Uni Vollversammlungen

[CapnNismo]

Just a quick warning for anyone that intends on being in the first district on Tuesday October 19th: there will be protest marches from EVERY university in the city with the converging point being Ballhausplatz (near Hofburg). The marches start at 16:00 and after the meeting spot there will be a small event to cap off the day of the Vollversammlungen at all the universities.

There will likely be thousands of students and professors involved in the march, so expect delays on public transport within the first district and streets will likely be blockaded by police and demonstrators during the march.

If you'd like to lend your support or learn more about the situation at hand at the Austrian universities, there are speeches/conferences/workshops being held at all of the universities throughout the day, most starting at 10 and ending at 16.

[Tatt]

Thanks for the headsup. I'll try to drive around them tomorrow.

Just for anyone who does want to lend support and doesn't have time for a conference: what is the jist of the protest about this time? Vollversammlungen??

Cheers.

[CapnNismo]

Basically about the promised financial support for the universities that was never delivered.

http://unsereuni.at/?page_id=14178&lang=de

You can take a look at that page and see the demands of the TU Wien. I'm going to the Vollversammlung tomorrow and will be tweeting and blogging about it as it's going on (blogging may come in the coming days).

The WU Wien also has an interesting page about their demands. Reading each page and studying at the TU myself and having a girlfriend and friends who study at the WU, I would say each page is perfectly fair and nothing out of the ordinary. The rhetoric is a bit populist in its nature, but other than that, fair.

I'm trying to find the pamphlet that is supposed to be printed for tomorrow (I suppose I'll have to just snag one and scan it in because I can't find an electronic copy at the moment), but as far as financial things go, the unis were promised 2% of the BIP (GDP) and they've received barely half that. The UK is also pulling all state support for the universities and I read in the NYT that a number are already being forced to close or severely cut their staff.

There are a fair number of good points that not only the universities need to address, but also the government in Austria. The financial situation is probably the biggest and I would imagine that if that was solved, a lot of the other problems would solve themselves (many of the issues facing the unis and students are a direct result of a lack of financial means). One thing that should also be remembered is that unis in Austria were free for decades and only since 2000-2008 were there tuition fees.

The whole feminist argument that has managed to latch on to the debate doesn't really have much of a place, but that's more from the more left-leaning unis than any others (those being the Bildende Künste, Haupt Uni).

EDIT:
http://unsereuni.at/?page_id=11819

Found the one that I was referring to. This page has a number of points that have somehow managed to latch onto a debate about the saving of the universities and education that have nothing at all to do with said debate. But considering it's coming from the Haupt Uni, you have to expect such utopic ideas.

[morgenhund]

Thanks for the heads up... Shame I can't take my Sherman Tank to work and home tomorrow... The students are revolting!

[Parsifal]

I have a friend who's organized a big conference taking place at the Hofburg tomorrow. Ouch.

I also have to attend an (unrelated) event at the Hofburg starting at 19:00 so I hope it will be less crowded by then.

Reading each page and studying at the TU myself and having a girlfriend and friends who study at the WU, I would say each page is perfectly fair and nothing out of the ordinary. The rhetoric is a bit populist in its nature, but other than that, fair.

I looked at the website you mentioned. I can only comment about the humanities, and am not sure how - or if - these demands apply to this area. But there are a number of things I would question in this context; mostly relating to teaching, and coming from a university culture (the UK's) where academics don't mind working long hours for low pay (so long as the cellars are well-stocked with port).

Die willkürliche, vom realen Arbeitsaufwand entkoppelte Festlegung der Arbeitszeit für eine Lehrveranstaltung ist nicht angemessen. Insbesondere bei der Vorbereitung neuer Lehrinhalte und bei höheren TeilnehmerInnenzahlen ist der reale Zeitaufwand je Lehrveranstaltung allerdings deutlich höher. Ein Lehrauftrag mit zwei Wochenstunden pro Semester soll einem Teilzeitbeschäftigungsverhältnis im Ausmaß von 10 Wochenstunden (in Ausnahmefällen bei nachweislich geringerem Aufwand 8 Wochenstunden) mit sechs Monaten Gesamtdauer entsprechen.

