Visiting professor
Visiting Professor is the name of a person who temporarily - for a period of between one semester and up to six years - at a university as a professor is teaching and inquiring operates. If the guest lecturer has a teaching position , one sometimes speaks of a visiting professor .
As a rule, visiting professors are largely on an equal footing with other professors as university lecturers: They represent their subject independently in teaching and research; they hold examinations and they work in academic self-administration, although they are generally not entitled to vote in the committees. The full involvement in the responsibility of the university clearly distinguishes the visiting professor from the lecturer and the honorary professor . Therefore the prefix “guest” is a bit misleading.
The visiting professorship is often a variant of the substitute or administrative professorship in which a vacant position is temporarily filled until a regular appointment procedure has been completed or as long as the actual position holder is on leave.
A visiting professor can be:
- a university or college professor (often from abroad),
- a private lecturer ,
- a scientist or researcher at a research institution, research institute or university,
- an expert from the private sector .
Germany
As an admission requirement in Germany - depending on the federal state - various conditions must be met. As a rule, in addition to the doctorate, further proven scientific employment (e.g. junior professorship , habilitation or other scientific work at universities or non-university institutions) as well as pedagogical aptitude are required. However, it can also be a question of persons who work as a full-time or part-time professor for a limited period.
The visiting professorship establishes a regular employee relationship that is subject to social insurance and income tax, along with the relevant BAT payment and vacation regulations . Fixed-term employment relationships are only permitted if there is an objective reason for the limitation or if the limitation can be based on § 14 TzBfG , e.g. B. if the visiting professor returns to regular employment after the end of his or her visiting professorship. In exceptional cases , visiting professors who do not meet the criteria mentioned can be hired for a fixed-term contract (in accordance with the University Framework Act or Part-Time and Temporary Employment Act ).
Foreign visiting professors in Germany generally need a residence permit for the purpose of employment. With corresponding international regulations, foreign visiting professors are exempt from social security and income tax liability in Germany and pay their contributions in their home country.
Take Baden-Württemberg as an example
The State University Act of Baden-Wuerttemberg (LHG BW) regulates the legal status of visiting professors in Section 55, Paragraph 2: The university can appoint professors from other universities or personalities for certain tasks in research, teaching, art and further education for a limited period of time appoint as visiting professors from academic or artistic practice who meet the requirements for a professorship. Section 33 (2) BeamtStG applies accordingly. For the duration of their appointment, they are called "visiting professor"; With the expiry, revocation or withdrawal of the appointment as visiting professor, the authority to use the designation "visiting professor" also expires.
In contrast to the earlier § 81 University Act of 2000 as the previous regulation, participation in self-administration, including active and passive voting rights, is no longer excluded, but is left to the universities to regulate in the basic regulations:
§ 9 LHG BW: (1) Members of the university are those who work full-time at the university not only temporarily or on a guest basis as well as the enrolled students according to § 60 paragraph 1 sentence 1.Members are also the exempted and retired professors who after Section 22, Paragraph 4, Clause 2, co-opted university professors from other universities, honorary professors, visiting professors , private professors and associate professors as well as honorary citizens and honorary senators; the constitution regulates their active and passive right to vote. [...]
(2) The members of the university have the right and the duty to participate in the self-administration and the fulfillment of the tasks of the university in organs, committees and advisory committees with special tasks and to take over offices, functions and other duties in the self-administration, either because that there are important reasons. [...]
Austria
The previous regulation on visiting professors, which was similar to the German model, can no longer be used in Austria for substitute professorships since 2004. With the exception of "blocked visiting professors" who hold their courses once at a time (block seminar), every appointment of a visiting professor who represents a temporarily vacant position is subject to an advertisement for the assignment of a professorship limited to up to two years in accordance with Section 99 University Act 2002 required.
