Professor

Professor is an academic title as well as the official and professional title of the holder of a professorship (of a teaching profession as a professor or a chair). Unlike the doctoral degree, for example, it is not an academic degree. Not every professor holds a professorship.

Professorship (from the Latin profiteri 'to profess' meaning "to make oneself publicly known as a teacher") in the German-speaking world primarily refers to a position as a university teacher. A professorship is normally provided with a denomination that specifies exactly which subject area is to be represented.

The main task of professors at institutions of higher education, especially at universities, is the independent performance of scientific research and teaching in the sense of the Humboldtian ideal of education. Professorship and chair are not synonymous: every chair holder is a professor, but not vice versa.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the title of professor may, under certain circumstances, also be awarded as an honorary title to persons who do not hold a professorship, for example to artists. In the state of Baden-Württemberg, as in Austria, the title "Professor" or "Professorin" can be awarded without additions as a non-academic honorary title to deserving citizens (see Professor (honorary title in Baden-Württemberg)).

Overview

Although most professors today are university lecturers, other uses of the title are also common. Thus, as in the German Reich until 1918 (and even further in Baden and in Bavaria), in some European countries (e.g. Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the Czech Republic) an appointed teacher at a secondary school (Austrian "Mittelschule") is often still unofficially referred to as a professor. For this reason, university teachers in Austria are always referred to by the official designation university professor (Univ.-Prof.) or professor at a university of applied sciences (FH-Prof.), formerly also university professor. In Austria, on the other hand, titular professor is a title conferred without any entitlement to employment; in Switzerland, too, it does not imply any entitlement to a chair or any other permanent position. In Austria, the Federal President may also confer the title of professor on persons without a university degree who have rendered outstanding services in the field of art or science. In Germany, too, individual federal states sometimes confer this honorary title.

Universities in Austria and Germany also have other forms of titles that complicate transparency, such as those of full and associate university professor (see below), junior professor or associate professor. In addition, since the renaming of the Austrian art colleges into art universities by the Universities Act 2002, the former art college professors now also bear the title "university professor".

Professorships in Germany

Professor or Professorin is in Germany primarily the official title or academic title of a person who holds a professorship at a university. It does not constitute an academic degree. Professors who are civil servants are classified in the higher civil service. A special feature of the appointment is the appointment procedure instead of the career examinations that are otherwise customary for civil servants.

Scheduled professors (see below) may use the title even after retirement. In individual Länder, the title "Professor" or "Professorin" may continue to be used as an academic dignity or title even after early retirement from the university after several years of service.

In 2016, there were 46,835 professors (35,880 male equals 77%, 10,955 female equals 23%) at the 433 higher education institutions in Germany, of which 24,256 were at universities, 19,306 at universities of applied sciences, 2,308 at universities of the arts, 448 at universities of administrative sciences, 360 at universities of education and 157 at universities of theology. However, less than 10 % of all scientists at universities are professors, and only 7.8 % are scheduled professors with a permanent position and full hourly load (as of 2015).

The total number of professors has increased from 37,965 in 2003 to 48,128 in 2018, an increase of about 27% in 15 years, in part due to the large increase in student enrollment:

2003	2004	2006	2008	2010	2012	2013	2015	2016	2018
37.965	38.443	37.694	38.654	41.462	43.862	45.013	46.344	46.835	48.128

Professors (Prof.) without additional title

This is an official title of various higher education institutions such as universities, universities of applied sciences, colleges of art and music or academies. Since 2005 at the latest (the introduction of the salary scale W took place at different times in the federal states), civil servant professors have been classified in the salary grades W 2 and W 3. The grade does not allow any conclusion to be drawn as to the type of university. However, while most professors at universities of applied sciences are paid according to W 2, there are significantly more W 3 professors than W 2 professors at universities.

Grade W 1 is awarded to junior professors and is normally intended for temporary appointments. Before the introduction of grade W, professors were classified in grades C 3 and C 4 and very rarely also in grade C 2, at universities of applied sciences in grades C 2 and C 3, at other universities in C 2, C 3 and C 4. Professors who were appointed to the C grade at the time of their appointment (before 2005) generally remain in it, but may change to the W grade on application. In the case of a change of position, however, they are classified exclusively in the W grade; this can only be deviated from in the case of a change within a federal state.