UK humanities faculties are generally divided between researchers and teachers (very roughly a 3:1/4:1 split). In my experience, researchers who teach do so on topics close to their own work and are therefore able to wing it convincingly with relatively little Zeitaufwand. For my undergraduate degree I took some courses with an excellent lecturer who probably did devote 10 hours of preparation to each session, but he hadn't published anything for around twenty years so I can't imagine finding the time was an inconvenience for him. "Insbesondere bei der Vorbereitung neuer Lehrinhalte" only draws attention to the fact that if you're teaching a course the second time around there's virtually no preparation to do.

Wenn habilitierte UniversitätsdozentInnen im Rahmen ihrer Venia Pflichtlehrveranstaltungen abhalten, fordern wir deren adäquate Abgeltung gemäß dem Kollektivvertrag.

This one amused me. The suggestion that an academic with a doctorate on Schoenberg should be paid extra to teach a course about early twentieth-century modernism would be regarded as absurd in the UK.

Die Anstellungen der StudienassistentInnen müssen transparent erfolgen und eine angemessene Bezahlung gewährleistet werden.

Correct me if I'm wrong - "Studienassistent" refers to research and teaching assistants who are masters (or at that stage in the Austrian system) or doctoral students? I think my situation my be more anomalous than that - I teach (casually) at the MDW and from this semester onwards at the Haupt Uni also, but as what would be termed in the Oxbridge system as a supervisor (not comparable to the American TA system since a senior academic can also be a supervisor). I am employed on a wholly non-transparent basis and yet am satisfied with my angemessene Bezahlung.

the unis were promised 2% of the BIP (GDP) and they've received barely half that. The UK is also pulling all state support for the universities and I read in the NYT that a number are already being forced to close or severely cut their staff.

The UK is sadly pulling nearly all of its state funding for university teaching and research, but the increase in tuition fees should make up the shortfall. Implicit in that there is a debate - which isn't being conducted - as to what extent fees pay for more than tuition, though some would argue that students are drawn to universities according to the reputation of academics (which is dependent to some degree on research). Personally - and I hope this isn't too utopian for you - I believe that companies should be contributing more to technological and other advances made possible by university research. Big business in the UK has saved a fortune in R&D over the last twenty years by leaning on the academic sector. This is in part the fault of foolish university administrators who seem willing to give away IP for practically nothing; at least in the United States those enriched by working in corporations feel compelled to give something back on an individual level - in 2006 (the only reliable figures I could find) US public expenditure on university education & research as a percentage of GDP amounted to around 1%, while private contributions boosted that to 3%. UK public investment stood at only 0.85%, and despite four generous reductions in corporation tax since 1997 and the aforementioned R&D bonanza, private giving has increased this to only 0.9%. Margaret Thatcher has expressed regrets about this and the dire state of British philanthropy in general, and I would suggest that when Thatcher suggests the private sector should actually do more rather than the state do less, then something is going wrong.

As for Austria, the 2006 figures show an 1.23% public investment (in GDP terms). I can't imagine private contributions boosting this figure by much. My guess is that "barely half" of what the universities have been promised amounts to something similar in percentage figures, which in real terms is almost certainly a decrease, but not that bad considering the economic circumstances. What the government was thinking by promising 2% in the current political climate I do not know.

[CapnNismo]

Like I said, with the obvious places like the Haupt Uni and the UBK, you have to expect some craziness.

[quote=Parsifal]What the government was thinking by promising 2% in the current political climate I do not know.[/quote]
I would say that actually following through with this and giving up the cash would have helped the SPÖ win at every election nationwide. Given how politically active students have been over the university situation, giving them what they want and then translating that into poll results should be a relatively simple matter (I've no experience in actual campaign work, however).

