the junior professorship. For example, to become an assistant professor at the University of Zürich one has to possess a doctoral degree or an equivalent. In 2002, the Austrian assistant professorship was replaced by the contract professorship (Vertragsprofessur). In 2009, the assistant professorship was simultaneously reintroduced to the contract professorship. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) deployed an expert commission "reform of the university service law" (Reform des Hochschuldienstrechts) according to the recommendations of the conference of university heads (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz) from 11 December 1998. This commission propounded its statement "Hochschuldienstrecht für das 21. Jahrhundert"(University service law for the 21st century) on 10 April 2000. This statement proposed to redesign the way of obtaining a qualification for university professors and the omission of the habilitation. Other core goals in this proposal were earlier autonomy for trainees in the areas of education and research, improvement of international connectivity, lower first job age, increase of female and foreign academics and scientists, as well as an improvement in predictability of the scientific career path. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research was legally forced to take action based on the observation that the first job age of German professors was on average over 40 years and therefore much higher than the average of most comparable nations. The root cause seemed to be the six-year long habilitation period with a final examination in German universities. Additional pressure resulted through the migration of outstanding young academics into other countries, particularly the US. This process is called human capital flight and occurred not least of all because many people try to avoid the perennial hurdle of the habilitation process in Germany and the generally more unbureaucratic conditions in other countries. The junior professorship was also designed to solve the latter problem. See also Academic ranks in Germany References Academic ranks Universities and colleges