The Max Planck Survey Report 2024

The 2024 Max Planck PostdocNet Survey took place between June and August 2024. It is the third survey conducted by the PostdocNet, updating our results from 2019 and 2022. The participation increased from 659 postdocs in our 2022 survey to 872 postdocs in our current survey, and postdocs from 74 out of the 85 Max Planck Institutes (MPIs) participated. Our survey was intended to be broad (122 questions), and we categorized the topics into seven larger topics: Demographics, Mental Well-Being, Immigration and Academic Mobility, Parenting, Working Conditions, Career Development, and Work Atmosphere.

The survey can be found here, and our executive summary can be found in both English and German. 

Below are some frequently asked questions about the report.

Who initiated the survey? 

The Survey Working Group is composed of several postdocs from various Max Planck Institutes throughout Germany. They have aided in the construction, implementation, and analysis of the survey, as well as assisting in the final report. The 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 Steering Groups were also vital in helping get this survey to publication. 

The members of the Survey Working Group are as follows:

• Dr. Nicholas J. Russell (MPI for Plant Breeding Research, Leader)

• Dr. Robert Davies (MPI for Plasma Physics, Greifswald)

• Dr. Hedvig Skirgård (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology)

• Dr. Ariane Wiegand (MPI of Psychiatry)

• Dr. Sebastian Samwald (MPI for Plant Breeding Research)

Who can you contact if you have questions or comments about the survey? 

Should you have any questions, comments or would like to schedule an interview, please reach out to any of the following individuals or organizations:

• Dr. Nicholas J. Russell - English 

• The PostdocNet Survey Working Group - English

• The PostdocNet Steering Group - English or German

What were the goals of the 2024 survey?

In 2019, the first PostdocNet survey was constructed and carried out, mainly focusing on the MPG postdoc demographics and working conditions throughout all institutes. The goal of the 2022 survey was to increase the breadth of questions asked of our postdoctoral community while gaining valuable data that can be used to understand the life of a postdoc at the Max Planck Society and in Germany. In this current 2024 survey, we followed up on several questions from our 2022 survey, expanding certain sections, and working closely with the MPG-GV to ensure the data can be effectively used in fostering a more cohesive, understanding, and fruitful research environment for everyone within the MPG, not just postdocs. We also hope this report may be helpful to academics outside the MPG.

In particular, we have focused our survey around three overarching themes:

1. Are the career development needs of postdocs being met?

2. Do postdocs know where to turn should they encounter discrimination, harassment, or bullying?

3. Where are postdocs coming from? And where do they want to go?

How do you define a “postdoc?”

For this survey, an MPG postdoc is defined as any person who has been awarded a doctoral degree and is currently undertaking scientific research within the MPG by means of a time-limited contractual relationship from either internal or external funding. For the PostdocNet, we also require that these researchers have not yet established a significant level of independence.

How should you read the report?

The first section begins with recommendations of actions that the MPG and German Academia as a whole should take to improve the working conditions and lives of the postdoctoral community. At the beginning of each of the seven main sections of the report, we present key findings that the PostdocNet felt were important to highlight. Throughout the text, we provide ample context around each statistic and as comprehensive a literature review as possible, comparing it to other surveys of postdoctoral and doctoral students, such as the Leibniz Postdoc Network and the Max Planck PhDNet surveys.

We note that the MPG is a single academic organization within Germany and academia. These statistics are solely from MPG postdocs, which may or may not align with other experiences in academic institutions inside or outside of Germany.

How should you not read the report?

We would like to emphasize that the key findings in each section are meant as a guide to the data. Context is always crucially important. We implore the readers not to just take these findings at face value, and we strongly advise reading the report to understand where the data came from and how to contextualize it. If anything is not clear or you have any questions, please get in touch with us (see above for contact information).

The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and the Max Planck PostdocNet. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of the Max Planck Society or any of the Max Planck Institutes.

What are some key findings in the report?

While there are many key findings and recommendations in this survey, we highlight some of the most important points:

1. A majority of MPG Postdocs feel that there should not be a government regulation on the maximum number of years that a postdoc can be on non-permanent contracts.
   
