After all of the candidates have been to a department to give their talks, the Berufungskommission for the position will meet and make a decision about the ranking of the candidates and will create The List for the position. The List will rank the candidates and will usually include three candidates, but can include more or fewer. Occasionally there will be only one candidate on the list. ”Being on the list” is a big thing, because it means that you have a chance at landing the position. Being first on the list means that you will get the Ruf (call) to the position….
Well, not quite, actually. Once the Kommision makes the list, it must be approved by outside referees (Gutachters), and, depending on the Land, the education ministry. The referees can disagree with the content of the list as well as the ordering of the candidates. But usually it gets approved the way the Kommission made it.
Once the list is approved, it has to be voted on by the Rat (council) for the faculty. Then and only then, will a Ruf be issued by the Rektor (president) of the university.
This apparatus is much more clumsy than in the US, where departments are pre-authorized to make offers, and all that needs to be done is have the department vote to whom the first offer goes (although most departments will engage in some kind of ranking as well, to save time in case the first candidate turns the department down).
Offers in the US always carry some kind of salary commitment and usually some details about a “startup” package. So in this sense, the university is the first mover (although I have had people ask me what my salary expectations were — a cheap and sleazy move, in my opinion).
In Germany, a Ruf is nothing more than an invitation to bargain. It carries no offer, per se, of salary or anything else. And by design, the candidate is the first mover. They must send to the university a list of expectations on salary and Ausstattung, or equipment (but really more… see below). Either after, or simultaneous to, to the submission of salary and equipment, a meeting will be set up between the candidate and various administrators within the administration. Meeting in person is mandatory. It occupies a huge amount of time for both candidates, but also for the members of the administration who must prepare the counter offers prior to the meetings.
More on meeting with the administration and the actual bargaining that takes place in my next post.
–dj
