Academic ranks in Germany

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Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Contents

Overview

FacultyTeaching onlyPart-time
Permanent positionsUniversitätsprofessor (Pay grade: W3 or W2), Professor (W3)LehrprofessorHonorarprofessor
Professor (W2)
Professor (W1), Akademischer Oberrat, Akademischer Rat, Wissenschaftlicher / Akademischer Mitarbeiter (tenured)Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben (LfbA) (tenured), (Ober-)Studienrat i.H. (im Hochschuldienst: School teacher in academic teaching function, for example for courses in Latin or Ancient Greek)
Temporary positionsAkademischer Rat auf Zeit, Akademischer Oberrat auf Zeit (AR/AOR a.Z.), Juniorprofessor (W1 non-tenured), Professor auf Zeit (W2 non-tenured)Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben (LfbA) (non-tenured)Lehrbeauftragter
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (graduate student)
Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (undergraduate student)

Appointment grades

Non-appointment grades

Administrative ranks

Faculty

In the 20th century, after their doctorate, German scholars who wished to go into academia usually worked towards a Habilitation by writing a second thesis, known as the Habilitationsschrift. This was often accomplished while employed as a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter or Wissenschaftlicher Assistent ("scientific assistant", E13) or in a non-tenured position as Akademischer Rat ("assistant professor/lecturer", both 3+3 years teaching and research positions). Once the scholar pass their Habilitation, they could work as Privatdozent and are eligible for a call to a chair.

Since 2002 alternative paths can also lead to a full professorship. One can reach a professorship at a university by habilitation, a successful evaluation as a junior professorship (after 5 years), a tenure track period (6 years) or equivalent performance. In engineering this is often attained through expert knowledge in the industry, and in natural science often by the number and quality of publications. While universities and Fachhochschulen ("Universities of Applied Sciences") do not have the same legal status, there are no formal differences in academic ranks except a higher teaching load in the Fachhochschulen as they have no research mandate. Since a new salary scheme was introduced in 2005, both types of universities can appoint W2 as well as W3 professors. In general, a professor at a Fachhochschule has not gone through the process of habilitation or junior professorship; they also cannot supervise dissertations. Instead, a doctorate and at least three years of work experience in research and development outside academia are required. Usually, a professor at a university of applied science is more focused on teaching while a professor at a traditional university is more focused on research.

In Germany it has been debated whether Professor is a title that one may retain for life once it has been conferred (similar to the doctorate), or whether it is linked to an office and ceases to belong to the holder once the professor quits or retires (except in the usual case of becoming Professor emeritus). The latter view has won the day—although in many German states, there is a minimum requirement of five years of service before "Professor" may be kept as a title—and is by now both the law and majority opinion.

Main positions

Other positions

Other professors

Some other uses of the title professor:

In other countries

Similar or identical systems as in Germany (where a Habilitation is required) are in place, e.g., in Austria, the German-speaking part of Switzerland (however in Switzerland the term is used as a more general honorary title in the Universities of Applied Sciences, the Fachhochschulen), as well as in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.

In Poland, professor is an academic degree required to obtain the position of full (ordinary) professor. An extraordinary professorship is lower ranked, and does not require the professor title.

In some countries using the German-style academic system (e.g. Austria, Finland, Sweden), Professor is also an honorific title that can be bestowed upon an artist, scholar, etc., by the President or by the government, completely independent of any actual academic post or assignment.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Privatdozent</i> Academic title at European universities

Privatdozent or Privatdozentin, abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifications that denote an ability and permission to teach a designated subject at the highest level. To be granted the title Priv.-Doz. by a university, a recipient has to fulfill the criteria set by the university which usually require excellence in research, teaching, and further education. In its current usage, the title indicates that the holder has completed their habilitation and is therefore granted permission to teach and examine students independently without having a full professorship (chair). With respect to the level of academic achievement, the title of Privatdozent is comparable to that of Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer, or maître de conférences détenteur de l'habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR) (France).

Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching, and further education, which usually includes a dissertation. The degree, sometimes abbreviated Dr. habil., Dr hab., or D.Sc., is often a qualification for full professorship in those countries. In German-speaking countries it allows the degree holder to bear the title PD. The degree conferral is usually accompanied by a public oral defence event with one or more opponents. Habilitation is usually awarded 5–15 years after a PhD degree or its equivalent. Achieving this academic degree does not automatically give the scientist a paid position, though many people who apply for the degree already have steady university employment.

Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct research.

The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French maître de conférences (MCF), and equal to or above the title of assistant professor. In Southeast European countries, it is the first position that people achieve once they enter the University, and after the completion of their PhD degree.

The German civil servants called Beamte have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees, who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as employees in the private sector. For example, the state can only fire Beamte if they commit a felony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walther Gerlach</span> German physicist (1889–1979)

Walther Gerlach was a German physicist who co-discovered, through laboratory experiment, spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern–Gerlach effect. The experiment was conceived by Otto Stern in 1921 and successfully conducted first by Gerlach in early 1922.

The title of reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth of Nations, for example India, Australia and New Zealand, denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship.

Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Tenure is a means of defending the principle of academic freedom, which holds that it is beneficial for society in the long run if scholars are free to hold and examine a variety of views.

The following summarizes basic academic ranks in the French higher education system. Most academic institutions are state-run and most academics with permanent positions are civil servants, and thus are tenured.

A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator.

Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at any academic rank. This usage differs from the predominant usage of the word professor in other countries, where the unqualified word "professor" only refers to "full professors". Other tenure-track faculty positions include assistant professor and associate professor (mid-level). Other teaching-focused positions that use the term "professor" include Clinical Professor, Professor of Practice, and Teaching Professor. Most faculty with titles of "Lecturer" and "Instructor" in the U.S. are not eligible for tenure, though they are still often referred to as "professors" in a general sense and as a courtesy form of address. Non-tenure-track positions may be full or part time, although the qualifier "adjunct" always denotes part-time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professor</span> Academic title at universities and other educational institutions

Professor is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors are usually experts in their field and teachers of the highest rank.

Academic ranks in the United States are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Academic ranks in Hungary are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Academic ranks in the Netherlands are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.

Wissenschaftlicher Assistent, often shortened to Assistent, literally "scientific assistant", is an academic position at German universities for researchers with doctoral degrees and additional academic qualifications, who are typically employed to conduct research to qualify themselves for the Habilitation and thus a full professorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udo Hebel</span> German Professor of American studies (born 1956)

Udo J. Hebel is a German professor of American studies. He has been president of the University of Regensburg since 1 April 2013. He was selected as one of the ten best university rectors in Germany by the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers.

An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is generally agreed to mean a bona-fide part-time faculty member in an adjunct position at an institution of higher education.

The junior professorship is an academic rank at universities and research institutions in Germany. In 2002, this position was introduced with the fifth novella of the Framework Act for Higher Education to enable young scientists and academics with an outstanding doctorate to do independent research and to teach at universities before having completed their habilitation. Furthermore, this position is meant to provide the qualification for a lifetime professorship.

References

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