Till Funke has supported CHANCEN eG since 2017, first as an intern and then as a working student in Witten, and was responsible for the collection and analysis of income data. We are happy that he has become our permanent team member while finishing his studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics! In April 2018 he joined our Berlin team as an IT project and research coordinator. In our interview, we discuss life in Berlin, his trip to Rwanda, and the new CHANCEN portal.
Dear Till, it’s great that you are supporting our Berlin team full time now! How do you like Berlin so far?
People, food, and trafficwise a lot. I enjoy the diverse culture and that you can get delicious food at almost every corner. Since Berlin doesn’t have the reputation of being populated by the friendliest people, I’m still surprised by how considerate and friendly people are in public. But my experience may be not so representative because it includes only a short time period during which the weather got significantly better and I often carried my, subjectively very cute, son around. And when I bike to work I actually enjoy the traffic in the city because bicycles seem to be a normal part of it, so people watch out and nobody seems surprised. I like it a lot to live and work in Berlin.
What are your main responsibilities at CHANCEN eG?
Mostly coordinating the completion and support of the software project to digitize the major organizational processes as well as supporting our research efforts by finding and combining different sources with relevant information about career development of graduates. That might sound like a stretch and it sometimes is, but an interesting common aspect of these responsibilities is the need to formalize and structure knowledge of different origins.
You are conceptualizing the new CHANCEN portal where students and universities will be able to manage their data starting next semester. What are the advantages of this new portal?
That depends on the user group, but in general the CHANCEN portal will make it easier to share relevant information with CHANCEN eG and to keep it up-to-date. Applicants will mainly profit from the timelier feedback about the status of their application and from the fact that they can sign their ISA paperless via a video ident provider. Students can easily submit changes to their data, but in many cases that won’t be necessary, because the universities can inform us easily via the CHANCEN portal about relevant changes. In a later stage of the development we also plan to provide relevant information about entry-level salaries and positions in order to prepare students for their first steps into the professional world. The CHANCEN portal will also make the lives of graduates easier because it enables them to connect with the community, share and document income changes, apply for exemptions from repayment, or access their repayment history with a few clicks. Furthermore, the structured processes should enable us to easily support a growing number of students and graduates as well as respond faster to their changing life circumstances.
In 2014, you visited Rwanda and conducted field research that helped to set the cornerstone of CHANCEN International’s engagement in Rwanda. What were the reasons for your visit and what was your impression of the country?
I financed my studies with an Income Share Agreement (ISA) and wanted to find out if it could be useful in the context of Rwanda. Furthermore I wanted to apply what I’d learned during my studies in order to learn what I still needed to learn. Together with two other Witten students and the informal support of a GIZ member I conducted qualitative field interviews with relevant stakeholders like university representatives, students, graduates, HR-managers, legal experts, and civil servants during a three month period.
Rwanda seemed at first glance surprisingly similar to Germany. It rebuilt an effective government after a horrible crime against humanity and grew economically with financial support from the international community. While the differences became more visible in the countryside, the traffic lights in the capital Kigali run with LEDs and display the remaining waiting time and the rules were obeyed. This included surprising rules against carrying goods on the head in the city, which were actually enforced by soldiers that are present in many parts of the country. This might have been related to a higher concern for appearance in general. For example, the street between the airport and city center looks particularly impressive, people want to appear as having an accepted political opinion, bureaucratic processes seem to be optimized for international rankings, and the huge number of well-dressed people in public transportation made me feel constantly underdressed until I got a proper suit. Since these impressions are based on my experience several years ago, I’m definitely curious to visit Rwanda again.
