Employment Structure of University Faculty and Staff in Germany

Abstract

The proportion of fixed-term employment is remarkably high in university faculty and staff in Germany. Here, we clarify the employment structure and the employment situations of faculty and staff in German universities to compare with those of other countries. Furthermore, we focus on Humboldt University Berlin and investigate the relationship between researchers’ work and their lives. Through interviews with a service trade union （Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft）, and researchers and staff in the human resources department at Humboldt University, along with analysis of documents from the aforementioned department, we found that employment conditions of academic researchers were structurally more unstable in Germany than in Japan. Nearly all the researchers were employed on fixed-term contracts except for a minority of professors who are appointed as civil servants with unlimited tenure. In contrast, the employment situation of staff such as research assistants was found to have improved significantly in recent years. Fixed-term contracts for academic researchers have a long history and are currently accepted in German society because of good working conditions, including opportunities for flexible arrangement of working time, despite a limited period of employment.