Dr. Magdalena Fellner

September 2024: Magdalena Fellner's dissertation ‘Studierfähigkeit als soziales Konstrukt. Restriction and expansion of collective spaces of possibility through underlying understandings’ won the Ulrich Teichler Prize for outstanding dissertations in higher education research.

Magdalena Fellner has been a senior researcher in the research area ‘Students and Graduates’ at the International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER) at the University of Kassel since March 2024. 

From 2019 to 2024, she was a Senior Scientist and Course Director at the Department of Higher Education Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems. From 2016 to 2022, she worked as a lecturer and research assistant at the Department of Educational Research at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

Her academic background includes a Master's in Social Policy and Social Research at University College London and a Diploma in Teacher Education at the University of Vienna. She completed her doctoral studies (summa cum laude) at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in 2023. As part of her dissertation entitled ‘Studierfähigkeit als soziales Konstrukt. Restriction and expansion of collective spaces of possibility through underlying understandings’, she analysed and deconstructed the concept of “ability to study” from a historical-comparative perspective. In doing so, she analysed the effects of different understandings and rationalities of social differentiation at universities on the participation opportunities of social groups.

She is particularly interested in analysing the diverse connections between education, educational institutions and social inequality. Her research areas include social permeability at universities, equal opportunities in higher education, the recognition of prior learning and the social engagement of students. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3724-7579