Austria's universities fear cuts of one billion euros in the next budget period and have therefore announced plans for demonstrations on Wednesday, 27 May. In protest against the budget cuts, Universities Austria (uniko) have also announced their withdrawal from the Federal Ministry’s process for developing a higher education strategy. At a press conference, Brigitte Hütter, President of uniko, spoke of a "complete disaster" for universities, business and society. Rector Schütze spoke of enormous damage to the universities’ reputation. The Federal Ministry once again emphasised that the budget talks have not yet been concluded. Nevertheless, the universities intend go ahead with the planned demonstrations.
#unisretten: Information after the demonstration against budget cuts
The budget figures were communicated to the universities on Monday as cold hard facts, Hütter said. "But we consider it the beginning of a battle that is only really taking shape." Next Wednesday (27 May) there will be a large-scale demonstration on the Ringstrasse road in central Vienna as well as initiatives in the provincial capitals and at all university locations in Austria, organised together with the Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH), the trade union and employee representatives. Hütter says she has taken note of the Federal Ministry's statements, "but we only believe it when we actually see what we have achieved."
Austria's universities have already withdrawn with immediate effect from the process for preparing a higher education strategy, which aims to develop a vision for Austria's universities up to the year 2040. This means the universities will no longer participate in any working groups and will "very strongly defend their position" themselves. After all, "if you cannot finance your operations for the next three years, there is no point in talking about a higher education strategy until 2040."
"Unprecedented dimension"
At a meeting on Monday, the Federal Ministry informed the universities that the 22 public universities would receive a total of just 15.5 billion euros (including doctors' salaries at university hospitals) in the next three-year budget period from 2028 to 2030. This would be one billion euros less than in the current performance agreement period (2025-2027). However, according to uniko, the universities would need a total of 18 billion euros merely to cover inflation, emphasised Hütter. The budget figures on the table would mean a cut of 14 per cent or 2.5 billion euros, which is "unprecedented in this dimension".
Uniko recognise that the federal government needs to make savings and have also supported this endeavour through low wage settlements, for example. However, the university budget only accounts for four per cent of Austria's total budget. The fact that the universities are now expected to save 2.5 billion euros over three years, i.e. the same amount as the total savings planned by the federal government in the next biennial budget, is "absolutely disproportionate" and would have far-reaching consequences, Hütter warned.
Universities fear for their staff, quality and reputation
This budget reduction would mean that the universities would have to cut 10,000 positions, equivalent to a fifth of their total staff. According to Hütter, this would worsen student-teacher ratios in teaching, thereby once again raising the number of students per teacher to problematic levels. This would have consequences such as forcing students to study for longer and worsening the shortage of highly skilled workers. She added that in response to the planned cuts the universities may be forced to reopen the debate about expanding tuition fees. At the same time, massive cutbacks would mean that fewer researchers would be able to access the urgently needed third-party funding from university funding sources – and this at a time when the EU is currently doubling funding in this area. "What is destroyed now with one cut will take many years to mend, if at all," she said. Jens Schneider, Rector of TU Wien, also emphasised the consequences for Austria as a location for business and innovation. He underlined that 80 per cent of patents and the most important academic publications come from the universities; without young talents in the field of technology from the universities "the research pipeline will run dry". A reduction in the university budget would also have an impact on healthcare, explains Markus Müller, Rector of the Medical University of Vienna. University hospitals are often the only point of contact for patients suffering from serious and specific illnesses; in Vienna, the Vienna General Hospital (AKH) alone provides a third of patient care and trains the majority of medical graduates and specialist doctors.
"These budget cuts are sawing away at the foundations," warned Sebastian Schütze, the Rector of the University of Vienna, saying that extensive cuts to staff and infrastructure would have consequences for the widely demanded excellence at the universities. If funding is no longer secured, the top academics will be gone, he emphasises. The "reputational damage" would be enormous.
"In the past 20 years, we have measurably improved – better ranking results, Anton Zeilinger's Nobel Prize and a significantly higher quality in degree programmes. And now Austria's universities are set to have the rug pulled from underneath them? Sufficient funding for universities must be part of any fiscal stimulus package. It is about shaping the future and creating equal opportunities for all generations." He continues that “education and training, academia and research are core pillars of society. Such a drastic cut in university funding jeopardises the future of Austria, our democracy and our prosperity."
Cuts of this magnitude are dramatic and cannot be managed without laying off staff, added Schütze. This would have serious consequences for Austria as an academic and business location, reducing the number of specialists trained and research and innovation achievements made in Austria. Cuts to the university system would therefore jeopardise the quality of education, force students to study for longer and thus also jeopardise the training of those highly skilled workers that Austria urgently needs.
