On October 16^th, 2023, a general staff assembly was held at WU under the motto "Career paths and career dead ends at WU". In this issue of BR-Info, we would like to provide a summary of the contents and give an overview of the legal options for academic careers in Austria in general and at WU in particular. To this end, we provide information on the provisions of the Universities Act (UG) and the Collective Bargaining Agreement for University Staff (KV) and describe the career opportunities they contain. We then discuss the special career models at WU that are not based on the UG or the KV. Finally, we present a current evaluation of the Universities Act's new career paths and highlight ideas for improvements.

Special university employment law

The Universities Act 2002 (UG) introduced far-reaching autonomy at Austrian universities. Until then, universities were a subordinate department of the ministry. In practice, this autonomy is reflected above all in university self-governance and its committees (Senate, Senate Committees, Department Committees, etc.).

The Universities Act 2002 established a special employment law for university employees, that includes possibilities for fixed-term employment contracts (§ 109 UG) that go well beyond the general rules of employment law.

For example, the UG generally allows fixed-term contracts for a maximum of six years. In addition, according to the current regulations, fixed-term contracts can be extended twice up to a maximum total employment period of eight years, whereby further exceptions apply. Some of these are:

• an unlimited number of fixed-term contracts is permitted within eight years for third-party funded positions.

• Praedoc periods are not taken into account for the maximum permissible number of fixed-term employment relationships and for a maximum of four years for the maximum permissible total duration of fixed-term employment, which brings the total maximum duration of fixed-term employment to twelve years.

• lecturers can string together an unlimited number of fixed-term contracts within 8 academic years without this constituting an impermissible chain of fixed-term contracts.

We have already provided more detailed information on § 109 UG in previous BR-Info articles. These can be found here and here (in German only).

With regard to the extent of employment, the UG states that scientific staff and university professors shall be employed on a full-time or part-time basis. The UG doesn’t give any recommendation or restriction on the extent of employment. Universities, therefore, have autonomy both in the use of the extended fixed-term options and in the choice of the extent of employment as part of their personnel planning process and can decide for themselves whether certain positions are generally advertised as full-time or part-time positions and whether they are filled on a fixed-term or permanent basis. Austrian universities make use of this autonomy by offering a large number of fixed-term employment contracts (around 80% of scientific employees at WU are fixed-term) and a high proportion of part-time employment (around 70% of scientific employees at WU are part-time). For the Academic Staff Council, these precarious employment contracts, which are permitted by the UG, are an important problem that needs to be addressed.

Career paths according to the Universities Act

With regard to career paths, the UG describes various career paths to professorship in § 99. However, the UG only provides a continuous career path to professorship for associate professors (= Ao. Univ.-Prof.; civil servants, VBG), which is a discontinued model, and adjunct professors[1] (= post-doc with a qualification agreement - QA - according to the KV). Otherwise, the UG only describes the different categories of staff at universities without laying out any career paths.

The following appointment procedures are provided for in the UG as paths to become a university professor:

• § 98: The "normal" path to professorship. Possible as permanent or fixed-term employment for longer than three years.

Furthermore, there are these special paths:

• § 99 para. 1: Temporary appointment as university professor for a maximum of five years as part of a shortened appointment procedure.

• § 99 para. 3: One-time option for universities to appoint affiliated associate professors (Ao. Univ.-Prof.) as university professors for a maximum of six years, whereby after these six years there is the option of an unlimited extension as university professor following a qualification examination. This option was used at WU in 2010 and eleven positions were advertised, of which only one was actually filled.

• § 99 para. 4: Possibility to appoint affiliated associate professors (Ao. Univ.-Prof.) and adjunct professors (both QA old and QA new) as permanent university professors in a simplified procedure. This is based on the idea of offering a continuous career path at Austrian universities. Unlike most other Austrian universities, WU has not yet implemented § 99 para. 4 UG.

• § 99 paras 5 and 6 stipulate that associate professors who have completed a QA new are university professors under the UG. However, this applies in terms of organizational law (e.g. for representation in self-governance bodies); in terms of employment law, they remain associate professors[2] (see explanation below in the KV section).

The UG therefore only provides a continuous career path for associate professors according to UG (Ao. Univ.-Prof.) and associate professors according to KV (both QA old and QA new). The UG does not provide career paths for any other staff categories. At WU, only the career path for associate professors with QA new is currently offered.

