Reforms give German university researchers much greater security

By Jen T. Kwok. After years of campaigning by the union for education and science, the German government passed a law last week that will improve the conditions that apply to contract employment in research.
With most jobs in science and academe being fixed term, often with contracts of less than a year, and surveys suggesting a looming exodus from the research sector, even conservative voices acknowledged that excessive ­advantage had been taken of the scope allowed by the previous legislation for fixed-term contracts among research staff. More...