Teaching and Research in Germany: The Notions of University Professors

Abstract

The internationally widely spread concept of a close link of research and teaching is assumed to have originated from the Humboldtian idea of the university that was heralded by the University of Berlin in 1810. This analysis, however, focuses on the German university professor only, because a balanced link of research and teaching does not necessarily hold true for junior staff at universities and certainly not for academics of other institutions of higher education or for scholars at publicly funded research institutes outside the university. The CAP survey shows that German professors are highly motivated: They spend more weekly hours on academic work and publish more than their European colleagues. They neither show an exceptionally high preference for research nor do they spend exceptionally much time on research. They show a low regard of teaching only in terms of a below-average variety of teaching modes. It would be obviously wrong to assume that a strong research emphasis is linked to an ivory tower approach. On the contrary, professors in Germany—according to their own views—emphasise strongly the practical relevance of teaching and research. In sum, university professors tend to enjoy research but hold a close link between research and teaching in high esteem. A third of them—more than the average of the European countries—argue, however, that research and teaching are hardly compatible.