Habilitation


Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching, and further education, which usually includes a second dissertation.
The degree, sometimes abbreviated Dr. habil., dr hab., or D.Sc., is often a qualification for full professorship in those countries.
In German-speaking countries it allows the degree holder to bear the title PD. In a number of countries there exists an academic post of docent, appointment to which often requires such a qualification. The degree conferral is usually accompanied by a public oral defence event with one or more opponents. The habilitation thesis is intended to demonstrate that the author has mastered their field in its entirety. For this reason, it is usually written on a topic that is very different from the subject of the doctoral dissertation. Unlike doctoral theses, which must be published by law in Germany, many habilitation theses remain unpublished.
Habilitation is usually awarded 5–15 years after a PhD degree or its equivalent. Achieving this academic degree does not automatically give the scientist a paid position, though many people who apply for the degree already have steady university employment.

History and etymology

The term habilitation is derived from the Medieval Latin habilitare, meaning "to make suitable, to fit", from Classical Latin "fit, proper, skillful". The degree developed in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the seventeenth century. Initially, habilitation was synonymous with "doctoral qualification". The term became synonymous with "post-doctoral qualification" in Germany in the 19th century "when holding a doctorate seemed no longer sufficient to guarantee a proficient transfer of knowledge to the next generation". Afterwards, it became normal in the German university system to write two doctoral theses: the inaugural thesis, completing a course of study, and the habilitation thesis, which opens the road to a professorship.
Since the early 21st century, the habilitation is no longer mandatory for appointment to a professorship in Germany. Since then, there have been major differences between the various disciplines. While the habilitation remains common in most humanities and in medical research, it has become the exception in many natural sciences.

Prevalence

Habilitation qualifications exist or existed in:
  • Algeria
  • Armenia, Azerbaijan
  • Austria
  • Belarus
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Bulgaria
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Egypt
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Georgia
  • Greece, abolished in 1983
  • Hungary
  • Italy
  • Latvia, since 1995 no longer conferred, but those who have earned the degree earlier will use it for life
  • Lithuania, since 2003 no longer conferred
  • Luxembourg
  • Moldova
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Tunisia

    Process

A habilitation thesis can be either cumulative or monographical, i.e., a specific, unpublished thesis, which then tends to be very long. While cumulative habilitations are predominant in some fields, they have been, since about a century ago, almost unheard of in others.
The level of scholarship of a habilitation is considerably higher than for a doctoral dissertation in the same academic tradition in terms of quality and quantity, and must be accomplished independently, without direction or guidance of a faculty supervisor. In the sciences, publication of numerous research articles is required during the habilitation period of about four to ten years. In the humanities, a major book publication may be a prerequisite for defense.
It is possible to get a professorship without habilitation, if the search committee attests the candidate to have qualifications equaling those of a habilitation and the higher-ranking bodies approve. However, while some subjects make liberal use of this, in other subjects it is rarely done.
The habilitation is awarded after a public lecture, to be held after the thesis has been accepted, and after which the venia legendi is bestowed. In some areas, such as law, philosophy, theology and sociology, the venia, and thus the habilitation, is given only for certain sub-fields ; in others, for the entire field.
Although disciplines and countries vary in the typical number of years for obtaining habilitation after getting a doctorate, it usually takes longer than for the American academic tenure. For example, in Poland until 2018, the statutory time for getting a habilitation is eight years. Theoretically, if an assistant professor does not succeed in obtaining habilitation in this time, they should be moved to a position of a lecturer, with a much higher teaching load and no research obligations, or even be dismissed. In practice, however, on many occasions schools extend the deadlines for habilitation for most scholars if they do not make it in time, and there is evidence that they are able to finish it in the near future.

Austria

In Austria, the procedure is currently regulated by national law. The graduation process includes additionally to the sub-commission of the senate an external reviewer. Holding a habilitation allows academics to do research and supervise on behalf of this university. As it is an academic degree, this is even valid if the person is not enrolled at this institution. Appointment to a full professorship with an international finding commission includes a venia docendi, which is restricted to the time of the appointment.
While the habilitation ensures the rights of the independent research and the supervision, it is on behalf of the statute of the universities to give those rights also to, e.g., associate professors without habilitation. As of 2014 the major Austrian universities do that only for master's level students, but not for PhD programs.

