The University of Bremen is convinced that it is essential to offer excellent conditions for career development in order to attract the brightest minds. This includes transparent and predictable career paths, attractive working conditions, equal opportunities, and options to reconcile family and work. This applies particularly to the next scientific generation, which will be more diverse, more international and more female.

The tenure track is particularly suitable for achieving this goal because it starts at a very early stage of an academic career and leads to a reduction of the age of initial appointment. It is internationally recognized and thus increases the attractiveness and competitiveness of the university. The university has anchored this career path structurally and sustainably and the aim is to advertise 30 percent of professorships with tenure, half of them filled by women. Tenure track professorships lead to a permanent professorship after positive evaluation. The appointment procedures are transparent and quality-assured with the participation of external and international expertise.

Tenure-track professors conduct appointment negotiations, are entitled to a reduced teaching load, and are endowed with all the rights and duties of a full professorship. To ensure a transparent tenure evaluation, criteria and expectations are agreed upon in writing in an evaluation agreement at the time of appointment. A standing commission for tenure track procedures (tenure board) develops general criteria for the evaluation agreement, decides on the assignment of a permanent professorship, and provides recommendations on improving the procedures in order to guarantee consistent standards for evaluations throughout the university. Tenure-track professors are supported in achieving their goals by individually compiled personnel development offers.

The university has not only established the tenure-track professorship as a plannable career path but has also further developed career paths for non-professorial academic staff. Permanent, scientifically independent positions (Senior Researcher and Senior Lecturer), which can only be achieved via a tenure procedure, open up new career paths alongside professorships.