The Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology is currently inviting applications for the following position:
Junior Research Group Leader (100%, E 14 TV-L1) or
Postdoctoral Researcher (100%, E 13 TV-L1)
for 3 years
(+ possible 3 year extension) (m/f/d)
in the field of
Educational Effectiveness and Research Methods for the Education Sciences
We are seeking outstanding and enthusiastic researchers who have strong passion to reshape the landscape of research on education and will contribute to the future development of our main research fields Educational Effectiveness and Research Methods for the Education Sciences. We are looking for talented researchers with excellent analytical skills. As such, applicants can come from any of the following fields (or related fields): Data Science, Learning Analytics, Psychometrics, or Econometrics. We especially give priority to researchers having expertise in the application or the development of big data analysis techniques (e.g., data mining, machine learning).
The position comes with a fixed-term contract for 3 years with the possibility for extension for additional 3 years. The expected start date is mid-2021 but we are flexible and committed to accommodating candidates’ individual circumstances. There is the possibility to participate in the institute's own postdoctoral academy PACE (Tübingen Postdoctoral Academy for Research on Education) which offers further training, coaching, and mentoring at postdoctoral level. You will also be given the opportunity to join the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network (www.lead.uni-tuebingen.de) to develop cross-faculty collaborative network of researchers working on research on education.
The position lies at the intersection of the institute’s main research fields Educational Effectiveness and Research Methods for the Education Sciences and Psychology. Whereas research on educational effectiveness studies factors that may improve teaching and learning processes, the latter field provides and further develops the quantitative research methodologies. Potential projects at the Hector Research Institute involve large longitudinal higher education data sets with tens of thousands of students and tens of millions of behavioral clickstream data points, as well as social media data sets with hundreds of thousands of interactions from users in teacher communities.
The Hector Research Institute is a nationally and internationally leading research center in education sciences and psychology. Our interdisciplinary team works in a well-equipped building close to the historic old town of Tübingen, Germany. Traditionally, research at the Hector Research Institute investigates determinants of successful teaching and learning processes using large scale assessments, longitudinal studies, lab experiments, and randomized controlled field trials. More information can be found at
www.hib.uni-tuebingen.de.
The successful candidate is expected to work on the future development of the above mentioned main research fields by applying
Big Data Analysis techniques to existing data and to further develop these techniques so that they can be applied in
Learning Analytics research. Also, the successful candidate is expected to publish respective results in journals and conference proceedings. Teaching is not required but we strongly encourage postdocs to teach one course per semester as part of our training program for postdoctoral researchers. The course contents may have a strong emphasis on educational effectiveness or research methods.
The successful candidate holds a doctoral degree in one of the aforementioned fields or a related field (or will have obtained a doctoral degree by the start date of the position) and has a visible track record through related publication and third-party funding experiences. Candidates who have demonstrated (1) excellent analytical skills (e.g., data mining, machine learning) that allow to conduct independent research and (2) substantive experience with or a strong desire to work in interdisciplinary research projects, as well as a high motivation and open-mindedness to build interdisciplinary links within the education sciences will be given the highest consideration. A commitment to research transparency and open science is preferred.
For further inquiries about the position or the institute, please reach out to Assistant Professor Christian Fischer (
christian.fischer@uni-tuebingen.de) or Assistant Professor Steffen Zitzmann (
steffen.zitzmann@uni-tuebingen.de).
Disabled candidates will be given preference over other equally qualified applicants. The University seeks to raise the number of women in research and teaching and therefore urges qualified women to apply for these positions.
Applications including a cover letter detailing how your experience and analytical skills can make a unique contribution to our research, a CV, degree and other certificates with transcripts should be sent via email
in one single pdf-file to
verwaltung@hib.uni-tuebingen.de by August 31, 2021.
Employment will be officially organized by the central university administration.
1 According to the general pay scale of German universities, the salary will be “E 13 TV-L” or “E 14 TV-L”. Depending on your
experience this corresponds to a monthly salary of around EUR 4.620 or EUR 5.027 (fulltime position, experience level 3, gross pay, before tax). After taxes as a single (i.e. not married or living with a life partner; no children), this monthly salary is
at least EUR 2.723 or EUR 2.938 (net salary after taxes and health insurance payments). Information regarding cost of living in Tübingen:
https://tuebingenresearchcampus.com/tuebingen/