2.2 The Professorship and Academic Freedom: Freedoms, Duties, and Responsibilities

The role of a university professor holds a unique legal status, as professors are typically tenured civil servants and, simultaneously, bearers of academic freedom. Due to this dual status, the employment law governing professors significantly differs from that of other civil servants. The exercise of their primary responsibilities in research and teaching is protected by academic freedom. Awareness of the legal distinctiveness, rights and duties, and responsibilities is of great practical importance for newly appointed as well as established professors. This online seminar provides a comprehensive overview of the specific employment law for professors, along with their rights and duties within the university. Key responsibilities, such as research and teaching, along with protective rights within the role, are thoroughly analyzed. The seminar serves as a guide to understanding the rights and obligations of professors—extending well beyond their “first 100 days” in the position.

Contents

Part I: Specific Employment Law for Professors

• Position of Professors within the University
• Freedom from Instruction, Independence, and Autonomy
• Residence Requirement and Presence Obligation
• Vacation and Official Travel
• Special Working Hours Provisions
• Rights Related to the Position (e.g., special protection during secondments and transfers)
• Modification of General Civil Servant Duties
• Right to Secondary Employment
• Disciplinary Aspects

Rights and Duties as a Functional Supervisor

Part II: Professional Responsibilities

1. Primary Responsibility: Research
   • Freedom of Research
   • Research Sabbaticals
   • Leave of Absence
   • Acquisition of Third-Party Funding vs. Legal Liability
   • Basic Equipment/Appointment Commitments/Performance-Based Funding
2. Primary Responsibility: Teaching and Continuing Education
   • Freedom of Teaching and Its Limits
   • Teaching Obligations (“The New Currency”)
   • Organization of Teaching (Flexibility, Quotas)
   • Continuing Education, Full-Time and Part-Time
3. Additional Responsibilities
   • Examination Rights and Duties
   • Self-Administration
   • Promotion of Young Researchers

Part III: Individual Structuring Elements

• Target Agreements
• Performance-Based Compensation (Special Performance Bonuses, Research and Teaching Allowance)

Target Audience: Newly appointed UAS Professors at HSRW

Date: 29.11.2024, from 12:00 - 16:00 p.m.

Location: Online via Webex/Zoom

Speaker:

• Prof. Dr. Hubert Detmer, Deputy Managing Director and Head of the Legal and Advisory Department at the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (DHV)

Language: German