{"id":152831,"date":"2023-03-31T14:01:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T12:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=152831"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:43","slug":"young-academy-make-everyone-a-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/03\/31\/young-academy-make-everyone-a-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Academy: make everyone a professor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why are only full professors allowed to call themselves professor, wear a gown and confer doctorates? Assistant and associate professors ought to have that right too, in the view of The Young Academy.<\/p>\n

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The timing, shortly before 1 April, might make you think twice, but the call by The Young Academy<\/a> stems from a long-standing stream of criticism of the hierarchy at Dutch universities.<\/p>\n

The Young Academy is a group of leading scientists of a relatively young age, affiliated with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Many of the members are themselves already full professors, even if this is not immediately visible on the members page on the website: there, the titles are left out<\/a> and you have to click further to see them.<\/p>\n

Right to confer doctorates<\/h2>

It began years ago with criticism of the right to confer doctorates. Assistant and associate professors frequently supervise PhD candidates, but are not permitted to confer doctorates; that is the purview of full professors. Since 2017, that right has been expanded<\/a> somewhat, but not sufficiently, according to The Young Academy.<\/p>\n

Moreover, an argument that is steadily gaining ground is that the pyramid of the universities, with full professors at the top, leads to a lack of social safety. Cosmetic differences such as the gown and the title of professor \u201care not innocuous, in our opinion\u201d.<\/p>\n

The suggested solution: give the title of professor to assistant and associate professors as well, along with the corresponding rights. An explanatory note on the idea says that levelling off the hierarchy could ensure that \u201cyounger academics in particular have the courage to speak out without fear of reprisals if full professors disagree\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read also<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t