Subject

Early career researchers play an important role in the academic system. The organisation of their qualification paths to a professorship is decisive for the quality of their research achievements and thus for their contribution to the research and innovation system as a whole. The evidence-based Federal Report on Early Career Researchers (BuWiN) has therefore focussed on the career development, decisions and prospects of young researchers once every legislative period since 2007. As part of the federal-state programme to promote this group, 1,000 additional TTP professorships were established at 75 universities in 2017 and 2019. The focus of BuWiN 2025 is therefore the establishment of the tenure-track professorship (TTP) career path in the German academic system, which is to be analysed in an accompanying study. The IHF is taking on two tasks here:

1. Conducting an international comparative study of the introduction of tenure-track professorships in three European countries: Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands
2. Special analyses of the higher education personnel statistics of the Federal Statistical Office with regard to tenure-track professorships, also differentiated according to subject groups

Research questions

• How are Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands introducing tenure-track professorships under their respective country-specific framework conditions, how are they organised and what can the German higher education system learn from them?

• How has the postdoctoral staff structure developed over time and to what extent has the introduction of the tenure track professorship affected the various career paths of early career researchers?

Author

Dr. Maike Reimer, Dr. Thorsten Lenz, Dr. Johanna Witte