As to the situation in the US, I would say that despite the high contributions from private sources and the vast size of the higher education system in the US (what with all your community colleges and such), there still hasn't been a reduction in the tuition fees. If anything, the fees have continued to climb.

Now it's time to get ready and go to the Vollversammlung (apparently this word means "plenum" in English) at the TU.

[Ozmatt]

EMail I got:



GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT YOUR UNIVERISTY!

Maybe you already heard about it - the governmant plans a new budget in
which the universities will get even less money. This means for this
chronical underfunded system: even less classes, even fuller lecture halls,
even worse student-lecturers ratio and more restricted access to studies.

We will fight against this!
Therefore general assemblies will be held at all Austrian universities on
October 19. The assembly at the university of Vienna starts at 3 pm at
Hörsall U10, Juridikum. After this there will be a star demonstration
organized by all Viennese universities. The meeting point is at 4:30 pm in
front of the main building.

At the end of the day we'd like to invite you to party with us at Garage X
(from 8 pm, Petersplatz 1, 1010 Vienna)

All students and lecturers are excused from all lectures and classes for
this day from 12:00 onwards!

More information about the general assembyl and other events taking place
on October 19 can be found on www.vollversammlung.at


Liebe_r Studierende_r,

wie du vielleicht schon mitbekommen hast, finden morgen Di, 19.10.2010 an
allen Universitäten in Österreich Vollversammlungen statt, so auch um 15:00
an der Universität Wien im Juridicum U10.

Für die Zeit der Vollversammlung und auch der anschließenden Sterndemo bist
du von allen Lehrveranstaltungen freigestellt!

Demostart ist um 16:30 am Hauptgebäude der Uni Wien. Von da aus geht es
gemeinsam weiter zum Parlament, wo um 17.30 weitere Demozüge
zusammentreffen werden. Um 18.00 findet eine gemeinsame Abschlusskundgebung
am Ballhausplatz statt.
Mehr Infos findest du auf www.vollversammlung.at

Wir freuen uns auf einen protestreichen 19.10.!

[CapnNismo]

The following hashtags are relevant for today: #tuwien, #tubrennt, #unibrennt, #unsereuni

[Parsifal]

I would say that actually following through with this and giving up the cash would have helped the SPÖ win at every election nationwide. Given how politically active students have been over the university situation, giving them what they want and then translating that into poll results should be a relatively simple matter (I've no experience in actual campaign work, however).

It's a possibility... but I'm not convinced.

By 'current political climate' I didn't mean that I was unsympathetic to the investment demands, just that a consensus on austerity seems to have developed in Europe and 2% in light of this doesn't seem politically possible to me.

I think there is a case to be made for deficit spending on universities, given the countercyclical trend in funding from 2000-2007 (i.e. underinvestment during Schwarz-Blau). Infrastructure problems are apparent enough, and not just at universities - there is a huge water leakage problem at the National Library to which the only response so far has been strategically placed buckets (overflowing yesterday due to the rainfall on Sunday); as this has rather worryingly spread to storage areas (I have stack access) it is a problem which will only cost the state much more the longer it is ignored. So much for saving money. But back to universities. I think the government will proceed with the cuts, and that universities could limit the damage (to some extent) by engaging in serious educational and institutional reform. z.B.: A problem in humanities subjects is that far too many Austrians are engaged in trophy doctorates, which devalues the qualifications of those serious about pursuing a research career.

As to the situation in the US, I would say that despite the high contributions from private sources and the vast size of the higher education system in the US (what with all your community colleges and such), there still hasn't been a reduction in the tuition fees. If anything, the fees have continued to climb.

But the more expensive elite institutions offer more in terms of financial aid than is the case in the UK, where a similar free market for fees is looking inevitable.

