Your contact person for the area
Thomas Mosthaf
Head of Communication / International Affairs
Xylanderstrasse 17
76829 Landau
Tel.: +49 6341 9179 200
kultur@stw-vp.de
projects.stw-vp.de