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How to become a professor is easy to explain, but much more difficult to achieve. It is a professional title awarded after a long academic career.
How do you become a professor? The academic career explained simply
First and foremost, “professor” is an official or professional title. It is also used as an academic title, but unlike a doctorate, it is not an academic degree. The exact titles are regulated differently depending on the state’s higher education law.
- Instead, it is an academic title that the holder of a professorship is entitled to bear.
- Professors at universities are entrusted with the independent conduct of scientific research and teaching.
- However, a professorship and a chair are not necessarily linked. Every chair holder is a professor, but not every professor also has a chair.
- The word can be used as an academic title, but it does not represent an academic degree such as a doctorate.
Becoming a professor: an overview of the steps and requirements
Becoming a professor as a career goal is difficult because you cannot learn to be a “professor.”
- The prerequisite for a professorship is usually a doctorate in your field of study. Once you have your doctorate, you can apply for lecturer positions at universities. Here you can make contacts and should also publish some of your work during this time. In addition, you should work on your habilitation thesis.
- However, there are other options. In some disciplines, such as architecture, art, and design, a doctorate is not common. In these cases, appointments are made on the basis of special academic achievements or relevant professional experience, especially for universities of applied sciences and artistic fields.
- The habilitation is the highest-ranking university examination. As part of an academic examination procedure, your teaching ability in an academic subject is assessed. It is a further prerequisite for obtaining a professorship. As a rule, you will also receive a teaching license when your teaching ability is assessed.
- Once you have completed your habilitation, you are allowed to teach and conduct research at German universities. However, you are still not a professor, but a private lecturer.
- With recommendations from your contacts, you can then apply for a professorship.
- There is no interview for a professorship. Instead, there is an appointment procedure and a trial lecture in front of an appointment committee.
- Once you have cleared this hurdle, you will receive your “appointment” and be presented with a corresponding certificate. From this point on, you are then entitled to use the title “professor.”
- For a long time, only people under the age of 50 could be appointed as “professors in civil service.” This rule no longer applies uniformly throughout Germany.
- There are a total of 51,873 full-time professors in Germany (statistics from 2023). 26,855 professorships are at universities and 21,838 at universities of applied sciences.
Becoming a junior professor: An overview of the career path
Since 2002, it has been legally possible to become a junior professor immediately after completing a degree and doctorate, i.e., without a postdoctoral qualification.
- The junior professorship was introduced to enable young scientists with outstanding doctoral degrees to pursue independent research and teaching at universities.
- A junior professorship also qualifies for appointment as a tenured professor. Chairs are often filled by two people, a professor and a junior professor. The latter then takes over when the professor retires.
- Obtaining a junior professorship after completing a doctorate is a major career step. These professorships can be held for up to six years, with an interim evaluation often taking place after three to four years.
- Not all junior professors become full professors. Immediately after completing their doctorate, less than half of junior professors are appointed to a professorship, but overall, around 85 percent of junior professors do eventually become full professors.
