Resources for TUM Tenure Track Assistant Professors (W2)
TUM is committed to granting its professors independence and freedom in their research and teaching agenda.
TUM Tenure Track Assistant Professors receive a competitive entry package and are free to apply for external funding for their own research. They are not answerable to any chair, and have the same rights and obligations as all other professors within their department and at the university as a whole.
Every TUM Tenure Track Assistant Professor (W2) receives an entry package:
A position for a research associate
An annual budget
The facilities they require – office, lab space, etc.
Access to the scientific infrastructure
Active support in developing the professorship
Additional resources can be negotiated individually and will depend on the requirements of the specific field of research.
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Institutional rights: Assistant professors (W2) have the same institutional rights and obligations within their department and at the university as a whole as all other TUM professors. They are fully integrated into university decision-making processes.
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Doctorates and examinations: Tenure Track professors can supervise doctoral students independently and exercise all examination rights and obligations.
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External funding: Assistant professors are entitled to apply for external funding and use this for their own research and teaching activities.
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Independence: Assistant professors receive special support at TUM, but they are independent of other professorships.
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Excellent environment: TUM Tenure Track Professors are joining a community of excellent scientists with entering this university. This environment gives them a world-class benchmark against which they can measure their own work. Assistant professors can therefore test their own scientific creativity while working on complex interdisciplinary research projects.
Assistant professors are on pay scale W2 and their appointment is temporary, usually for six years but always with the option of tenure. This option means that they can be promoted to a tenured W3 associate professorship after a positive tenure evaluation. Later in their career, they could be appointed to a full professorship (also W3, with additional facilities) if they meet TUM’s demanding performance criteria.
Assistant professors are required to teach for only five hours per week during the semester instead of the usual nine so that they can dedicate more time to their research activities.
Depending on the department, this teaching can take the form of lectures, tutorials, seminars or general undergraduate teaching. Following a positive tenure evaluation, they will be required to teach for nine hours per week, which is the usual workload at German universities.