Katja Urbatsch

Katja Urbatsch (born 1979) is the co-founder and Managing Director of the non-profit organization ArbeiterKind.de, headquartered in Berlin. She is also an author of non-fiction and educational issues.

Life and education

Urbatsch was born in 1979 and grew up in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany. Her parents did banking apprenticeships. Later on her father worked as a self-employed real estate agent. In 1998, Urbatsch completed the general university entrance qualification and went on to attended the Free University of Berlin where she studied American Studies, Business Administration, and Communication Studies.

Urbatsch applied for a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and in 2002 was able to spend a year studying abroad at Boston University.

In 2007, she took on a job as a research assistant in public relations and began working on her PhD in American Studies at the International Graduate Center for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at the Justus Liebig University (JLU) Giessen.

ArbeiterKind.de

Urbatsch and her brother were the first in their family to pursue university educations. Early on in her university studies, she noticed a distinct information deficit compared to students from academic families, particularly with regard to vocabulary, prestigious internships and scholarships.

In 2008, she co-founded the peer-to-peer exchange platform ArbeiterKind.de with her brother Marc Urbatsch and her partner Wolf Dermann, with the vision to provide all children in Germany from non-academic families with the opportunity of educational advancements. The organization reaches around 30,000 people a year, through information events or discussions at information booths. It is made up of 6000 volunteers and 25 full-time employees working in 75 cities in local groups.

Community involvement

She meets regularly with members of the Bundestag and state parliaments providing suggestions on improvements to be made to the education system.

In May 2019, Urbatsch appeared as an invited expert at a Bundestag public hearing on the planned 26th reform of the Federal Training Assistance Act (BaföG), where she called for stronger support for first-generation students and simpler applications. When the 27th reform was being considered in May 2022, Urbatsch provided her opinion of the amendment.

Awards and honors

Urbatsch has been an Ashoka Fellow since 2009.

In April 2011, she received the Marburg Beacon for Social Civil Rights (Marburger Leuchtfeuer) award.

The GCSC awarded her the title of Honorary Senator in 2018.

On 2 October 2018, Katja Urbatsch was among the 29 people awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Band).

In November 2018, she was honored with the University of Applied Sciences Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen HAWK Prize.

In September 2024, she was among the 12 awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de (2017-02-09). "Themenreihe Mittelpunkt Mensch - Rückhalt für den Bildungsweg". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  2. ↑ "Die Neugierige". publik.verdi.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  3. ↑ "Einsatz für die „First Generation" - DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst". www2.daad.de. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  4. ↑ "ArbeiterKind.de: Katja Urbatsch". Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  5. ↑ Follmann, Silvia (2016-11-20). "Arbeiterkinder an Unis: Das sind die Hürden für ein Studium". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  6. ↑ Morrigan, Ruby (2018-05-13). "Diese Frau bringt Arbeiterkinder an die Uni". VICE. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  7. ↑ WELT, Miriam Hollstein. "Kindern von Nichtakademikern fehlt oft der Mut zum Studium - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  8. ↑ Lagozinski, Klaudia (2023-04-12). "Expertin über soziale Ungleichheit: „Mir wurde gesagt, ich bin zu laut"". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  9. 1 2 "Als Nicht-Akademikerkind an die Universität: „Dann wirst du doch eh nur Taxifahrer". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  10. ↑ Wurster, Michael T.; Prinzessin von Sachsen-Altenburg, Maria (2019), "Katja Urbatsch, Gründerin und Geschäftsführerin von ArbeiterKind.de", in Wurster, Michael T.; Prinzessin von Sachsen-Altenburg, Maria (eds.), Helden gesucht: Projektmanagement im Ehrenamt: Mit Illustrationen von Werner Tiki Küstenmacher (in German), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 187–190, doi:10.1007/978-3-662-57974-9_9, ISBN 978-3-662-57974-9, retrieved 2026-05-21
  11. 1 2 online, FOCUS. "Wenn junge Menschen ihr Studium nicht bezahlen können, findet Katja Urbatsch eine Lösung". FOCUS online (in German). Archived from the original on 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  12. ↑ deutschlandfunkkultur.de (2018-05-03). "Zehn Jahre ArbeiterKind.de - Ängste vor Schulden und dem fremden Milieu". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  13. ↑ Rollmann, Annette. "Deutscher Bundestag - Lob und Kritik für die geplante BAföG-Reform". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  14. ↑ "Mehr Bildungsaufstieg durch verlässliche und realistische Studienfinanzierung". www.kas.de (in German). 2022-08-11. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  15. ↑ "Katja Urbatsch | Ashoka". www.ashoka.org (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  16. ↑ "Arbeiterkinder an die Uni". op-marburg.de / Oberhessische Presse / Zeitung für Marburg - Biedenkopf (in German). Archived from the original on 2022-10-08. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  17. ↑ "JLU appoints former GCSC member Katja Urbatsch as honorary senator". Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Archived from the original on 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  18. ↑ "Von Otto Waalkes bis Annette Humpe: Zwei Dutzend Kulturschaffende erhalten Bundesverdienstkreuz". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  19. ↑ "HAWK TV berichtet: Katja Urbatsch nimmt HAWK-Preis 2018 entgegen | HAWK". www.hawk.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  20. ↑ "Berliner Landesorden für zwölf Bürgerinnen und Bürger". www.berlin.de (in German). 2024-09-26. Archived from the original on 2026-01-12. Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  21. ↑ Urbatsch, Katja; König, Evamarie (2017). "Als Arbeiterkind an die Uni". essentials. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-19247-1. ISSN 2197-6708.
  22. ↑ "Als Arbeiterkind an die Uni | springerprofessional.de". www.springerprofessional.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.
  23. ↑ GmbH, socialnet. "Ausgebremst. Warum das Recht auf Bildung nicht für alle gilt | socialnet Rezensionen". www.socialnet.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-21.