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Carolin Antos-Kuby (Research Fellow / Philosophy) organised this Jour fixe.

Carolin invited Sibylle Roth (History) and Hansjörg Neth (Psychology) from the “Mittelbauinitiative” to discuss with us the problems and possible solutions to the precarious employment system for young researchers at German universities.

They first presented what the Mittelbauinitiative is and what possibilities it has to influence the debate here in Konstanz and then followed this up by a general discussion. Here we also talked about the recent so-called “Bayreuther Erklärung” in which all the chancellors of the German universities declared their firm support of the system of non-tenured positions. Their main argument is that universities are first and foremost qualification systems that prepare people for a career outside of academia - deliberately not making any difference between PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.