Teaching professorship
The creation of a new category of staff called a teaching professorship is a proposal that may a. by Peter Hommelhoff , Rector of Heidelberg University, in the context of the discussion about structural reforms in the German higher education system. A future teaching professor has, compared to conventional professors who do teaching and research equally, a higher teaching obligation, but lower funding for research expenditure and staff. The model follows the Anglo-Saxon model of the Lecturer or Senior Lecturer and was conceptually anchored in the Heidelberg application for the Excellence Initiative (2005).
In Bavaria a number of teaching professorships have been established.
In 2007, the state of Baden-Württemberg created the posts of university lecturer and junior lecturer in order to implement the idea of the teaching professorship.
Arguments for each teaching professorship
- The establishment of a teaching professorship costs less money than a conventional professorship, as fewer material and human resources have to be made available to the candidate. His salary might also be lower than that of a full professor.
- The universities could therefore create significantly more jobs for highly qualified (habilitated) junior staff, even without additional financial expense, who are available in sufficient numbers on the labor market, but currently have no prospect of employment in the academic sector due to the financial weakness of the German higher education system ("job creation program for habilitated" ).
- At the same time, also because of the significantly higher teaching obligation (twelve semester hours or more are discussed instead of eight to nine for conventional professors), the teaching capacities of the universities would be significantly strengthened. You would be better equipped to cope with the sharp increase in the number of students, which is forecast for the period from 2012/2015, for which the universities have not yet been promised any additional funding.
- The provision of more permanent positions in the scientific field could have a motivating effect for young scientists and increase the attractiveness of an academic career. The current job shortage at German universities can have a deterrent effect, especially for very good candidates who have attractive alternatives in business. Nowadays, a university career not only requires high performance and mobility, but also a considerable willingness to take risks personally. If there were more permanent positions in the form of teaching professorships (others do not seem financially viable at the moment) as a stopgap solution for career planning, more excellent young candidates could be won for academic careers. In this way, the teaching professorship could solve a problem that has arisen as a result of the consistent downsizing of the mid-level academic staff in recent decades.
- The introduction of the teaching professorship could be a symbol of the fact that in the German higher education system teaching, which has traditionally been undervalued, is again given greater weight than research activities.
Arguments against a teaching professorship
- The most weighty argument against the teaching professorship seems to be Humboldt's ideal of the unity of research and teaching . So far, this has also been implemented in detail by the fact that every university professor should and may teach and research equally. If a division is introduced here - and especially if the teaching professorship becomes an emergency solution for second-class candidates - then there is a risk that the quality of teaching will decline. A university professor who is heavily burdened with teaching and no longer (or less) researches himself will have difficulties following the current new developments in his discipline in a timely manner. He can therefore offer his students less up-to-date teaching content and certainly not convey his own, authentic impressions from research.
- In addition, the teaching professorship as a job creation program is likely to have the same side effects as many similar programs: Regular jobs (previous professorships) would be displaced - by reallocating funds and reducing them accordingly for other professorships.
- Even if teaching professorships were formally part of the professors' group, they would be viewed more as a group of second-class professors in the academic bodies.
- The comparison with Lecturer and Senior Lecturer or Reader in the UK is incorrect. These positions correspond to W1 and W2 professorships in Germany and usually have to be completed as stages to become a professor (equivalent to W3 in Germany). A lecturer hired after completing his doctorate is usually spared just like a German junior professor by a reduced teaching load so that he can initially distinguish himself in research. Unlike a junior professor, however, a lecturer is immediately hired for an unlimited period (with a two to three year probationary period, which is usually passed). If, in the long run, he cannot be promoted to Senior Lecturer or Reader and finally to Professor , it is obvious that his focus can shift to teaching. The German plan to separate careers from the start (see the suggestion of a junior professorship as an alternative to the junior professorship ) instead leads to a second path parallel to the normal professorship, from which it should be difficult to change: it is already because of the thought patterns German appointment committees make it difficult to successfully apply for a professorship if you have been an academic advisor for too long. A teaching professor can therefore be seen as a renamed Academic Senior Councilor or Academic Director, just as a junior professor is a renamed university assistant with less salary and more freedom. There would be a real rapprochement with the Anglo-Saxon system if W1 professorships were given an indefinite term and academic councils, senior councilors and directors were abolished without replacement.