Appointment - an important career step

An appointment involves the request from a higher education institution or university to its academics, and to accept a professor. It is therefore a career step to becoming a .

There are clearly defined rules and procedures relating to this process to ensure that the person who assumes the is professionally the most suitable candidate. Such an appointment in Germany is usually associated with civil service status for life.

What is the offer of professorship at a university?

The offer of professorship at a university is the formal request to accept the professorship. The takes place prior to that. That involves the best applicant being selected by an appointments committee.

Applicants must satisfy certain prerequisites:

• Successfully completed university degree

• Pedagogical aptitude, in other words experience in teaching and education
• Academic qualification, which is generally substantiated by a and additional academic performance

• Several years of professional practice in terms of professorships at universities of applied sciences

• Important specialisations relating to the professorship in certain fields, such as medicine


The appointment involves ensuring that the applicants not only possess extensive expertise and research experience. Because pedagogical ability is also required as a professor.

Employment law aspects relating to a professorship

Accepting a professorship in Germany usually means that at the same time you are designated as a civil servant for life. A special characteristic in Germany is the ban on in-house appointments. It severely restricts the in-house appointment of academics, scientists and researchers from the same HEI at which they completed their doctorate or habilitation. It is intended to ensure that nobody is favoured, but that the professorship is rather awarded to the person who is academically best suited.