ÖH-elections 2025

The Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH) is the legal representation of the interests of all students throughout Austria and represents them towards lecturers, rectorates and the federal government.

This year’s ÖH elections will take place from May 13 to 15 at all universities in Austria. At some universities of applied sciences, you can also vote on May 9 and/or 10. You can cast your vote at three levels and have a say in who represents you:

Student Program representatives
This is where you decide who will represent your interests within your field of study over the next two years. Depending on the size of your degree program, you can elect 3 to 5 representatives. The student representatives represent you vis-à-vis your degree program director and are involved in the creation of new curricula, for example. Please note: The student representatives cannot be elected by postal vote!
University representation
When voting for the local representation at your university, you can choose a list or group. The university representation represents you vis-à-vis the management of your university and advises you on university-specific problems, for example.
National representation
You can also choose a list or parliamentary group when voting for representation at federal level. The federal representation represents you vis-à-vis the Federal Ministry of Science and sits at the table during legislative negotiations, for example.

If you don’t have time on the election days, you can also cast your vote by postal vote. Be sure to exercise your right and cast your vote in the election – only together can we make a difference!

Direct election

We students can decide for ourselves who represents us. Thanks to our efforts, the ÖH Federal Representation can now be elected directly. The elections are now more democratic and transparent. Citizenship does not decide whether you are allowed to vote or not. All regular ÖH members – i.e. all those who have paid the ÖH fee – are entitled to vote actively and passively.

All students at universities of applied sciences, university colleges of teacher education, private universities and public universities are eligible to vote.

Postal vote

You also have the opportunity to vote for the Austrian National Union of Students and the university representatives by post.

To be able to vote by post, you must apply for a polling card by May 6, 2025.

The postal vote can be applied for in 3 ways:

Online on the homepage of the Austrian National Union of Students
By registered letter in writing to the Federal Election Commission
Directly on site at the Federal Election Commission

If you apply for a polling card online, you have two options to identify yourself. Either you upload one of the permitted photo IDs (passport, driver’s license, ID card or student ID) directly or you confirm your identity using a cell phone signature.

If you apply for your polling card in writing to the Federal Electoral Commission, you confirm your identity by enclosing a copy of your student ID, ID card, passport or driver’s license.

Even if you apply for your polling card in person at the Federal Electoral Commission, you will need one of the above-mentioned forms of identification to confirm your identity.

You can choose whether you would like your polling card to be sent to you or whether you would like to collect it from the Federal Electoral Commission yourself. If you decide to have it sent to you, you will receive an e-mail from the Federal Electoral Commission to your university address after your identity has been checked, in which you must confirm that the polling card should be sent to you. Please note that you must receive the polling card in person!

If you have decided to have the voting card sent to you, you will receive an envelope with the following contents:

The (blue) ballot paper for the election of the ÖH Bundesvertretung
Beige ballot papers for all university representations for which you are entitled to vote
An envelope in the respective color for each individual ballot paper
The actual voting card (a sealable A4 envelope)
A personalized cover letter describing how to vote

Once you have received your polling card, you can vote directly from home. Please note that after you have placed all the ballot papers in the correct envelope, you must put them in the ballot paper envelope and then sign the affidavit to declare that you have filled in the official ballot papers personally, unobserved and uninfluenced.

The absentee ballot can then either be handed in personally to the Federal Electoral Commission or forwarded to them by post or courier. The absentee ballot must be received by May 14, 18:00 at the latest. This means that it is not the postmark that counts, but that it must actually be received by the Federal Electoral Commission by 18:00 on the 2nd election day!

We recommend that you bring your absentee ballot to the post office or the Federal Electoral Commission in person, as this is the only way to guarantee that your secret right to vote is maintained and that your vote actually arrives.

Even if you have applied for a polling card, you can still vote for your student representatives at your university in the sub-commission responsible for you.

Unlike in National Council elections, you cannot use your polling card to vote in every sub-commission if you still want to exercise your right to vote in person. You must then take your polling card, all ballot papers and the accompanying letter to your responsible sub-commission, hand them in there and then receive the ballot paper for your sub-commission for the Federal Representation, the University Representation and the Student Representation.