Seven students at The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) have been distinguished for their special commitment as tutors. Walter Kalembach, Lena Merkelbach, Roland Willy Braun and Sarah-Sophie Juttner, Sebastian Tiemerding, Jelena Pütz and Elvan Kaya received the Tutor Award, which has been presented annually in several categories since 2011, at a reception held last Thursday on the Mönchengladbach campus.

Background: There are many students at the HSNR who accompany their fellow students through everyday campus life. As specialist tutors, for example, they help them prepare for exams in terms of content and during lectures, while revision tutors support those who have to repeat an examination in small study groups.

First semester tutors look after new students at the start of their studies - as globe tutors, they also support international students who need to find their way around Germany and their studies and want to make contacts. eTutors provide support in digital teaching.

The tutor program, which has been qualifying students with a certificate for over 20 years, prepares them ideally for their work in terms of methodology and didactics. In the training courses, tutors and revision tutors learn valuable key competencies that will also help them later in their careers.

Every year, the Tutor Award is presented along with a certificate and a non-cash prize. This year, the jury chose Mechanical and Process Engineering student Walter Kalembach (first-semester tutorial), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students Sarah-Sophie Juttner and Roland Willy Braun (team-teaching specialist tutorial), Lena Merkelbach (revision tutorial) from the Oecotrophology faculty, Chemistry student Sebastian Tiemerding (specialist tutorial) and economics student Elvan Kaya (eTutorial). Jelena Pütz from the Health Sciences faculty received the special prize for her information tutorial.

The jury includes award winners from the previous year, professors and academic staff.

The nationwide "Day of Tutorial Work" also took place at the same time on June 6 with numerous activities. The tutorial programs of the institutions that, like the HSNR, belong to the "Netzwerk Tutorenarbeit an Hochschulen" (Network for Tutoring at Universities) want to thank students for their commitment and help them to exchange ideas with other fellow students and lecturers on site.

The network is sponsored by the "Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre" foundation, among others, in order to make tutorial work more visible in the university landscape and to anchor it sustainably. The money will be used to improve the quality of teaching education - for example through continuing education and exchange events.