by Sigurd Höllinger

The University Act of 2002 represents a continuation of policies in place since 1990, whereby the Austrian universities are being progressively weaned away from a system traditionally based on central command and control, and towards autonomy. The previous reforms did not go far enough, and embodied too many compromises. The new Act has opened the way for decisive changes, which the universities are now in the process of planning and implementing.

by Max Kothbauer

When shifting from business and administration to the university realm, one realizes that, in the latter, perceptions of phenomena may differ considerably from those in other areas. That is why my perspectives on university reform may be unlike those from other points of view.

by Reinhard Folk

Only nine years after the University Act of 1993 – without any evaluation of the 1993 reform – the new government decided to change the university law again. This so called “reform” was driven by the ideas of the “New Public Management” and neo-liberal policy: The universities should become responsible for their own concerns (fully legal autonomy) while the state’s responsibility would be reduced to financing the universities on the basis of performance agreements (Leistungsvereinbarung). Teaching and research are considered satisfying demands of customers (students as customers of university teachers, and industry as customers of university researchers). Since the university law of 1975, the ‘curia’ of professors, the junior faculty (Mittelbau), the students, and (since 1993) the non-faculty personnel were organized into distinct federal institutions to accompany the democratically-organized self-administration of the universities. Apart from the students’ institution, the others have now been abolished while the ‘curia’ has been retained.

by Kurt Grünewald

The federal law for the organization of the universities (University Act of 2002) transformed universities from entities under State regulation to fully legal entities under public law. Simultaneously, their administrative structures were streamlined, and the position ofthe university president ( Rektor) was afforded additional power. Introduced as a complement to the university president and the senate (Senat) was the university’s board of trustees (Universitätsrat), comparable to the board of trustees of a US university. Consequently, most provisions of the University Organization Act (UOG) of 1993 and the Art University Act (KUOG) were rendered ineffective. In the spirit of deregulation, consolidation, and streamlining, the new act regulates not only organizational law, but personnel and academic realms as well.