[CapnNismo]

Just because Europe is doing one thing doesn't necessarily mean that Austria has to follow suit.

As to the financial aid that the more elite universities offer, you're right, but sometimes they are pittance amounts. There are of course full scholarships available but there are only very few (I read a statistic a few years ago that Harvard, as an example, could take quite a few thousand students and then let them study and finish their degrees and they wouldn't have to pay anything and Harvard could EASILY finance it - they have quite the thick coffers). The educational system in the US is worlds apart from the Austrian and the European as a whole, so I am not entirely sure many comparisons can be drawn.

[morgenhund]

The following hashtags are relevant for today: #tuwien, #tubrennt, #unibrennt, #unsereuni

and #shermantanktheonlywaytotravel

[Sunshine]

Damn. Thanks for the warning. How inconvenient.
Didnt read all of the above but all I can say: I worked during my entire 5 years of university to pay for it. Nothing wrong with that.

[morgenhund]

Afraid I drank my five years through university to increase my student debt and worked all the way through the 16 week summer vacations to claw it back every year - it made the experience of paying the loan back all the more chastening.

I remember the prospect of having to save 70+ days of tomato picking wages to buy a desktop computer in pre-minimum wage days - proof that hard work does no harm! Afraid I'd have a grain of sympathy for the current cohort if they realised they were born...

[Parsifal]

Just because Europe is doing one thing doesn't necessarily mean that Austria has to follow suit.

I only pointed out that fiscal retrenchment is occurring across Europe, not that it's necessarily a good thing.

Anyway I spoke to some folks from the government at lunch and the chances of getting your extra money are close to zilch.

As I wrote, where there's crumbling infrastructure involved I'm more sympathetic, but I actually don't think this is half as bad as UK university budgets effectively being frozen/falling in real terms, since (respectable) UK universities are run on a shoestring and more is already being delivered for less - tenure was abolished years ago, academics (as I mentioned) don't grumble at below inflation pay increases or indeed pay freezes, there's very little bureaucracy, I've seen three academics share a faculty office the size of a broom cupboard etc etc. The only reform left is to cut vice-chancellors' pay.

By contrast there are plenty of reforms that could be made at Austrian universities. Postgraduate research has become a farce in Austria and it angers me to see limited funds wasted on people with no intention of a career in academia pursuing an academic title out of pomposity. Implementation of Bologna has been chaotic and still isn't over, due to institutional stubbornness - and yet Austria implicitly accepted that the British model (of average student completing their BA after three years and getting a job) was superior to a 4-6 year elongated degree when they adopted Bologna.

As to the financial aid that the more elite universities offer, you're right, but sometimes they are pittance amounts. There are of course full scholarships available but there are only very few (I read a statistic a few years ago that Harvard, as an example, could take quite a few thousand students and then let them study and finish their degrees and they wouldn't have to pay anything and Harvard could EASILY finance it - they have quite the thick coffers).

Elite universities in the US have been doing what you suggest for some time now. Harvard has had a generous programme in place since 2004. And since 2006, parents earning under $60,000 (jointly) make no contribution and those earning up to $180,000 are only expected to make a maximum of 10%. Cambridge has been trying to boost its endowment recently and the Harvard financial aid policies enacted under Summers are seen as a model of what the university can do to support students from lower income households in the event of a UK free market on fees.

The educational system in the US is worlds apart from the Austrian and the European as a whole, so I am not entirely sure many comparisons can be drawn.

I think there is an interesting question that results from comparison - which is why are Britain's universities able to compete with America's, despite the imbalance in investment? OK, so the rankings that suggest that elite UK institutions can more than hold their own against the Ivy League are skewed because academic citation is a factor here and being part of the English-speaking world creates a distortion. But in one of these surveys recently Cambridge was placed ahead of Harvard, which in financial terms is like David slaying Goliath. I think university reform was significant here.

[Ozmatt]

Audimax has been occupied...again
http://twitpic.com/2z2iff