Future academics: apprentices under his supervision
Academic Charisma
Research not a profession but charismatic (extramundane) activity
“With some talent, effort, and persistence one can become a competent civil servant; one is a researcher by grace of God”
Charisma cannot be learned, it has to reveal itself in an appropriate setting
Max Weber on Charisma
“Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin”
increase of professors does not match the growth of the system
tensions between academic ‘estates’
Max Weber on Risk Career
“For it is extremely hazardous for a young scholar without funds to expose himself to the conditions of the academic career (...) whether such a private lecturer will ever succeed in moving into the position of a full professor (...) is simply a hazard. (...) I know of hardly any career on earth where chance plays such a role”
Mass HE
Most of teaching/research is done by non-professorial faculty
Improved social rights but still regarded as ‘qualification position’ (no career track)
Conflicts about representation in collegial bodies (struggle for quotas)
‘Assistant’ = literally, assigned to professor, qualification period within familiar network
Tenure Track
Tenure: evaluation (up or out); permanent contract dependent on achievement
Promotion to full professor at home institution (dependent on achievement)
Habilitation Model
Habilitation: venia legendi, no permanent contract
Application for full professor (required mobility), imbalance: applicants/professorial positions
Status Groups - Quantitative Relations
AT
US
Source: Kreckel 2008
required
mobility
AT
US
Status Groups - Qualitative Relations
highly seperated tracks vs flat hierarchy
required
mobility
Crucial Differences
Habilitation: insider orientation below professoriate; juniors remain within familiar networks; selective career step = late (prolongs uncertainty); categorical differences between status groups (impedes solidarity)
Tenure Track: selective recruitment at early stage allows for regular promotion within a career track; gradual differences between status groups (conducive for solidarity)
Different Concerns
Different Concerns
A Modest Typology
Habilitation Model: History
Habilitation/Tenure Track compared
GER/AT: Reform Initiatives
Different Concerns
Germany: Junior Professor
Initiated by the federal government in 2002
projected: 6000 positions by 2009, in fact 1000
without TT (fixed term contract, 6 years)
not ‘assigned’ to full professor
with TT (promotion to full professor possible)
only 6% of all Junior professors (= 60!!)
Technical University Munich: TT (2012)
Austrian ‘Tenure Track’
Collective agreement (2009): TT terminology without substance
assistant professor: university ‘may offer’ a position to ‘promising’ doctoral students
90% of all positions recruited internally
full professor ‘call’ required (unbridgeable disjunction)
below pofessoriate: no commitment, success not projectable, uncalculable
extreme 'risk career'
Thanks for your Attention
Further Reading
Ben-David, J. (1991). 'The Profession of Science and Its Powers'. In: Scientific Growth. Essays on the Social Organization and Ethos of Science (pp. 187-209). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Busch, A. (1963). The Vicissitudes of the "Privatdozent": Breakdown and Adaptation in the Recruitment of the German University Teacher, Minerva, Vol. 1, pp.319-341
Clark, W. (2006). Academic Charisma and the Origin of the Research University. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kreckel, R. (Hg) (2008): Zwischen Promotion und Professur. Das wissenschaftliche Personal in Deutschland im Vergleich mit Frankreich, Großbritannien, USA, Schweden, den Niederlanden, Österreich und der Schweiz. Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsanstalt.
Metzger, W. P. (1987). 'Academic Profession in United States'. In B. R. Clark (Ed.), The academic profession: National, disciplinary, and institutional settings (pp. 123-208) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Neave, G. & Rhoades, G. (1987). 'The academic estate in Western Europe'. In B. R. Clark (Ed.), The academic profession: National, disciplinary, and institutional settings (pp. 211-270) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Schimank, U. (2006). Unsolved problems and inadequate solutions: The situation of academic staff in German higher education. In J. J. F. Forest & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), International handbook of higher education (pp. 115-136). Dordrecht, NL: Springer.
Schmeiser, M. (1994). Akademischer Hasard. Das Berufsschicksal des Professors und das Schicksal der deutschen Universität 1870 - 1920. Stuttgart: Klett.
