Academic rank in France

The Maître de conférences is a service name for a civil servant university teacher in the French university system. In the German system roughly corresponds to a W1/W2-Professor. Maîtres de conférences provide much of the teaching performance within the French higher education system and usually have between 4-9 hours / week of teaching to devote ( at about 15 weeks / semester). In addition to the practice and organization of university teaching Maîtres de conférences are also encouraged to actively participate in the research, whether through the supervision of doctoral and post-doctoral students, whether through the recruitment of third-party funds and to conduct their own research projects.

In Anglo-American high school English the Maître de conférences is regarded as the equivalent of Assistant Professor or Associate Professor, in England as equivalent to Senior Lecturer. The Maître de conférences is also in all the French higher education system aligned countries (especially in francophone Africa, as, etc., for example, Algeria, Tunisia) to find.

Differences to the German system

In contrast to German professors Maîtres de conférences be significantly younger invoke (mean age of 33 ) and lay their habilitation until some years after the appointment and tenure. After successful habilitation can Maîtres de conférences a service level rise and " Professor" (comparable with a German W2/W3-Professor ).

Unlike in the German university system, there is also to be appointed in the French system the ability as a pure research fellow ( " Chargé de recherche "). This W1/W2-Professoren are completely optional teaching commitments and can devote himself entirely to research. Accordingly, many Chargés de recherche are also located at major research institutions such as CNRS or INSERM.