Since its establishment in 1975, the University of Bayreuth (UBT) has succeeded in occupying an outstanding position among Germany’s smaller universities. Based on its experience with appointments in general and especially with appointments of young researchers, the UBT fundamentally revised its appointment and career system in 2018.
The UBT seeks to appoint more excellent researchers with great potential early in their careers, thus encouraging them to remain at the UBT. The UBT is systematic and sustainable in its implementation of its tenure track model for W1 junior professors leading to a permanent W3 professorship, in particular by taking advantage of the dynamics between the topic areas “Africa-related research”, “life sciences”, and “battery research”. The goal of this structural development plan is to strenghten the importance of the tenure track at the UBT: annually, up to 20% of all vacancies will be listed as W1-W3 Bayreuth Track professorships. The ratio of junior professorships with a tenure track to the total number of professorships at the University is to be increased four-fold.
Central elements of the quality-assured Bayreuth Track are its transparent evaluation criteria applied from the very beginning, the independence of research and teaching, its international evaluation process, the formation of a committee to ensure uniform standards that apply to the entire university, as well as the “Bayreuth-WiN-Zertifikat” (Bayreuth Certificate for Early-Career Scholars). This certificate programme includes structured staff development measures to provide training in transferable skills and fields relevant to young researchers’ careers and assessments, and it also has mentoring and coaching options available. In this way, the UBT is providing early-career scholars with secure long-term prospects, also with regard to the compatibility of work and family life. The strongly potential-oriented Bayreuth Track is expected to contribute to a cultural shift within the University. This new career path at the UBT thus represents an attractive new option for early-career scholars.