Evaluation of the Joint Federal Government-Länder Funding Programme for Junior Academics illustrates the success of the new career path
The first accompanying evaluation of the Joint Federal Government-Länder Funding Programme for Junior Academics was published in July 2024.
This evaluation shows that the tenure track professorship was successfully introduced at German universities nationwide, so that this career path has been structurally and permanently established in Germany’s university landscape. After two funding approval rounds, a total of 971 out of 1000 funded tenure track professorships were filled between 2017 and 2023. Thus the funding programme made an important contribution to permanently establishing the tenure track professorship in Germany as an independent career path to a professorship next to the conventional appointment procedure.
The evaluation results show that the attractiveness of Germany’s scientific system was increased, equal opportunities were improved and the career/family balance was strengthened.
Appointments to tenure track professorships funded under the programme were close to equal (W1: nearly equal with 52%, 48% men, W2: 58% men, 42% women). The proportion of women for the W2 professorships is significantly higher compared to all W2 appointments in the German scientific system at 34% in 2018.
Positive developments are also observed regarding the objective that a decision to permanently remain in the scientific system is made earlier on average. The average age at the time of the appointment to a tenure track professorship is 7.3 years less than the average initial appointment age for a lifetime professorship.
Around one quarter of the new tenure track professors were employed outside of Germany directly before accepting their position. One fifth of the professors funded under the programme did not have a German citizenship. For comparison: Ten per cent of professors across Germany had a foreign citizenship in 2023. These figures show that introducing the tenure track professorship has made Germany’s scientific system more attractive and internationally connected.
The positive statistics that emerge from the surveys and analyses of the evaluation are confirmed by the opinions of the surveyed experts. A large majority of the surveyed tenure track professors funded under the programme and other experts view the new career path as an effective tool to make the scientific career more predictable and transparent.
Background
The first accompanying evaluation of the tenure track programme was performed from June 2022 to the spring of 2024 by the Technopolis Group in cooperation with the Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Two further independent evaluations are planned during the programme term.