Faculty of Medicine

Habilitation and Habilitation Transfer

Submission

Submitting a habilitation

A habilitation serves to critically evaluate and publicly recognize outstanding achievements of young academics in teaching and research in a sub-field of medicine. With the habilitation, a faculty confirms the candidate's ability to work independently as an academic lecturer and researcher. The habilitation thus forms the basis for a continuing academic career.

Who is eligible to submit a habilitation?

The candidate must hold a doctorate and should not have exceeded the academic age of 20 (exceptions are possible). Prerequisites for admission to habilitation are the achievements in teaching and research. For further information, please refer to the Habilitation Regulations.

What are the minimum requirements for admission to habilitation?

The minimum requirements can be found in Article 4 of the Habilitation Regulations.

How to submit a habilitation?

The habilitation must be submitted to the Dean's Office to the attention of the Appointment and Habilitation Committee (EHK) together with the completed application form. All documents must be submitted at least 10 days before the EHK meeting. For details, please refer to the appropriate information sheet.

Office hour

The Appointments and Habilitation Commission offers consultation hours by appointment to advise habilitation candidates. The dean’s office accepts inquiries via ehk.meddek@unibe.ch.

Presentation

Presentation in front of the Faculty Council

The habilitation regulations require that candidates present themselves to the faculty at the end of the habilitation process. This includes a short introductory video and a short portrait, which are presented at the meeting of the Faculty Council. The video will show the work or research site in the clinic/institute. After the presentation of the video, questions from the Faculty Council may be directed to the candidate. The presenter is responsible for moderation during the presentation.

Video and short portrait are to be submitted to the Faculty Secretariat 7 working days before the meeting of the Faculty Council. The video will be published on the Faculty website after successful habilitation. A good-quality video is expected. We recommend that you have your video professionally produced by the Insel Studio. The costs must be covered by yourself or the clinic/institute. For this purpose, we advise you to present the planned video to your department and supervisor in advance.

The presentation is not public, i.e., guests are not allowed. The candidates do not have to wait until the end of the meeting to receive the decision. They will be informed later. In the case of a positive decision, an application is then made to the Executive Board of the University of Bern to grant the venia docendi.

Documents

Instructions

Inaugural lecture

What happens after acceptance of the habilitation?

The venia docendi and the title “Privatdozentin” or “Privatdozent” are awarded by the Executive Board of the University of Bern upon application by the faculty. After acceptance of the habilitation, the Privatdozent/Privatdozentin presents himself or herself with a public inaugural lecture.

The inaugural lecture is open to the public and should be planned and held in collaboration with the home institution, if possible, on a Wednesday at 17:00. The aim of the lecture is to give new lecturers the opportunity to introduce themselves to a wider audience. The topic can be freely chosen. The usual duration of the event is one hour, although a shorter duration is possible depending on the setting in which the lecture is held.

The Faculty of Medicine would like to give such important events the attention they deserve. Therefore, a representative of the faculty board will start the inaugural lecture together with the specialty representative. The topic, time, and location should be communicated to the Dean's Office at least six weeks before the inaugural lecture.