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Juniorprofessur stärkt Forschungsstandort Deutschland

Press Release of September 22, 2004

Following the reform of the Higher Education Act in 2002, the junior professorship was to become the only possible route for young academics seeking to qualify for tenure and was thus intended to replace Germany’s habilitation procedure. This plan was frustrated by the Constitutional Court in July 2004 even though, as outlined in the current DIW Berlin Weekly Report (Wochenbericht 39/2004), the introduction of junior professorships on a national basis would have distinct advantages for the economy. The junior professorship enables young scientists to embark on independent research at a young age, which raises their research productivity and also increases Germany’s attractiveness for young researchers from at home and abroad. A total of 900 junior professorships have been created to date at 65 universities throughout Germany and two thirds of these positions have already been filled. If the habilitation procedure remains in place alongside junior professorships in the long term, however, the advantages of the latter system will be forfeited. This is the situation threatened by the Constitutional Court decision.
The main advantage of the junior professorship is the fact that young scientists can begin independent research immediately after completing their PhDs. The incentive to build up a good academic reputation is strongest during this period. In other words, young researchers are more ambitious than their older colleagues. For instance, around 67 percent of Nobel laureates in physics made the discoveries that won them the award between the ages of 25 and 40. This is why it is particularly important to provide young scientists with good research conditions. But the traditional long-winded German route to habilitation tends to deter young German and foreign academics. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that of the German researchers who were awarded their doctorates in the USA in 1996, only 52 percent subsequently returned to Germany. By contrast, 70 percent of their French counterparts returned home. Only in German-speaking countries is habilitation still a prerequisite for a university career.
Another advantage of the junior professorship is the fact that when candidates are being selected for tenured professorships, there is more information available about the quality of the research and teaching activities of junior professors, for example because of the stipulation that their work be evaluated three years after appointment. Moreover, the system enhances equality of opportunity for women and non-German researchers. The likelihood of competition between the junior professorship and habilitation systems means that a substantial share of junior professors is now actually planning to complete the habilitation procedure anyway. The advantages of the junior professorship will be squandered in this way, and it is therefore necessary that all the federal states act in concert in order to help the junior professorship become the established procedure after all.
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