   What this means: The Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (WissZeitVG), or the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act, is a law that governs the amount of time a doctoral student and postdoc can be on temporary contracts. In short, it states that doctoral students may be on temporary contracts for up to 6 years, and postdocs may be on temporary contracts for 6 years, with some slight exceptions. This law has been heavily debated in the last several years, with proposals to shorten proposing to shrink the time for postdocs to three years or implement a 4+2 model. While none of the amendments have passed the parliament, this law will continue to be debated, and there have been very few studies showing postdocs’ perceptions on this topic. This question received over 300 comments, many of which understood the nuances of this debate. However, the most frequently occurring comment - on both sides - was that the number of permanent positions needs to be increased, particularly positions that are not group leaders (i.e., staff scientists). Without this increase, time limits on fixed-term contracts do not inherently prevent the exploitation of postdocs, but rather simply force them to leave the country. See Section 7.6 in the report. 

2. 8% of postdocs have stated they have been bullied while at their current position, and the majority of perpetrators were fellow group members.
   
   What this means: There have been recent reports regarding the bullying both in German academia and at the Max Planck Society, even though parts of the latter story have been deemed misleading by a federal court. Our data does not show a systematic bullying issue against postdocs at the MPG, and only a third of postdocs who said they were bullied were bullied by their direct supervisor. What our data does show is that postdocs do not know key reporting sites for non-academic and academic misconduct, with a quarter of MPG postdocs not knowing any place to report misconduct. This is a problem that can be addressed, and the need for a transparent, non-biased, and objective assessment of each misconduct case is paramount. 

3. 4 out of 5 postdocs recommend doing a postdoc at the MPG, and many are quite satisfied with their work performance. However, 28% of postdocs show signs of moderate to severe clinical depression, and 25% of postdocs show signs of moderate to severe anxiety, both of which are three times higher than the general German population of the same age.
   
   What this means: This data is similar to our 2022 data, even though both the percentage of moderate to severely depressed and anxious postdocs has increased since then. This data seems contradictory at face value, but postdocs are genuinely passionate about their work and love what they do. At the same time, they struggle with the precarious conditions that come along with an academic career. These numbers are not significantly different than other surveys from, for instance, the Leibniz Postdoc Network’s survey.

4. 25% of MPG postdocs are parents. Postdocs who are parents are less likely to be anxious and depressed than postdocs who are not parents, and they are more likely to be satisfied with their lives. This is the exact opposite of our 2022 survey.
   
   What this means: This result is quite striking and shows the possible effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on these results. While we do not know definitively why this is the case, we surmise that during the pandemic, parents had increased caring responsibilities and less time for work, contributing to more stress and anxiety. Since those restrictions have been lifted, parents may feel less stressed and have more time to spend at work, alleviating some of the professional stress that comes with being a parent and properly allocating time.

5. Most postdocs in the Max Planck Society are immigrants (74%), which is much higher than the general German population (17%), the other parts of the MPG (PhD - 61%, directors - 40%), and other German research institutions (Leibniz Institutes = 20%). However, only a quarter of international postdocs are sure they would like to stay in Germany after their postdoc ends. 
   
   What this means: We find that while the MPG is very competent at attracting global talent, MPG and perhaps Germany are less successful at holding on to it. Academic jobs are very hard to find everywhere, and many postdocs must move to where the jobs are. Almost half of all postdocs said they were either unsure or definitely staying in Germany after their postdoc referenced their family, and a large proportion also stated that there were more attractive job offers elsewhere and the language barrier was too difficult. Retaining talent is more important than ever with the constantly-changing political climate throughout the world, so institutions and government officials should think about how to retain this international talent. 

6. Most postdocs in the MPG are on a contract (~85%). In the past, there have been issues with salary discrepancies between the German and non-German postdocs. We find that, overall, this situation has been largely rectified as only 5% of postdocs now are below the recommended TVöD staging of E13.3.
   
   What this means: There have been society-wide issues with TVöD salary staging of postdocs with PhDs from outside of Germany. Confusion regarding if relevant experience acquired outside of Germany counts appears to have caused many postdocs to be staged too low. In 2022, the "MPG E13.3 task force" clarified existing German labour law and MPG hiring practices to confirm that it does not matter for TVöD salary staging if the previous relevant experience was acquired within or outside of Germany. Therefore, first-year postdocs should be placed at least on E13.3 contracts if their PhD was in a relevant field and consisted of 3 years or more. In our 2022 PostdocNet survey, we found that 12% of postdoc contract-holders were in a salary category below E13.3. While postdocs can be recruited with less than 3 years of relevant experience, we believe 12% is a surprisingly large figure. We are happy to report that in our most recent survey of 2025, this proportion is now down to 5%. We believe that this is due to the efforts by MPG-leadership and the E13.3 task force regarding compliance with German labour law in this area. However, we note that while this decrease is encouraging, when asked what TVöD salary category current postdocs started at, 21% of postdocs in the 2024 survey said they were staged at E13.1 and E13.2.