What are the goals of the Max Weber Program?
Talented young people taking responsibility and using their strengths to build a sustainable society: This is the goal that the MWP and the community of all those who are supported by and committed to the program stand for. The MWP selects students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and personal aptitude. It fosters their individual potential and encourages them to grow into socially conscious, open-minded individuals who actively contribute to society and represent Bavaria in all its diversity.
The Max Weber Program Bavaria (MWP) is a funding program of the Elite Network of Bavaria that is based on the Bayerisches Eliteförderungsgesetz (Bavarian Act on the Promotion of Elite Students) and that supports highly talented students at Bavarian universities with a scholarship. The program is operated by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.
In this mission statement, the MWP outlines its programs, goals and core values. It was developed through a broad participatory process involving current and former scholarship holders, mentors and staff members of both the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the Elite Network of Bavaria.
Everyone involved in the MWP supports the scholarship holders as they confidently forge their own paths. They encourage them to accept detours when necessary and to respect their own limits. In this way, the program offers both stability and openness, enabling students to expand their horizons with curiosity and self-confidence, in keeping with the guiding principle:
Rooted in Bavaria – open to the world.
What does the Max Weber Program represent?
The MWP is politically, religiously, and ideologically independent and firmly anchored in the values of the liberal democratic basic order. It encourages an attitude that does not rush to judgment, but rather strives for understanding, reflects critically, and respects other perspectives. Controversies are seen as opportunities for shared learning, since those who wish to take on responsibility need the ability to listen with an open mind and to stand up for their own convictions.
MWP scholarship holders are part of the Elite Network of Bavaria. The concept of “elite” can be polarizing both among scholarship holders and within society. In this context, the program promotes an understanding of the term in the sense of a responsibility elite: scholarship holders reflect on both the opportunities and the responsibilities that come with the funding, recognize and develop their strengths, and use them in service of a solidarity-based and democratic common good. In this way, the funding program has an impact on society through its individual members.
We, the scholarship holders, are students from all academic disciplines with a wide range of interests and talents, which we can deepen and expand through the MWP.
The program supports us in pursuing our plans: focusing on our studies in Bavaria while keeping an open mind, gaining international experience, acquiring practical experience and carrying out research projects.
We can take advantage of the extensive support opportunities while also actively contributing to the development of the MWP ourselves. We organize our own events and build networks both locally at our universities and throughout Bavaria.
This active participation reflects our understanding of achievement within the MWP: in addition to academic performance, it includes intrinsically motivated commitment, personal growth and collective action.
We, the mentors, are researchers and lecturers at universities who voluntarily support groups of scholarship holders from our own academic fields of study.
Individual conversations and group meetings create spaces for questions that often find little room in everyday university life. We share our expertise on academic and professional development while also providing insights into our own biographical detours and learning processes.
We see mentoring as accompanying young people on their journey of self-reflection – both as students and as individuals with their own questions about the world.
At the same time, we experience mentoring as a reciprocal learning process: the openness and curiosity of the students enrich our own academic practice as well.
We, the alumni, remain closely connected to the MWP even beyond the funding period and consider it enriching to continue being an active part of this vibrant community.
The program provides a lasting space for exchange and an evergrowing interdisciplinary network.
Within this network, we contribute voluntarily in a variety of ways: We offer scholarship holders insights into our professional fields and share guidance based on our own educational and career paths.
We contribute as lecturers at events and, as members of selection committees, open the door to future grantees into the program.
We, the staff members of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the Elite Network of Bavaria, advise scholarship holders individually and support them in all matters relating to their studies and funding.
Working closely with scholarship holders, alumni, and mentors, we design the educational program and thereby enable participants to expand their knowledge and skills.
Open, respectful, and reliable communication is especially important to us. We place great value on personal encounters – whether at universities across Bavaria or at our events. These encounters create connections that grow into a vibrant and sustainable community.
What makes the scholarship community special?
The community of scholarship holders provides a framework in which participants can actively shape their scholarship experience together, try out new ideas, make mistakes, and experience appreciation for their individuality. The supportive and benevolent environment is reflected in the friendships formed among scholarship holders. Regular get-togethers at universities across Bavaria and at events held outside the region keep them connected long after the funding period has ended. This creates a sense of community that defines the MWP and makes it unique.
These shared experiences and the personal growth toward greater self-awareness and self-confidence are the foundation of the scholarship holders' connection to the MWP, which is accompanied by pride in their own achievements and gratitude for the support they have received. This fosters the motivation and confidence to take on responsibility and make a difference in society.
