Such concepts do not just fall from the sky – what steps preceded their formulation and what is the background to the three documents?
Let me take the guidelines on permanent positions as an example: The University management held numerous discussions with the faculty managements, central institutions, personnel representatives and employees in order to gain a concrete picture of the many tasks performed in research, teaching and scientific management at our University on an ongoing basis. In this new set of guidelines, we describe standardised and comparable conditions, whereby there is a certain amount of overlap between the three profiles. It’s all about typical and ideal concepts. And about fairness, transparency and equal opportunities, as e.g. teaching commitments or the option of conducting in part independent research have been handled in different ways in the past.
When do the documents come into effect and what advantages do they offer the faculties?
They apply with immediate effect for all new positions to be established. The permanent position concept now also offers the faculties the opportunity to establish strategic personnel planning and development. The balance between academic qualification positions and permanent positions can be adjusted on an ongoing basis, permanent position opportunities within a faculty can be awarded transparently, specific further education and training requirements can be identified, and succession planning made easier. It’s obvious: If we want to keep attracting the best talents to HHU, we need to offer them development perspectives at the University, honour their academic achievements and make the positions on offer more attractive. The postdoc guidelines also fit in seamlessly here.
What advantages do the postdoc guidelines offer and who benefits from them?
Postdocs make an important contribution to research, teaching and innovation. They are usually employed on fixed-term contracts after gaining their doctorates so they can develop their academic profile. At HHU, we want to provide them with greater support in this phase of their careers and enable them to make considered decisions about a range of completely different career paths. The individual career development plan, for example, is an important tool in this regard, as are the feedback discussions with supervisors. We want to offer our postdocs a productive and inspiring working environment, good research conditions and space for personal development. At the same time, the guidelines set out what we at HHU expect from our postdocs – for example that they take on teaching commitments and play their part in academic self-governance.
All three documents are based on the goal of acting in a plannable, transparent, fair and innovative way in order to create an attractive academic environment at our University.
More information/articles on the three documents: