Kick-off Event 16th Round of the ProFiL Programme

Event on 29 September about the topic "Does the Amendment to the Berlin Law on Higher Education Create Viable Career Prospects for Postdocs in Academia?". The Presidents of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin together with the Chairperson of the Board of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin cordially invite members of the public to the opening event marking the 16th round of the ProFiL Programme on 29 September at 5 pm. Thematically, the event picks up on current discussions about the Amendment to the Berlin Law on Higher Education ÜBerlHG). The new version of Section 110 BerlHG, Paragraph 6, Sentence 2 obliges the Berlin universities to transform fixed-term contracts of post-doctoral researchers on qualification positions leading to eligibility for professorship into permanent contracts provided they achieve the qualification goals set in advance. The regulation applies to first-time appointments from 1 October 2023 and does not apply to postdocs who are mainly financed from third-party funds or from programmes by the Federal and the Länder governments or by the Land Berlin. With this reform initiative, the Land Berlin is reacting to an intensive debate within higher education policy that is focusing on the lack of permanent academic positions in the German higher education system and is increasingly demanding more permanent positions for high-achieving postdoctoral researchers. The momentous imbalance in the ratio of third-party funding and basic funding of the universities is identified as a basic problem cause for precarious job structures, which at the same time raises the question of a more fundamental system change.