The salary for W-2 and W-3 professorships is made up of a basic salary, which according to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2013 must already be an appropriate level of remuneration, and performance-related supplements, which are granted either permanently or for a limited period of time. These are negotiated between the post holders and the university management, which is why the actual gross salaries of German professors today can vary greatly. The basic salary also differs between the federal states. Thus, depending on the employer and individual negotiations, the same grade does not lead to the same salary, but can differ by up to 2000 euros. The W-3 basic salary is generally higher than for W-2; in certain cases, however, a W-2 professor can earn more than a W-3 professor, depending on the federal state as well as due to individual allowances.

Normally, W-2 and W-3 professorships are permanent and associated with civil servant status for life; their holders are referred to as scheduled professors. However, there are also an increasing number of temporary professors as well as professors in salaried employment, the latter for example at private universities or, if the prerequisites for tenure are lacking, at state universities. In the case of first-time appointments, i.e. if the candidate has not previously held a permanent professorship, a probationary period, in some cases lasting several years, is also customary in most federal states, often with an examination of pedagogical suitability, before the position is also formally "de-funded"; in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt there are no such regulations. Between 2017 and 2019, moreover, the proportion of appointments to tenured civil service fell significantly, so that these now accounted for only two-thirds of initial appointments, while 15 per cent of university lecturers were only appointed on a fixed-term basis. The remainder were employed as permanent staff. The title of professor alone is therefore not a reliable indication of permanent employment.

Professors at an art college usually lead a master class.

University Professors

Universitätsprofessor (Univ.-Prof.) is an official title for tenured university professors at universities in several German Länder. In some Länder, the designation university professor is no longer used for newly appointed professors. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, this title can only be used on application by professors who already held it before the year 2000. Otherwise, the official title is simply professor. In other Länder, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, the title of university professor is still customary. Professors recruited before 2004/2005 (the introduction of the salary scale W took place at different times in the Länder) were classified in the grades C 3 and C 4, in some exceptional cases also C 2.

A university professor in grade W 3 or C 4 is usually a chair holder. Such a W 3 professor has one or more positions for academic staff in the budget, a higher salary and a larger budget. Before the amendment of the Framework Law for Higher Education in 1976 (and in Bavaria until today), a chair holder was called a full professor. This was associated with the right to work as an emeritus professor with certain privileges and a separate budget after retirement age. Professors who were first appointed to such positions before 1976 are therefore still allowed to be emeriti; those appointed later are retired professors with no option. In Baden-Württemberg, these professors at universities, who were classified in grade C 4 before the abolition of the University Act in 2005, may still officially use the title Ordinarius. However, special rights are no longer associated with this.

In most Länder, on the other hand, civil servant, scheduled university professors without their own chair or working group usually belong to grade W 2 or C 3 (in the older linguistic usage or in Bavaria still referred to in the law as Extraordinarien or außerordentliche (a.o.) Professoren). These W 2 professors have fewer or no staff and also have lower regular budgets. Despite having equivalent qualifications, they receive a lower basic salary than chair holders. W-2 professorships nevertheless represent full-fledged, regular positions that are usually provided for permanently in the budget; with regard to hiring requirements and appointment procedures, W-2 professors do not differ from chair holders, but are university teachers with all rights and duties. They should therefore not be confused with non-scheduled professors (see below). In some German Länder (such as Baden-Württemberg), most professors without a chair and their own staff are also paid according to W 3 ("without a management function"). Conversely, it is often the case, especially in small subjects, that professors are paid according to W 2.

Since 2013, the differences between the basic salaries of W-2 and W-3 professors have been significantly smaller than they were at the beginning, and many universities have switched to providing W-2 professors with at least one staff position as well. Just like W-3 professors, moreover, they can negotiate performance-related supplements to their basic salary, although these are on average significantly lower for W-2 professors, so that the average gross monthly salary (about 7000 euros in 2019) is lower than for W-3s (about 8600 euros in 2019). The German Association of Universities and other Higher Education Institutions has long criticised the fact that the decision as to whether a university pays a professorship according to W 2 or W 3 is primarily determined by the budget, as there are rarely objective reasons for the different classification.