Career paths in the Collective Bargaining Agreement

Apart from the UG, there is a kind of "parallel world" in the KV with regard to career paths and personnel categories, which is not always congruent with the UG - neither in terms of designations nor personnel group affiliation. The KV has been in force since 2009 and recognizes the following personnel categories:

• A1: University Professors according to § 98 and § 99 UG. However, this does not include university professors pursuant to § 99 para. 5 and 6 UG, as these remain in A2.

• A2: Senior Assistant Professors, who have concluded a QA. Upon completion of the QA, they become Associate Professors with further salary advances in A2, but they do not switch to A1 (this is a significant difference from the UG).

• B1: Assistant Professors, Senior Lecturers, Senior Scientists, Project Staff

• B2: Lecturers

• C: Student Staff

The KV recognizes the qualification agreement as the only career path. In contrast to the UG, in which the fulfilment of the QA (new) leads to the status as a university professor in terms of organizational law, these employees remain in the A2 classification of the KV and are therefore still considered associate professors under employment law.

Career paths at WU

Let us now turn to the situation at WU. Career paths are generally shown in WU's personnel development plan (last updated on June 28, 2018, updated on June 18, 2019). This plan shows both the QA positions just described in the KV and senior lecturer post doc positions as explicit tenure-track positions. Another route to a tenure-track position at WU is via the development agreement (DA). In addition, the staff development plan lists associate professors, associate professors and senior scientists as permanent positions.

When designing the QA career path, WU also provides for some special features that are not derived from the legal requirements:

• WU requires mandatory international experience of at least one year for a QA position.

• WU has different requirements for old and new QA.

• WU overpays QA new compared to QA old or KV.

• WU has its own “full prof” model for QA new (we have already discussed this in detail in an earlier article, which can be found here).

An DA contract is tenured when the development agreement is fulfilled (this usually includes the completion of a habilitation). After fulfilment of the DA, you will continue to be classified as KV category B1 and your teaching performance will be increased (from 4 to 6 weekly credit hours), which will entitle you to a teaching allowance. In addition, a small overpayment is granted. One may therefore ask whether the development agreement is actually a career path, as there are no fundamental changes to your employment contract on fulfilment.

Which models (DA or QA) are offered at your department is determined by the WU policy QA/DA and the personnel development plan. This decision falls under the autonomy of the departments at WU. The same applies to the application of the “full prof” model.

Evaluation of the career models and summary

An evaluation of the appointment procedures according to § 99 para. 4, 5 and 6 UG was recently completed on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Science. The main results and recommendations of this study are

• The implementation of the career path laid out in § 99 para 4 UG is recommended for all Austrian universities, with 18 of the 22 universities having already implemented this career path. WU is one of the few universities that have not yet implemented this.

• It is not in line with international standards that QA offers are only made after 2 years (as is the case at WU). These late offers mean that a tenure-track position does not exist from the outset of the contract and the specific tenure-track criteria are not known from the beginning. This reduces the attractiveness of these main career positions. The University of Vienna, for example, offers QAs as soon as the employment contract is signed.

• The lack of resources for these positions (at WU, this is within the autonomy of the departments) does not meet international standards.

• A lack of equal opportunities for professors according to § 99 para. 4 and 5 UG with other university professors in everyday life (e.g. in management responsibilities), which have been identified in the study, is criticized.

Many of these points have already been addressed by the Academic Staff Council in the past. We consider these recommendations as important inputs to raise the attractiveness of the career models provided for in the UG and thus to be able to fill all available tenure-track positions with excellent candidates in the future and subsequently retain these key employees at WU.

In addition, this study also mentions the systemic challenge that the UG currently does not provide any development or career opportunities for a large group of system-preserving university employees (senior lecturers, senior scientists, etc.). The framework conditions for this group must also be considerably improved. The Netzwerk Unterbau (NUWISS) has stated similar demands, calling for a fundamental reform of the UG (details can be found here in one of our previous articles).

Since one of the goals of the new Rector's Council's work program is to further develop and - as far as possible - standardize academic career models, we, as representatives of the interests of the academic staff, hope that ideas addressing these issues of academic careers at WU will soon be put forward.

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¹ Terminology of the official translation of the UG: https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/Erv/ERV_2002_1_120/ERV_2002_1_120.html

²  Terminology of the official translation of the KV: https://swa.wu.ac.at/Serviceeinrichtungen/personalabt/_layouts/15/WopiFrame2.aspx?sourcedoc=%7b028E690A-6626-4B03-A565-42DFBA394357%7d&file=Uni-KV_englisch_2023_final.pdf&action=default&IsList=1&ListId=%7bF3618419-4F16-4473-9492-9D99CE033FD4%7d&ListItemI

^27.11.2023

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