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The Coming of Age of the Academic Career: Differentiation and Professionalization of German Academic Positions from the 19th Century to the Present

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Abstract

In modern academic career systems there are a large number of entry positions, much smaller numbers of intermediate positions, and still fewer full professorships. We examine how this system has developed in Germany, the country where the modern academic system was introduced, tracing the historical development of academic positions since the early 19th century. We show both a differentiation and professionalization. At first, professorships and private lecturer positions were the only formal positions, but later, lower formal academic positions emerged. Over the whole period, the share of higher academic positions steadily decreased. This differentiation process was closely connected to professionalization: remuneration through salaries was extended from professors to almost everyone working in the German academic system. We propose that the process of differentiation and professionalization was induced by the expansion and democratization of higher education. Finally, our study shows that the opportunities for PhDs to obtain salaried (post-)doctoral positions have increased since the 1950s. On the other hand, opportunities for PhDs to become a professor or obtain another tenured job have decreased since the 1980s due to a slowdown of higher education expansion.

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Notes

  1. In an Anglo-Saxon context, the word “science” does not refer to disciplines such as mathematics, engineering and the humanities. Following the German tradition, we will use “science” like the more general Wissenschaft, which does include these fields.

  2. However, strictly speaking, only researchers in the professors’ group perform research and teaching independently according to German higher education law (Hochschulrahmengesetz §43).

  3. The German translation for a female PhD candidate is Doktorandin. For the sake of brevity, we will use masculine forms of German terms throughout the text.

  4. According to the German law on academic employment (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz 2007), a researcher can be employed on a temporary contract (as research affiliate or assistant) for up to six years before and also up to six years after the PhD (nine for medicine). However, positions paid by third-party funding are exempt from these regulations.

  5. Von Ferber referred to them as “Kandidaten der wissenschaftlichen Forschung”, which most likely indicates researchers working on a Habilitation.

  6. An exponential growth has also been observed in the number of scientific papers (De Solla Price 1963: 9; van Raan 2000).

  7. Defined as “external democratization”, in contrast to “internal democratization”, which is employees’ and students’ involvement in university governance (Hermans 2002).

  8. For the missing years, we have estimated the number of positions and successful PhD defences by interpolation. I.e., \( x_{t} = x_{l} \cdot (1 + g_{s - l} )^{t - l} \), where x t is the number of positions at time t, x l is the number of positions at the last available time-point, g s-l is the average annual growth rate in the number of positions between time s (subsequent available time-point) and time l (last available time-point), and t-l is the number of years between time t and time l.

  9. In this figure, the ratios are plotted for the years of obtaining the positions, instead of the year PhD was obtained (as in Fig. 6).

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Ingrid Urlichs, Gertruda Huber (both German Federal Statistical Office) and Petra Langhein (German Council of Science and Humanities) for their extraordinary and invaluable support in providing me with archival statistics. I would also like to thank Sabrina Petersohn (GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) for helpful discussion of literature on professions and occupations, and Thed N. van Leeuwen (CWTS) for supplying calculations of total research output. I thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the first version of the manuscript. Finally, Cornelis A. van Bochove, Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner, Anthony F.J. van Raan and Paul Wouters (all CWTS) are gratefully acknowledged for fruitful discussion of the manuscript.

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    Cathelijn J. F. Waaijer

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Waaijer, C.J.F. The Coming of Age of the Academic Career: Differentiation and Professionalization of German Academic Positions from the 19th Century to the Present. Minerva 53, 43–67 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-014-9264-z

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