AmericanAnDerTU

Today there have been general assemblies at nearly all of the universities across Austria. The protests themselves are still continuing on throughout the day, but I want to write up some quick thoughts about what has happened up until this point with perhaps a focus specifically on the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien) as that is where I study.

It’s been quite interesting to have the budget of the TU laid out for all the students to see. I tweeted like a mad man throughout the entire two hour series of speeches and discussions, so I inevitably missed a few details, but I did my best to get all the key points. Obviously no one is perfect, so any mistakes that I make, please take that into account (and along with the fact that German is NOT my first language).

The universities are facing in the future a massive budget deficit, more so than the deficit that they are currently carrying. The politicians within the relevant parts of the Austrian government seem to lack the political will to give the universities the money they need to cover their expenditures. Why do they lack the will? The entire world has been facing a financial crisis since about September 2008 and that has reflected itself in the budgets of industrialized nations. What with all the companies that have received bailouts since the beginning, the money sacks are pretty dry. There just isn’t enough to go around, but then governments often (or always) operate in a moderate state of debt.

What does that mean? If the Austrian government was to make the necessary financial commitments to keep the universities liquid, then other programs that receive government funds would have to be cut. Obviously no one likes to find out that they don’t have the same money available that they have been accustomed to, but at the same time money must be saved. Given that we are talking about a national government here, however, perhaps the easier solution would be to cut waste. Instead of just tightening the purse strings, perhaps it would be more efficient in the long run to actively search out waste within the system and trim the fat.

The universities themselves are interesting: they present the main source for the production of future qualified individuals in the work place. Not only that, but a large amount of the research in Austria (and many countries) takes place at universities, thus to cut their budgets to the point where they cannot perform important research prevents the progress of the society in which they operate. I mentioned that perhaps the best solution would be to actively seek out waste and trim it off. I’ve spoken about this with a friend of mine who is a professor and researcher here in Austria in a branch of humanities and he is of the opinion that in Austria, specifically in the very branch of research he works in, there are too many people working towards doctorates that are essentially trophy degrees. He calls them trophy titles and these people are not continuing their research afterwards, which according to him ruins the value of these degrees for those looking for genuine research positions. An interesting point, but unfortunately it is not one that I can really talk about it as I have no idea if he is really right or wrong. Given what I know about this person, I would trust his assessment.

The rector of the TU said, however, that if we stopped allowing people to begin studying architecture at the TU for two years, it wouldn’t save very much money at all - €1 million to be exact. Perhaps there really isn’t all that much fat to be trimmed at the TU then.

I honestly think that if the government wants to maintain its hold on power they need to support the universities. At the moment there are thousands of young people going through a time that is at the moment stained with this political spectacle. It’s a constant topic on the universities. If the political parties want to secure the support of the future research and business leaders of Austria then they need to realize that the current path they are walking on is not the way to do that. Every person here is eligible for voting and the students are politically very active and that will reflect itself in the next national election.