Earning a doctorate: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Fasbender - Supervision at eye level
2023-03-06 Prof. Dr. Ulrike Fasbender studied business psychology at Leuphana and earned her doctorate at the Graduate School. Today, the researcher on work and ageing is Professor of Business and Organisational Psychology at the University of Hohenheim. She looks back fondly on her academic training at Leuphana.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Fasbender submitted her doctoral thesis after only two years and two months: "I felt scientifically well prepared, was motivated, and experienced supervision at eye level. My doctoral supervisor, Professor Jürgen Deller, gave me a lot of confidence and supported me in my research," the scientist recalls. The professor of business psychology at Leuphana had also been her supervisor for her bachelor's thesis.
For her master's degree, Ulrike Fasbender moved to the University of Mannheim, but returned to Lüneburg two years later. During her doctorate, she did research on working in older age and related to the content of her bachelor's thesis: "At the time, I had been working on demographic change. It became clear to me that an increasingly older society will also change the workplace," says Ulrike Fasbender. She did her doctorate on the topic of ‘post retirement employment’ and was a research assistant in the project ‘Transitions and Old Age Potential: Übergänge und Alternspotenziale (TOP)’ of the Federal Institute for Population Research. Across Germany, several universities conducted research on transitions to retirement and the potential of mature-aged jobseekers in the labour market, in civil society, and in the family. In 2014, Ulrike Fasbender completed her thesis entitled ‘Post-retirement Work: An Investigation of Self-Concept and Identity-related Determinants’ with top marks.
Before that, however, she was delighted to receive an award from Leuphana in recognition of her performance in the 2013/2014 academic year in the category ‘Outstanding Publication’. " For me, it was very appreciative and motivating. And an award helps when applying for jobs, too," explains Ulrike Fasbender. The scientist also gathered many contacts during her doctorate: "Jürgen Deller is a networker. He introduced me to many other researchers at conferences. I worked and published with Mo Wang, for example, even after my doctorate." The professor at the University of Florida is one of the world's most respected researchers in the field of work and ageing.
After her successful doctorate, Ulrike Fasbender joined Oxford Brooks University as a lecturer. Two years later, she returned to Germany and was appointed Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen. Ulrike Fasbender has been Professor of Business and Organisational Psychology at the University of Hohenheim since October 2021. She still looks back fondly on her time at Leuphana: "The complementary studies allowed me to look into other disciplines even as a student. That still helps me today when communicating scientific methods and findings. Our research projects are often interdisciplinary." In her doctoral studies, she covered philosophy of science, among other things, in the accompanying seminars: "I was able to deepen my knowledge from the bachelor's programme. Only recently I looked at the documents again, because I would like to emphasise philosophy of science in my teaching, too, or rather create an understanding of it."