On the sidelines: Precarious science: A flock of canaries

At that time, miners took canaries into the mine shaft with them because they reacted like an early warning system to toxic gases. On the job market, the canary is now seen as a metaphor for those highly qualified workers who leave a toxic work environment in a timely manner. In the scientific world one would therefore have to come across whole flocks of canaries.

Because at German universities there are unsafe working conditions and a lot of self-exploitation – until the majority of the academic precariat is dropped anyway through temporary contract regulations. This has been scandalized for years under public pressure from unions and campaigns like #ichbinhanna or #profsfürhanna. So far, however, the attractiveness of an academic career has seemed unaffected by this, since those who can afford to pursue a life of chance are usually the ones who take it up anyway.

In mid-March, the federal government reduced the long-promised improvement to absurdity and made the situation even worse: instead of the previous six years that you could be employed after completing your doctorate before being appointed to a professorship, there are now only four years. If you had a permanent prospect of one of the rare permanent positions, then another two years could be added.

In fact, there are hardly any such permanent positions. The probability of getting a permanent position in science is currently twelve percent, as a recent study on alternative working models in German science found. These grievances could be effectively addressed through career positions based on the tenure-track system or permanent teaching positions.

At the end of February, a study by the German Center for University and Science Research found that the majority of young scientists would no longer aspire to a professorship. Realistically, what else should this overwhelming majority of structurally generated canaries be doing? There was therefore a prompt warning of a shortage of skilled workers amid great concern for the national location. Not without reason, because the University of Oslo, for example, is already advertising its positions for international scientists with the hashtag #ichbinhanna, which has become the epitome of poor working conditions in Germany.

Overall, a change in thinking now seems to be taking place: a new university law was recently passed in Brandenburg that at least offers the prospect of permanent positions. And in the collective bargaining round in the state of Hesse, Verdi was now able to enforce collective agreement requirements for fixed-term contracts. The fact that the matter only begins to move under economic pressure to survive – after several years of indignation – at least gives an indication of which forces are ultimately at work at universities. The subjects at the universities are outlaw academics only in terms of ideology. In reality they are wage earners.