We are the Association of Socialist Students in Austria (VSStÖ). We are dedicated to improving studying conditions, advancing profound and relevant education and establishing emancipatory impulses at universities and in our society. We fight on all levels against discrimination and social selection, and in favour of free and open access to higher education.
We are loud for state grants that make studying possible for everyone. We are loud for affordable housing. We are loud for fair studying conditions that do not unnecessarily burden students. We are loud for a higher education that is truly available to all!
The Association of Socialist Students in Austria is part of the long tradition of socialist movements in Austria. What unites them are the fundamental values of freedom, equality, justice and solidarity. The central element of the socialist left is the belief that the world does not have to be the way that it is and that neoliberalism is not an unchangeable cornerstone of society, but a system that can be replaced. In the context of university education, this means for us resisting the idea that universities are purely degree-factories, where students are treated as consumers. Beyond that, our universities cannot be a place only open to the elites in our society. We must strive to make higher education available to everyone. As students, we need to be taught to take control of our own lives, to learn to be critical and to critically reflect on and rethink societal and our personal behaviour.
Currently, the social selectivity present in the Austrian education system excludes less privileged people from this opportunity. As the VSStÖ, we will always stand on the side of the vulnerable, try to give them a voice and fight loudly against the grievances against them. Our universities need to be fully funded, the state’s student grant system fundamentally reformed and all obstacles and barriers to a higher education dismantled.