Well on track

When did the re­cruit­ment process start and what was the goal?

When the post was ad­ver­ti­sed in August 2024, the primary goal was, of course, to recruit the best re­se­ar­cher for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim. The suc­cess­ful ap­point­ment of Pooja Rani to the W3 pro­fes­sor­ship in com­pu­ter science was of par­ti­cu­lar stra­te­gic im­por­t­an­ce for the uni­ver­si­ty ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on because, with her per­so­nal back­ground and re­se­arch profile, she also con­tri­bu­tes to the further in­ter­na­tio­na­li­za­ti­on of the uni­ver­si­ty. At the time, 20.8 percent of the uni­ver­si­ty’s re­se­ar­chers came from abroad. Among the pro­fes­sors, ten percent were foreign ci­ti­zens.

Which initial steps and stra­te­gies played a key role in the suc­cess­ful ap­point­ment?

The uni­ver­si­ty ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on and the de­part­ment pulled tog­e­ther and joined forces to make the ap­point­ment of Pooja Rani happen. All pro­fes­sor­ships at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim have to be ad­ver­ti­sed in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly. To find a re­se­ar­cher with an ex­cel­lent back­ground in com­pu­ter science, this role was widely pu­bli­ci­zed. As well as pro­mo­ting it through the usual chan­nels (in­clu­ding DIE ZEIT, aca­de­mics, and the German As­so­cia­ti­on of Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sors and Lec­tu­rers), we also made use of IT mailing lists in German and English. In ad­di­ti­on, the de­part­ment ac­tiva­ted all its other net­works and wrote in­di­vi­dual­ly to sui­ta­ble col­leagues in Germany and abroad. Foreign ci­ti­zens ac­coun­ted for 36 percent of ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons. Of these, six percent were Aus­tri­an or Swiss na­tio­nals.

What ob­sta­cles did you have to over­co­me?

During the process, it became clear that in­ter­na­tio­nal aca­de­mics are often put off by German pro­fes­sors’ heavy tea­ching load. They also expect to be able to con­cen­tra­te on their re­se­arch – es­pe­ci­al­ly during the career phase that Pooja Rani is cur­r­ent­ly in. Since legal re­qui­re­ments mean it is only pos­si­ble to make slight changes to the tea­ching load, being able to offer at­trac­tive fa­ci­li­ties was all the more im­portant when it came to re­crui­t­ing Pooja Rani. This was made pos­si­ble by the Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft grant.

What was it that ul­ti­mate­ly per­sua­ded the can­di­da­te to accept?

Par­ti­cu­lar­ly in com­pu­ter science, it is ex­tre­me­ly dif­fi­cult to recruit one of the few top can­di­da­tes, since com­pe­ti­ti­on for them on the in­ter­na­tio­nal job market is intense. What was crucial to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim’s success was that it was able to make Pooja Rani an ex­cel­lent, in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly com­pe­ti­ti­ve offer. Three main factors con­tri­bu­t­ed to this: Firstly, the uni­ver­si­ty had ad­ver­ti­sed the pro­fes­sor­ship as a tenured post from the outset, and se­cond­ly, thanks to stra­te­gic funds of its own and an Ap­point­ment Ac­ce­le­ra­tor grant from Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft, it was able to offer the can­di­da­te ex­cel­lent fa­ci­li­ties.

Pooja Rani’s ex­pec­ta­ti­ons were par­ti­cu­lar­ly high when it came to re­se­arch in­fra­st­ruc­tu­re. Thanks to the grant, the uni­ver­si­ty was able to offer her ideal com­pu­ting in­fra­st­ruc­tu­re and access to high-per­for­mance com­pu­ting fa­ci­li­ties, as well as a much larger team than usual. Thirdly, the uni­ver­si­ty is si­tua­ted in the at­trac­tive Rhine-Neckar me­tro­po­li­tan area, which enables close col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with soft­ware firms like SAP and Huawei.

How were lan­guage bar­ri­ers taken into account in the process?

In all its ap­point­ment pro­ce­du­res, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim lets ap­p­li­cants choose whether to conduct dis­cus­sions in German or English. In Pooja Rani’s case, the ap­point­ment nego­tia­ti­ons were held in English, so ever­yo­ne in­vol­ved felt com­for­ta­ble. The fact that much of the tea­ching in com­pu­ter science can also be de­li­ve­r­ed in English was another im­portant point for the can­di­da­te.

How is the uni­ver­si­ty helping the can­di­da­te adjust to uni­ver­si­ty and day-to-day life?

For Pooja Rani the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim put tog­e­ther an extra-special welcome package. It in­clu­des one-to-one lan­guage coa­ching, par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the lea­dership program of the Mann­heim Busi­ness School, and one-to-one lea­dership coa­ching. Pooja Rani will also have her own mentor within the de­part­ment so that she isn’t hin­de­red by the idio­syn­cra­sies of the German aca­de­mic system. The uni­ver­si­ty’s Welcome Center will help her find ac­com­mo­da­ti­on and deal with go­vernment offices. Among other things, the grant from the Foun­da­ti­on will pay for an English-speaking real-estate agent and a tax adviser.