What the research on talent-promotion foundations and scholarships shows
Talent-promotion foundations and scholarships are often seen as a springboard. What does the research say, and what doesn’t it say?
Germany’s twelve federal talent-promotion foundations (Begabtenförderungswerke, among them the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the party-affiliated foundations) support students and doctoral candidates financially and with non-financial programmes. The largest, and so far only, officially commissioned impact study surveyed 4,388 current and 1,712 former scholarship holders across what were then the eleven large foundations.1
The study measures how important scholars rate the non-financial support for their personal development, studies, career and civic engagement, not whether it leads to starting a business. The word “founding” (Gründung) does not appear anywhere in the report.1
What the study shows
The strongest effect is on personal development
On a scale from 1 to 7, respondents rated the support’s importance for their personal development highest (5.1), ahead of career development and civic engagement (4.2 each) and academic success (3.8).1
Scholars are a high-achieving group to begin with
Scholarship holders earn doctorates and study abroad more often than comparison groups. The study compares self-reports, not randomly assigned groups: those admitted are already selected for being high achievers.1
Admission itself depends on background
The chance of being admitted to a foundation has correlated with social origin since the 1970s. How much of the later differences is the effect of support and how much is selection cannot be separated from the available studies alone.2