Annalena Baerbock has recently come under fire for not reporting late payments. But another event this week - Franziska Giffey's resignation as minister in the wake of the plagiarism allegations against her doctoral thesis - may give reason to call another detail from Baerbock's vita exemplary. Today's Chancellor candidate of the Greens was a doctoral candidate at the Free University of Berlin from 2009. After she was elected to the Bundestag in 2013, she dropped out of her doctorate. After four years of preoccupation with her subject, that was certainly bitter. Nevertheless, Baerbock did not only do her voters, her party, and possibly her family, but also science.
In doing so, she may keep other colleagues away from the idea of striving for a title on the side that is actually intended as a qualification for academic positions. And the Causa Giffey is not for the first time showing where it can lead if you want to do a doctorate, even though you no longer intend to turn research into a profession.
It is not just the temptation of copying that some succumb to when their duties as employees and parents do not leave enough time to be able to make a new and interesting contribution to science. Even the scientific value of plagiarism-free dissertations that were produced under such conditions is no longer beyond any doubt, now that it has become public what doctor mothers and fathers sometimes wave to their leisure doctoral students.
So how about if you finally put an end to this practice of doing a secondary doctorate? Professional politicians, managers or media workers who are underutilized in their job and like to do research are still allowed to do so. If your results are interesting, you will get the appropriate attention. And if not, it doesn't make them more interesting by having a title ornament for them.