Scheduled professors are selected through an appointment procedure (application, review, trial lecture), which, however, differs in detail from subject to subject and from university to university. The basic principle is that of co-optation by academics already working at the respective institution, who therefore have the right to select their future colleagues themselves. The teaching load of scheduled university professors is currently generally eight or nine hours per week, which is only half that of most professors at universities of applied sciences. The reason given for this is that academics at universities should be given sufficient opportunity to conduct their own research. Moreover, it must be ensured in all decisive university bodies that most of the voting members are W2 or W3 professors; this principle of a professorial majority is an expression of the freedom of research laid down by the Basic Law, of which the scheduled professors are the bearers.

Associate professors

The title of associate professor (apl. Prof.) can be awarded by universities with the right to confer doctorates and habilitations to persons who hold a doctorate, are authorised to teach (venia legendi) on the basis of the teaching qualification they have acquired (usually through habilitation) and have also achieved outstanding performance in research and teaching in the opinion of their faculty. The general requirement is that they must have qualified themselves through several years of successful teaching, whereby the duration of this teaching varies from country to country (two to six years of teaching). Unlike W-2 and W-3 professorships, an appointment procedure does not take place, since it is not a matter of filling a position, but only of conferring a title: additional rights and duties are not normally associated with the appointment as an associate professor, since he or she holds the title but does not hold a professorship.

The extent of compulsory teaching varies between one and two semester hours (Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria) and corresponds to that of a private lecturer. This obligation to teach for free ends at the age of 62 (in Bavaria) or 65 (for example in Bremen). The title "apl. Prof." is withdrawn if the title teaching has not been offered over a predetermined period of time (two years in Saxony-Anhalt, two consecutive semesters in Berlin and Hesse); this is usually to be provided at the home university, after a successful rehabilitation to another university it can also be provided there.

The awarding of the designation is regulated by the higher education laws of the Länder and, in some cases, more extensively by the statutes of the individual higher education institutions. The title is not an official or service title and is not necessarily linked to an employment or service relationship at a higher education institution. In some Länder, persons at a higher education institution are not to be appointed as associate professors if they are also employed there on a full-time basis; in others, on the other hand, members of the mid-level faculty who are permanently employed or have civil servant status are often appointed as associate professors. They do not have the right to use the academic title "professor" without further addition in every federal state, but are nevertheless often indistinguishable for outsiders and students from scheduled professors in W-2 or W-3 positions. In some Länder, the continuation of the designation after retirement and termination is subject to permission by the competent Land authority.

Private lecturers may be granted the title "apl. Prof." by the university with the approval of the ministries or senate administrations responsible for higher education after several years of activity in research and teaching (in Baden-Württemberg at least two years, in Bavaria six years, in Berlin four years, in North Rhine-Westphalia five years). At some faculties, the award of the title is no longer linked to a specific period of time, but rather to the fulfilment of certain scientific criteria (in particular the number of high-quality scientific publications after obtaining the habilitation). At the University of Hamburg, non-scholarly professors are referred to as "§17 professors", a reference to the corresponding paragraph of the State Higher Education Act.

The title "außerplanmäßiger Professor" (apl. Prof., apl. Professor) came into being in 1933-1935. Before that, these university teachers were called "nicht bebeamtete außerordentliche Professoren", in short "n. b. ao. Professoren" or "nbao. Professoren." This is a designation that is particularly frequently awarded to private lecturers working in the field of human medicine. With the award of this prestigious title, senior physicians can more easily advance to the position of chief resident and deputy director in university hospitals. Often these are senior physicians (directing physicians, senior attending physicians, or chief residents) in non-university hospitals or resident physicians who are required to provide title teaching on a small scale as part-time, corporate-only university faculty at universities or in academic teaching hospitals. However, they may also be called upon to perform other tasks of university teachers to a reasonable extent.

The appointment as apl. professor is often described - also in relevant journals - as an "academic consolation prize". However, this is only the case if remaining at the university and, in particular, the recognition expressed by the title by the scheduled professors are considered desirable.

