Prof. Dr. Anne Otto has been a professor of “Higher Education and the Labor Market” in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Kassel since April 2026 and she is also a leading researcher at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

In recent years, Prof. Dr. Anne Otto has collaborated with INCHER on numerous projects; she is currently involved - together with Prof. Dr .Guido Bünstorf,  Dr. Matthias Hügel, Dr. Johannes König und Noah Weisswange - , in the project “International mobility as a strategy and result in the national competition for excellence,” which is part of the DFG Research Group “Multiple Competition in the Higher Education System—Internationalization and International Comparison.” 

The appointment of Prof. Dr. Anne Otto to the S-Professorship for “Higher Education and the Labor Market” is intended to further deepen the already proven collaboration between the University of Kassel and the IAB. 

Anne Otto summarizes the main focus of her research within the new professorship as follows:  

"The career paths and decisions of doctoral candidates and PhD graduates both within and outside the higher education and academic system—I am particularly interested in issues such as labor market transitions after completing a PhD and the trade-offs for postdocs who remain in academia versus those who enter the private sector. In this research, I examine whether career decisions made during and after a Ph.D. are linked to national or international mobility, including moving away from the university region and starting a career at another university. I also conduct research on the transformation of regional labor markets and the spatial mobility of the workforce in Germany."  

She will incorporate current topics from labor market research and policy into her teaching at the Department of Economics—including the digitalization of the workplace and sustainability. 

We are delighted about the new professorship and look forward to the co-operation!