[The medical habilitation at German universities: a comparison of the regulations over 23 years].

Background: Due to the further decrease in the number of habilitations in medicine since 2010, the general requirements for habilitation could have increased during the same period.
Objective: The requirements for a medical habilitation at German universities in a comparison of 23 years are re-evaluated.
Material and Methods: An analysis of habilitation regulations for 12 target parameters and evaluation of these by a scoring system (range 0-34 points).
Results: Only the criterion of the requirement for a doctorate has remained the same in the 23-year comparison in the evaluation (1998-2021). All results of the other 11 criteria have changed compared to the previous study from 2010. The rating of habilitation achievements has increased from a total score in 1998 of 15.2 ± 5.1 points (95% confidence interval 13.6-16.9 points) to 25.1 ± 3.6 points in 2021 (95% confidence interval 23.9-26.2 points; p < 0.001). The range of assigned scoring values is again more broadly spread in the 11-year comparison with values from 12 to 31 points. A striking new criterion was that 98% of the assessed habilitation regulations now require a didactic continuing education in, however, significantly different requirements from the faculties.
Conclusion: The requirements for a medical habilitation continued to significantly increase over the 23-year period with, however, a wider dispersion of scores. The more detailed description can be seen as a direct indication of an improvement in transparency. In contrast, the broader dispersion shows that a uniform assessment standard for Germany has again receded into the distance.
(© 2021. The Author(s).)