Endowed Professors

Endowed professors are appointed to a chair that is not or not exclusively financed from the basic budget of a university, but is initially supported in whole or in part by a third-party funder. Such professorships can be endowed by foundations, institutions (e.g. churches or trade unions) or companies.

In 2016, there were 806 endowed professorships in Germany. Of these, 488 professorships were funded by industry and 318 professorships by foundations. As a rule, funding must be taken over by the respective university after five years at the latest. This also applies to the Heisenberg professors funded by the DFG.

A special form of third-party funded professorship would be the proposed federal professorship, which would not be funded by the states or non-governmental bodies, but by the federal government, and would be awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to specific individuals instead of specific universities.

Junior Professors

Junior professor (Jun.-Prof.) is a service designation for young scientists who can qualify for appointment to a permanent professorship in these temporary positions. The basic model for the qualification position introduced in 2002 was the American assistant professor with a high degree of autonomy in the acquisition of research funds and a high degree of independence in teaching. At least de iure, junior professors are fully-fledged university teachers. In Germany, however, there is a statutory fixed-term regulation, and in many cases the so-called tenure track is still lacking, which (after successful evaluation) should in principle make it possible to continue employing the scientist. Quite a few junior professors therefore nevertheless strive for a habilitation in order to improve their prospects.

Junior professorships were introduced in 2002 by an amendment to the Framework Act for Higher Education and subsequently implemented in all state higher education acts. They include a six-year fixed-term appointment as a civil servant (W1), rarely also as an employee. There is no uniform regulation throughout Germany as to what title a junior professor should have (junior professor or professor) and whether he or she is granted the right to confer doctoral degrees. They are exempt from the ban on in-house appointments.

In Hesse, since 10 December 2015, the new award of the service title junior professorship has been abandoned in favour of a modified version and designation, the qualification professorship (§ 64 HHG). The title is not specified in the law.

Senior professors

Senior professorships (distinguished senior professorships) are increasingly being awarded in Germany as well and are designed somewhat differently depending on the federal state. The focus can either be primarily on honouring and promoting research, or on holding courses and examinations in an interim phase until the successor is reappointed, or on events and (residual) candidate support in a subject area for which an immediate successor professorship is no longer envisaged. Depending on the federal state or university, entry into a senior professorship can, under certain circumstances, take place before the regular retirement age is reached, but most frequently at the time when the regular retirement age is reached; however, it can also take place afterwards under certain circumstances.

In general, however, access to professorships should not be blocked or delayed for junior researchers. For this reason, senior professors do not receive a regular salary; instead, the part-time income provided for this purpose is based approximately on the difference between the pension amount and the previous regular income in the case of a full commitment (e.g. for a senior professorship with an 8-hour teaching commitment) and is correspondingly lower in the case of a lower commitment (model at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main). The extent to which research is still possible in the case of these senior professorships, which are primarily responsible for teaching, must be agreed with the respective institution (if there is a need for space and equipment). Senior professorships can be awarded to former professors at the university itself (which is the most common case) or to professors from outside the university. Typically, they are awarded to one and the same person for one to five years, again depending on the federal state and university or special funding programme.

The first senior professorships in Germany were probably awarded at universities in Bavaria, for example at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in 2006. In this model, which has been implemented in Bavaria, it is possible to be appointed in the last few years before the statutory retirement age, which means that senior professors can devote themselves exclusively to research. Possible younger successors who are appointed early then take over all the tasks associated with the office (teaching, university self-administration, etc.).

In 2008, the German state of Lower Saxony established the Lower Saxony Professorship 65+ together with the Volkswagen Foundation in order to be able to continue employing excellent researchers after they reach retirement age. The teaching obligation here is only up to 2 hours per semester week. The professorship is limited to up to three years, an extension to up to five years is possible. The funding amounts to a total of up to 0.4 million euros, up to 80,000 euros per year. The involvement of the Volkswagen Foundation also fulfils the characteristics of an endowed professorship.

Honorary Professors

Honorary professors (Hon.-Prof.) are part-time university lecturers who have been appointed as lecturers on the basis of several years of independent teaching activity or through special academic or artistic achievements outside the university and who are thus associated with the university in question in a special way. Honorary professors in Germany may use the title "Professor" (Prof.) without any further addition. In Switzerland, the designation titular professor is customary.

