On March 17, 2023, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) published the key points of a draft bill to revise the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (WissZeitVG) (Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia).
Within a very short time, a heated debate flared up and protests formed in many places. Professors with permanent or tenure-track positions are also protesting against the planned amendment. They declare their solidarity with the academic staff, more than two-thirds of whom are employed in temporary positions. This is because their working conditions at German universities, which are already barely acceptable, are in danger of deteriorating even further.
On this page, we try to keep track of the public debate on the amendment of the WissZeitVG, we collect and present current media coverage as work in progress.
Media coverage and public reactions
17/03/2023
- Settlement by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on the key points of a draft bill to revise the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz
- Reaction of the Network for Decent Labour in Academia
18/03/2023
19/03/2023
- Revise and Resubmit: Criticism of the Planned Reform of the WissZeitVG from the Perspective of German Professors
- Announcement to rework the key points – blogged by Jan-Martin Wiarda
- Augsburger Allgemeine: Professoren protestieren gegen Ampel-Vorhaben – Ministerium rudert zurück
- BR24.de: “Der wissenschaftspolitische Wahnsinn ist jetzt ampelfarben”
20/03/2023
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Ministerium will Höchstdauer von Befristung debattieren von Heike Schmoll
- Interview with Prof. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
- Spiegel Online: Kritik an Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz an Hochschulen
- Statement of the German Physical Society on the daft bill to revise the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, short WissZeitVG)
- nd.Aktuell: »Kaum mehr zumutbare Arbeitsbedingungen«. Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen sollen nur noch kürzer befristet angestellt werden dürfen. Doch dagegen regt sich Widerstand by Christopher Wimmer
- Tagesspiegel: Stark-Watzingers nächstes Problem: Ministerium will nach heftiger Kritik Reformvorschlag nachbessern by Tilmann Warnecke
- LTO – Legal Tribute online: “Verschlimmbesserung” altbekannter Probleme by Linda Pfleger
- Süddeutsche Zeitung: Professor wird nur, wer es sich leisten kann by Kia Vahland
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Drei Jahre? Nichts wie weg! by Christian Lessmann, Tim Krieger and Jan Schnellenbach
21/03/2023
- ZEIT Online: Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz: Zurück auf Los by Tim Neumann
- News Informationsdienst Wissenschaft: Novellierung des WissZeitVG: Strukturelle Probleme im Wissenschaftssystem systematisch angehen
- German statement of professors translated into English entitled “revise and resubmit” published online (also available here)
- Freie Befristung, fester Prozentsatz. Guest contribution by Prof. Dr. Tobias Rosefeldt on Jan-Martin Wiarda’s blog
- Resolution of the 153. German Rector’s Conference Senate on the daft bill to revise the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, short WissZeitVG)
22/03/2023
- Deutschlandfunk: Kritik nach #IchBinHanna-Aufschrei hält an – auch Hochschulrektorenkonferenz bemängelt Ampel-Pläne für junge Forscher
- Reference to an earlier statement: already on 14/12/2022, the Faculty of Philosophy of Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel unanimously rejected the intended amendments to the #WissZeitVG.
23/03/2023
- German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina: Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany press release on the daft bill to revise the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia
- German Political Science Association (GPSA): Position paper on the key points of a draft bill to revise the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Probezeit statt Professur. A comment by Jürgen Kaube
25/03/2023
- Deutschlandfunk: Talk with Nicole Karafyllis, Amrei Bahr, Anja Steinbeck (HRK) and Stefan Seiter (FDP) in „Campus und Karriere“
27/03/2023
- taz.de: Working conditions at universities: „Professur ist ein Lottogewinn“. Interview with Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky
- Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW): Reform of of the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia Entfristung statt Befrustung by Anja Dilk
28/03/2023
29/03/2023
- nature.com: Researchers in Germany protest proposed postdoc rule change.„A potential legal reform is reigniting debate about a time limit on fixed-term postdoc contracts“ by Layal Liverpool
- tagesschau.de: Rima-Maria Rahal, Max-Planck-Institute For Research on Collective Goods von Gemeinschaftsgütern on the planned reform of the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia
30/03/2023
- Discussion with invited Stakeholders and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on the reform of the Act on Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Academia
- „Mehr als ein Schaulaufen?“ A report by Jan-Martin Wiarda on the public discussion with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
The debate is still ongoing under the hashtags #wisszeitvg as well as #profsfuerhanna and #profsfuerreyhan. Due to the workload and limited capacities to maintain this website and keeping up with all the news, we’ve decided to simply link to the discourse on twitter.