Master(Plan): back to RPTU

Many students already have a concrete idea of what they want to do after graduation at the beginning of their studies. While some stick to this plan, others change it again over the course of their studies. For Jan Mecker, new doors and options kept opening up during his Bachelor's degree - including for the subsequent Master's programme. Shortly before the end of his Bachelor's degree in Landau, Jan decided to go to Sweden and accept one of the coveted Master's places in bioinformatics there. But instead of Sweden, Jan and I are sitting in the cafeteria in Landau and as we talk, I realise that although his path has changed, he has remained true to his goal. True to the motto: many roads lead to the same goal.

Jan Mecker is a dual-subject Bachelor's graduate from RPTU in Landau and successfully completed his degree in conservation biology, environmental chemistry and geography in the summer of 2024. When I met him for our first conversation to interview him about his plans after graduation, he was still in the middle of writing his Bachelor's thesis. He already had a plan for afterwards: a Master's degree in Bioinformatics at Lund University in Sweden. To understand his story chronologically, I asked him how he came to Landau and he replied that his path led him to the Southern Palatinate via detours: ‘I actually wanted to study biology after my A-levels, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a job or earn any money with a biology degree.’ After a few semesters of business psychology in Cologne, a year in Australia and a job as a forestry worker back in Germany, he started studying environmental sciences in Landau in the winter semester of 2019. Although he found the subject matter interesting, he realised that the two-subject Bachelor's degree offered him a combination that was even better suited to his inclinations and interests. He quickly realised that he would switch: ‘Funnily enough, I ended up exactly where I originally wanted to go via a diversion.’

His choice of study turned out to be the right one: Jan is good at what he does. He was even able to present the data he collected for his bachelor's thesis entitled ‘Effect of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) and historical contingency on benthic periphyton communities’ at two research events. Firstly, at an inspection by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in July 2023 and then at the SETAC ‘12th Young Environmental Scientists Meeting’ in Landau in August 2023. At the DFG visit, for example, he was the only bachelor's student among doctoral students and postdocs to present his bachelor's thesis topic, which in summary is about proving an effect from theoretical ecology, the so-called ‘priority effect’.

With this interest in Jan's qualifications, it is not surprising that he was accepted when he applied for the few coveted places on the Master's programme in Bioinformatics at the University of Lund in Sweden. I quickly realised that Jan is not studying to learn as much theory as possible, but that he wants to make a difference, as he says himself: ‘In my opinion, for example, there is a lot of future in this field and I don't just want to keep learning and studying, I want to help and contribute in areas where results will follow.’ To this end, he also tackles topics that are not his strengths, as he revealed to me: ‘Bioinformatics is actually not my strength, but rather my weakness. But I want to be able to do everything in this subject area at some point, so I thought it would be smartest to learn this subject from scratch in the Master's programme.’ 

When we met again for a chat, he had already cancelled his place in Sweden. He is staying in Landau, a city that Jan really likes and where he clearly feels at home. He is now doing his Master's in Environmental Sciences at RPTU, an English-language programme with students from all over the world. Despite deciding against Sweden and thus his previous plan, he remains true to his initial goal and has the feeling that his current Master's programme is bringing him even closer to it: ‘I'm broadening my professional focus and not running the risk of only serving a niche. One of my main motivations is to have the widest possible radius and the greatest possible impact in the world, especially in the environmental field.’

Through his two-subject Bachelor's degree programme, Jan has gained specialist expertise that he can now use in his Master's degree: ‘We already have many answers to a wide range of problems, such as those relating to the environment and climate protection. By having a greater impact at an interface between science, politics, society and business, which my current Master's programme gives me, I have the opportunity to communicate and implement science. In a way, I first learnt about the problems in my Bachelor's degree and am now learning how to solve them in society.’

Jan's story is an example of how normal it is that plans can change during your studies. It's also okay if someone doesn't have a precise plan at the beginning or at the end. Studying is also about trying things out and getting to know as many new things as possible. Jan sees it the same way when he tells me what he advises other students in retrospect: ‘Students should see their degree programme and all other offers from the university as an opportunity to go and shape their own path. Even if it can be a burden at the beginning because you are so flexible and don't know exactly where you want to go at first. But it's worth going through your studies with your eyes wide open.’

Thank you, Jan & a successful start to your studies to all first-year students!