The performance in the respective subject area must meet the requirements placed on full-time university lecturers. They hold courses of a lesser compulsory extent, but mainly continue to work in their profession outside the university. In principle, they do not receive a salary. In the case of retirement, the academic title of "professor" may continue to be used, subject to approval or the corresponding legal framework conditions of the individual Länder. The aim of honorary professorships is to attract people from professional practice to teaching as well. Honorary professorships are becoming increasingly attractive to managers in business and politics. These titles are also widespread in medicine.

State or honorary professors

Since the 19th century, the title of "professor" could be awarded on an honorary basis in most German states in recognition of special achievements to scientists and artists in public service, freelance scientists and freelance artists. For this it was not necessary that the honoured person had ever worked as a university teacher. An example of this is Adolph Menzel. In 1937, Adolf Hitler, as head of state, withdrew the right of appointment to himself, whereby National Socialist cultural figures such as Veit Harlan came to hold the title. After 1945, the right fell to the prime ministers, first or governing mayors of the individual German states, and the honorary title was also awarded in the GDR, for example to the popular Berlin zoo director Heinrich Dathe. Today it still exists in Baden-Württemberg, which honoured inventors, industrial managers and politicians such as Artur Fischer, Jürgen Schrempp and Wolfgang Schuster, in Berlin, where Billy Wilder received the title, and in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and Saarland.

Visiting Professors

Visiting professors are usually professors who work at a university other than their home university. This usually takes the form of academic exchanges during guest semesters or research projects. Visiting professors, however, can also be private lecturers who take over a professorship at a university for a limited period of time, especially in the context of a chair substitution. There are also permanent visiting professors who hold a teaching position at another university for a longer period of time.

Substitute professors

Substitute professors are academics or artists who, during a transitional period, take over the administration of a professorship on a semester-by-semester basis by means of a temporary appointment, independently of the usual application procedures. This is thus a special form of visiting professorship. In some federal states, the title of professor may be used during the substitute period. There is no fundamental entitlement to a permanent position. The duties associated with the professorship under service law are part of the obligations associated with the substitute professorship. The substitute professorship is awarded when a professorship is temporarily vacant, for example due to leave of absence, retirement or departure of the post holder. It is awarded on an employment basis to a scientist with a doctorate, who has usually already completed his or her habilitation. The latter can either gain experience that will be useful in the later application phase for other professorships (substitute sine spe), or he or she can substitute with the prospect of subsequently being assigned this professorship as a regular professor (substitute cum spe).

Administrative Professorships

Administrative professorships are a form of substitute professorship in which the academic is charged with temporarily ensuring teaching. The holder of the professorship does not have to be a professor; he or she is merely entrusted with the administration of the professorship. This also includes the assumption of all other tasks associated with the professorship. In addition to teaching, there is also research, examination taking and academic self-administration.

Professor h. c.

Professor h. c. (lat. honoris causa "honorary") was originally an academic distinction for a scholar of international standing who had significantly advanced the research findings of his or her field through his or her scientific work. Historically, honorary professors were also appointed with the title Professor honorarius until the end of the 19th century.

The title is nowadays - rarely - also awarded for special scientific, artistic or political merits (especially in Austria, see the article "Berufstitel"), independent of a usual academic career. A professor h. c. has no teaching duties. Another common spelling of Professor h. c. in the German-speaking world is also "Professor E. h. (Ehrenhalber)".

According to German doctoral law, the award of an honorary doctorate (Dr. h. c.) is generally reserved for scientific universities, while the "appointment" to Professor h. c., just like an appointment to full professor, is made by the Ministry of Culture or Education of the respective federal state.

Jointly appointed professors/sectoral professorships

Jointly appointed professors hold a management position at an external research institution in addition to their position at the university. Their teaching load is usually significantly reduced. In Berlin, the term sectoral professorship (S-Professur) is also common.

Professors as heads of federal agencies and museums

The heads of some federal agencies and museums hold the titles of "director and professor," "president and professor," and "museum director and professor," respectively. See Director and Professor. As a rule, one of the above-mentioned professorships is associated with it.