Rights and Duties

What are the legal duties, rights, and responsibilities of KIT junior research group leaders? How do they differ from those of junior professors? The answers to these questions are frequently not obvious and sometimes not even known to us in all relevant aspects. This workshop is designed to fill this gap and was held for the first time in 2019.

Two experts from the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (Deutscher Hochschulverband, DHV) thoroughly addressed all aspects in the areas of research, teaching, and innovation. For instance, did you know that our “rights” in research and teaching are quite strong and protected by the academic freedom as written down in the German Constitution (“Wissenschaftsfreiheit”, “Freiheit von Wissenschaft, Forschung und Lehre”)? These rights include publishing results without prior approval but also the intellectual property ownership of the outputs from independent academic research.

Did you know that there are also “Duties” beyond teaching obligations? For instance, in KIT’s self-governance bodies and as supervisor of Ph.D. students? The tenure clock is ticking. Therefore, knowing the rights and responsibilities is a big asset to better navigate through faculties and administration on the path to a permanent position. The workshop also helps tremendously to better understand subtle legal differences between the statuses of “KIT-JRG leader”, “JProf”, and “Permanent Professor”. This workshop should (continue to) be at the heart of the YIN educational program. I highly recommend this workshop to every YIN member.