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EUA contributes to Austrian university reform discussions in Alpach, Austria
September 03, 2010
EUA was recently invited to take part in an event organised by the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research, as part of the Alpbach 2010 Forum in Austria. The event, entitled “Governance - relations between policy, science and society”, sought to explore which forms of governance would create ideal and stable conditions for universities.
Thomas Estermann, EUA Head of Unit of Governance, Autonomy and Funding took part in a panel discussion with Hans Sünkel, President of Universities Austria, Henrietta Egerth, CEO of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and Werner Jungwirth, President of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (FHK). The debate was organised to inform Minister Beatrix Karl and other stakeholders on possible future steps in the Austrian higher education reform process.
Drawing on EUA’s latest work on autonomy and funding, Thomas Estermann provided the European benchmark for the discussion. He pointed out that while Austria had a relatively high degree of autonomy in comparison to many other European higher education systems it faced a difficult situation due to a specific combination of restrictions. No other country has both unregulated and free access to university education. This, combined with an underfunded system (in comparison to the 2% of GDP EU benchmark), creates a situation which will not be sustainable for the next decade.
He also suggested the government should support and invest in leadership and management development for higher education actors, which would help to exploit governance and autonomy reforms further.
All participants agreed that governance reforms alone will not be enough, and must be complemented by sufficient and sustainable funding. While Austria has not yet (as shown by EUA’s monitoring of the impact of the financial crisis) reduced public funding of higher education, announcements that cuts are likely in the next funding period are a reason for major concern.