National representation

Promised in the 2023 election campaign, now implemented. The issue of affordable housing was at the top of the list of priorities for the VSStÖ in the ÖH during this ÖH period. We organised an Austria-wide campaign that travelled through almost every university city in Austria to survey students’ housing concerns. These results of gross political negligence were further proven with a quantitative study: Students spend about 43% of their total monthly budget on housing! For students in halls of residence, the figure even rises to 54%. We have taken action here: With the round table on student residences, we loudly demanded the reintroduction of state student residence funding. This was completely cancelled from the budget in 2009 and could lead to a significant reduction in the cost of student accommodation. Realising this goal will remain a top priority with the new government!

We are committed to affordable housing not only in the ministry, but also in the ÖH. The ÖH’s in-house housing counselling service, which we provide to students free of charge, has been doubled in order to better address students’ housing problems.

While the BMBWF is closing cafeterias at every turn, the VSStÖ is fighting for the livelihoods of students in the ÖH: Good and affordable catering on site. As a major negotiation success at the Ministry, we were able to raise the canteen bonus from one to two euros. This means that you get a two euro discount on your lunch at your university canteen location with the canteen bonus. Nevertheless, each university location has to decide independently in favour of this increase, which means that in many places the AG is falsely claiming this success. But the fact remains: The VSStÖ negotiated this success, not the ÖVP-loyal AG.

The health of students depends heavily on the accessibility of services. The VSStÖ has been analysing this for a long time. It was therefore a primary goal of this ÖH executive to make health-promoting offers accessible to students. With the pilot project of free HPV vaccination for everyone up to the age of 30 – at least until the end of 2025 – we have achieved a further negotiating success in this regard. HPV (human papillomavirus) increasingly leads to the development of cancer or precancerous lesions. Around 80% of the Austrian population will be infected with HPV in the course of their lives. A high immunisation rate can prevent the spread of this.

With a total of €200,000.00, we were able to cover some or all of the cost of the vaccination for students who had to pay for their yoof out of pocket before the age of free HPV vaccination was raised. We also brought the HPV vaccination directly to the universities. In two different vaccination campaigns, over 1,000 HPV vaccinations were given out free of charge to students by the Federal Public Health Service and the City of Vienna.

Social security for students has always been a declared goal of our association. We will not give up on this goal even under a conservative black-green government. The VSStÖ Executive 2021-2023 was already able to fight for the valorisation of student grants – i.e. the automatic annual increase in student grants by the value of inflation. We have not let up: The additional income limit will now also be valorised annually. This means that as a student, you can earn more alongside your studies without having to forfeit your grant. Whereas in 2023 it was €15,000 gross, it is now €16,455 gross that can be earned on top.

The Austrian school system has long been plagued by an acute shortage of teachers. It is important to take immediate action and pave the way for students to enter the classroom. In lengthy negotiations with the ministry, we were finally able to achieve an amendment to the teaching degree programme, in which the teaching degree programme in the Bachelor’s degree was shortened from 8 to 6 semesters.

As a state, Austria is making a massive financial contribution to arming our borders, to illegal pushbacks of people seeking protection and to the construction of illegal detention centres for refugees outside the EU. With FRONTEX, Europe is financing the drowning of thousands of refugees in the Mediterranean and is fuelling the plight of people and the lack of alternatives to fleeing by supplying weapons to war zones. Even if the ÖH is not a major player globally, it is clear to the VSStÖ that we must use the resources of the ÖH to take decisive action against this. For the third time, we are organising the university tour, which is touring Austria to raise awareness and educate students about migration and asylum. With the study trip to Bosnia, we enabled students in Austria to get an idea of the situation on the ground and to pass on what they saw to colleagues in projects here in Austria.

Austria’s universities have been a breeding ground for German nationalist and National Socialist ideology as well as a human resource and focus of right-wing extremist attacks on Jewish or left-wing students not only since the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, but at least since the 1920s. But even with the end of the Nazi regime, the infiltration of right-wing authoritarian forces in our universities has not come to an end: the continuities of Hitler’s ideology are still engraved in the benches of our lecture theatres today. As the ÖH’s most reliable anti-fascist force, the VSStÖ has produced a documentary film about precisely this history and is pressing right where it hurts: in the many places at our universities where the Nazi history is still being covered up, hushed up and locked away today. We uncover it! The documentary is available to everyone free of charge on our website (oeh.ac.at).

The consistent focus on health policy of this year’s executive continues. After lengthy legal negotiations, the ÖH was able to draw up a cooperation agreement with Changes for Women and is now financially supporting abortions for unintentionally pregnant students. To be found at reprotopf.at

As early as 2022, we were able to react quickly to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and set up an emergency aid pot. Politically, we were able to negotiate a scholarship for Ukrainian students and the suspension of tuition fees with the ministry. These measures should have been cancelled in October 2023, but were extended until February 2026 due to our insistence.

Since 2013, the VSStÖ has set up the ÖH Helpline at the ÖH, which provides students with free initial counselling from psychotherapists. In addition, therapy places are arranged very quickly and at low cost. The helpline was massively expanded by the VSStÖ-led social department: Counselling services have been increased by 400%, we offer face-to-face counselling in 7 out of 9 federal states and arrange therapy places throughout Austria.

STIs, i.e. sexually transmitted diseases, can best be recognised and combated with tests. However, these can quickly become very expensive for students. For this reason, we have provided a total of €40,000.00 in an Austria-wide cooperation with AIDS Help Austria to relieve students of these costs.

Without necessity and without prior notice, the Greens in the federal government have bowed to the ÖVP and jointly established a legal option to restrict all Master’s and doctoral programmes. The plan was actually to give rectorates the unrestricted ability to restrict any degree programme on their own. As the VSStÖ, we fought against this and succeeded in ensuring that restrictions can only be imposed under very specific conditions. Of course, this is still a declaration of war by the ÖVP and the Greens on all working-class children and those who were not born with a golden spoon in their mouths. We will continue to fight until we have achieved free and open access to higher education – regardless of who is in power!