Professorships can be regarded as archetypical elements of higher education institutions (HEI) and as small institutions in themselves, i.e. an unquestioned role and structure model with a long history. This small institution is integrated into the university organisation in the form of a position. In Germany, the professorship is the most important type of position in the higher education system. However, for about one and a half decades, there have been signs of an internal differentiation so that different types of professorships are now distinguishable.
- the extent of differentiation and structural features of emerging new types of professorships
- relevant causes and factors influencing the processes of differentiation
- effects and consequences with regard to expectations professors have to meet, to their budgets and resources, their concepts of professional performance, their integration into the HEI and their internal and external networking.
In this context, analyses of the legal framework over time and a discourse analysis of relevant periodicals related to higher education will be combined. In addition, several guided expert interviews will be conducted, and data taken from a survey among researchers carried out by the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) in 2016 will be statistically evaluated.
The following will be studied in detail: open-topic professorships, gender professorships, professorships financed by foundations, professorships with joint appointments at both an HEI and a research institution, and shared professorships in a cooperative framework of higher education institutions and companies.
Intended outcomes of the project are congress papers and presentations of results, publications of articles in peer-reviewed journals and the preparation and submission of an application for a further multi-year project closely related to this topic.
This interdisciplinary project is carried out in cooperation between the DZHW and the Chair of Public Law, International and European Law at the Leibniz University Hannover (Professor Volker Epping) at the Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS).
