What kind of remuneration do HAW professors receive?
Professors at universities of applied sciences (UAS, in german HAW) are usually ‘verbeamtet’ – i.e. have civil servant status. For the most part, this is initially temporary, and later becomes permanent. As at universities, their pay is governed by the so-called ‘W’ pay regulation (the ‘W’ stands for Wissenschaft, ‘science’). This distinguishes three salary groups:
- W1: Junior professorships, Nachwuchsprofessuren (‘next generation’ professorships), tandem professorships
- W2: ‘original’ professorships with a teaching contract
- W3: ‘full’ professorships with a teaching and research contract.
Even though practical research plays a significant role at HAWs (short for Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften), the key concern of teaching staff is the transmission of knowledge. The majority of professors at HAWs are therefore rewarded according to the W2 pay scale – the average salary of HAW professors in the W2 pay group in Germany is €6,146.60 gross per month (as at: October 2022).
Owing to Germany’s federal structure, the actual amount of income received depends to a major extent on the federal state in which the teaching post is located. How much is paid where? Are there also W1 and W3 salaries? What about supplements and deductions? We will look at these questions below.
W2 professorships: an overview of salaries
W2 salaries are not all the same as one another. Owing to differing state regulations, there are great differences within Germany, as can clearly be seen from the following table. The highest basic salary is received by professors at HAWs in Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia; those in Bremen, Hamburg and Brandenburg earn the least.
W3 salary group
Since a professorship at an HAW primarily involves teaching duties, W3 professorships are rare. If need be, however, so-called ‘specialist professorships’ (Schwerpunktprofessuren) can be created, in which the teaching load is reduced to provide more time for research work. These specialist professorships are rewarded according to the W3 scale. W3 professorships are limited to a small number by law (e.g. 15 per cent).
In the W3 pay group, the pay gap between the states of the federal republic is, once again, high. Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Saxony and Hesse pay the highest basic W3 salaries; Bremen, Brandenburg and Hamburg pay the lowest.
W1: Remuneration of ‘next generation professors’ (Nachwuchsprofessoren) at HAWs
Like W3 professorships, junior professorships were rare at universities of applied sciences. Were? Yes: because of staff shortages, more and more federal states are now relying on so-called next generation or tandem professorships. This means that applicants who do not yet fulfil all the requirements (doctorate and professional experience) can assume teaching duties while simultaneously working at a cooperating company or writing up their PhD dissertation. As a rule, they hold a half-time post and are remunerated according to the W1 scale.
