A university lecturer’s responsibilities cover three major areas: research, teaching and academic self-administration. Research initially involves establishing your own field of research. At first, I couldn’t really imagine where all the questions came from, but in fact every question answered leads to at least three new questions that can be investigated. Applications then have to be written to fund the research, either alone or with colleagues. The results are then presented at Conferences and published in writing as specialist articles.

In addition to lectures, teaching also includes organising practical classes and seminars. In academic self-administration, you can contribute to many different committees.

A typical working day during the lecture period starts with a lecture in the morning. Students or colleagues often come to me with questions about their studies, the lecture or their research projects. In the afternoons, there are often meetings (2–4 hours), examinations (e.g. for a doctoral thesis) or, in the late afternoon, a lecture given by a guest.

In the “free” time in between, one usually writes reports. During the lecture-free period, the day is not as tightly scheduled. This leaves time to write a publication in peace and quiet. You work very closely with colleagues on many things: in committees, on joint research projects and on applications and publications. It is advantageous if you work well together as a team and support one another. Particularly during the lecture period, there are often enquiries from students that cannot be predicted in advance.

During a doctorate, you gain an insight into research, but generally not yet into writing project proposals to fund that research. During your studies, you see how a lecture is conducted, and during your doctorate you often already supervise interns – these are initial insights into the everyday work of a university lecturer.

You can also try committee work during your studies, for example by getting involved in the student representation. A significant difference is that, as a university lecturer, you have considerably more freedom to decide what should be done in research and teaching. Of course, you then also bear responsibility for these decisions.