A potential legal reform is reigniting debate about a time limit on fixed-term postdoc contracts.
Last week’s protest in Berlin was part of a long-running debate on a law about fixed-term contracts for researchers.Hundreds of researchers gathered in front of the German research ministry in Berlin on 24 March to demand improvements to working conditions in academia. The protest is the latest flashpoint in a long-running debate about a law that means postdocs can be employed on fixed-term contracts for only up to six years after they complete their PhD.
“Germany is losing a lot of great minds to other places,” says Igor Ogashawara, a postdoc in environmental science at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin.The protest was part of a backlash against a 17 March proposal by the research ministry to reduce the limit to three years. After two days of widespread criticism from the research community, the ministry said that it was withdrawing the draft bill.
Janssen, a postdoc in comparative literature and the history of science at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen, says one problem is the lack of permanent positions available. She thinks that eliminating the WissZeitVG entirely would force research institutions to create more permanent positions, instead of continually hiring postdocs on fixed-term contracts with limited opportunities for career progression.
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