Brazil

Livre-docência is a title granted to holders of doctorate degrees upon submission of a cumulative thesis followed by a viva voce examination. It has practically disappeared amongst Brazilian Federal HEIs. It is still required at a few institutions for admissions as a full professor, most notably in the three state universities of the state of São Paulo, as well as at the Federal University of São Paulo.

France

The degree of Docteur d'État or Doctorat d'État, called Doctorat ès lettres or before the 1950s, formerly awarded by universities in France had a somewhat similar purpose. In 1984, the Doctorat d'État was replaced by the Habilitation à diriger des recherches.
The award of the French habilitation is a general requirement for being the main supervisor of PhD students and to be eligible for full professor positions. The official eligibility named qualification is granted by the French Conseil National des Universités. Members of Directeur de Recherche corps who are assimilated to full professors by the CNU do not require the French habilitation to supervise PhD students. Depending on the field, the French habilitation requires consistent research from five to ten years after appointment as an associate professor, a substantial amount of significant publications, the supervision of at least one PhD student from start to graduation, and/or a successful track record securing extramural funding as a principal investigator, as well as a sound, ambitious, and feasible five-year research project. Outstanding postdoctoral researchers who are not yet appointed to a university could also obtain the habilitation if they meet the requirements. The French habilitation committee is constituted by a majority of external and sometimes foreign referees. The French habilitation entitles associate professors to apply for full professor positions.

Germany

In order to hold the rank of a full professor within the German university system, it is necessary to have obtained the habilitation. This can be demonstrated by leading a research group, being a junior professor, or other achievements in research and teaching as a post-doctoral researcher. The habilitation in Germany is usually earned after several years of independent research and teaching, either "internally" while working at a university or "externally" as a research and teaching-oriented practitioner. Once the habilitation thesis and all other requirements are completed, the candidate "has habilitated him- or herself" and receives an extension to his/her doctoral degree, namely Dr. habil.. The habilitation is thus an additional qualification at a higher level than the German doctoral degree. Only those candidates receiving the highest grade for their doctoral thesis are encouraged to proceed with a habilitation.
A typical procedure after completing the habilitation is that the successful researcher officially receives the so-called Venia legendi for a specific academic subject at universities. Someone in possession of the Venia legendi but not a professorship has the right to carry the title Privatdozent or Privatdozentin, abbreviated PD or Priv.-Doz. The status as a PD requires doing some teaching in order to keep the title.

Italy

In the Italian legal system, habilitations are different types of acts and authorizations.

Habilitations for associate and full professorships in universities

Regarding university habilitations, the so-called Gelmini reform of the research and university teaching system has established the national scientific habilitation for the calls in the role of associate professor and full professor. This means that, as a prerequisite for being able to be selected by a university committee to fill these roles, it is necessary to have obtained the scientific qualification for the relative kind of teaching.
For STEM fields, the qualifications requires a two-step evaluation:
  1. first a quantitative assessment, as each candidate for and ASN as associate or full professor must have at least two out of these three requirements: having published more papers than most associate or full professors in Italian universities, having received more citations than most associate or full professors in Italian universities, having an h-index higher than most associate or full professors in Italian universities;
  2. then, a specific committee will qualitatively evaluate the scientific CV of the candidates, considering funding, mobility, autonomy of the research, awards won, and so on.
The successful candidate will then receive their ASN habilitation as associate or full professor and may thus apply for those vacancies in Italian universities.
The ASN habilitation also allows to compete for three-year tenure-track assistant professorship positions. At the end of the three-year contract the assistant professor must have a valid ASN habilitation in order to become a permanent associate professor; otherwise, he or she is permanently laid off.
To prevent this, it is common practice to award RTDb positions to people already habilitated as associate or full professors, which is in practical contrast with the spirit of the Gelmini-reform.
If an ASN habilitation application fails, the candidate can apply again, but only after a 12-month hiatus.
The ASN habilitation was initially valid for four years only, but this validity term was extended many times. It was first extended to six years, then 9 years, then 11 years. Currently, due to extreme scarcity of tenure track positions in Italy, the ASN habilitation validity has been increased to 12 years by yet another government decree in order not to let the first awarded habilitations expire.