Doctoral Degree and an Award: Double Success for Elke Kümmel

Elke Kümmel did not only successfully complete her dissertation on “Structural Influences of Higher Education on Student Performance”, but she also received an Education Sciences 2020 Best Paper Award for one of her studies conducted as part of her thesis.

Her dissertation examined whether structural influences at universities impact student performance by means of three studies. On one hand, the former member of the Knowledge Construction lab analysed researchers' theoretical perspectives on learning with digital media and, on the other hand, how higher education institutions portray themselves in terms of the arrangement of their research and teaching. Her findings suggest that variables used to determine student learning outcomes in digital learning environments are related to researchers' perspectives. In addition, Elke Kümmel discovered that a university's self-presentation affects student engagement. Consequently, she was able to develop promising approaches on how the structural setup of higher education institutions could be designed to support students' development.