选拔以学术为业的精英人才——德国大学教授资格考试制度评述

Selecting Elites Who Take Academia as a Vocation:An Analysis of the Habilitation System at German Universities

教授资格考试是一种独特的学术职业准入机制,是德国大学教授聘任制度中一个重要环节。为了获得应聘教授的资格,候选人需在博士毕业后花费多年的时间完成教授资格论文,并进行公开演讲,以证明自己具有独立从事科研和教学的能力。教授资格考试要求高、耗时长、且不能保证通过考试便能获聘为教授(目前获聘率不足40%)。因此,它最终选拔出来的是那些有志于献身科学、以学术为业的精英。虽然经过2002年的改革,教授资格考试不再作为应聘教授的唯一前提,但仍受到很多人的青睐,因为它比其他通向教授的路径(如青年教授)具有更高的社会声望和认可度。

Habilitation constitutes a special mechanism for the regulation of access to the academic profession,an important step in the recruitment of pro fessors at German universities.In order to be qualified for the application,pro fessor candidates must have spent years after graduating from doctoral study,to finish a thesis(Habilitationsschrift) and give a public lecture,so as to prove their ability to do research and teach independently.Habilitation is demanding and time-consuming,however it doesn ' t guarantee that the successful candi dates will get an appointment as professor at the end(The rate is currently less than 40%).Therefore,only those elites(i.e.the most excellent candidates) who dedicate themselves to the academic research and take it as a vocation could eventually pass the selection.After the reform in 2002,habilitation is no longer considered as the only requirement for the professorship application.Neverthe less,it is still preferred by many people,because it enjoys higher prestige and recognition compared with other career paths(such as Junior professor).