Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy 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 dissertation. The degree, sometimes abbreviated Dr. habil. (Doctor habilitatus), PD (for Privatdozent), Dr hab. (Doktor habilitowany), or D.Sc. (Doctor of Sciences in Russia and some CIS countries), is often a qualification for full professorship in those countries. The degree conferral is usually accompanied by a public oral defence event (a lecture or a colloquium) with one or more opponents. 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[edit]
The term habilitation is derived from the Medieval Latin habilitare, meaning "to make suitable, to fit", from Classical Latin habilis "fit, proper, skillful". The degree developed in Germany in the seventeenth century (c. 1652).[1] 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".[2] Afterwards, it became normal in the German university system to write two doctoral theses: the inaugural thesis (Inauguraldissertation), completing a course of study, and the habilitation thesis (Habilitationsschrift), which opens the road to a professorship.[3]
Habilitation qualifications exist or existed in:
Equivalent degrees[edit]
The Doctor of Science in Russia and some other countries formerly part of the Soviet Union or the Eastern bloc is equivalent to a habilitation. The cumulative form of the habilitation can be compared to the higher doctorates, such as the D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), Litt.D. (Doctor of Letters), LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) and D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) found in the UK, Ireland, and some Commonwealth countries, which are awarded on the basis of a career of published work. However, higher doctorates from these countries (except Russia) are often not recognized by any German state as being equivalent to the habilitation.[17] In 1999, Russia and Germany signed a Statement on Mutual Academic Recognition of Russian Academic Degrees and German Academic Qualifications, including the equivalence of the Russian Doctor of Science and the German Habilitation qualification.[4]
Furthermore, the position or title of an associate professor (or higher) at a European Union-based university is systematically translated into or compared to titles such as Universitätsprofessor (W2) (Germany), førsteamanuensis (Norway), or Doktor hab. (Poland) by institutions such as the European Commission Directorate-General for Research,[18] and therefore usually implies the holder of such title has a degree equivalent to habilitation.